Directory_and_Chronicle_1882 — Page 366

SHANGHAI.

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Concession and another in Hongkew; also a Chapel belonging to the London Mission and one to the American Episcopalians, and a very pretty and prettily situated Seamen's Church at Pootung, besides several Mission Chapels for natives. The Jesuit Fathers have an extensive Mission extablishment at Sicawei, to which is attached a valuable scientific observatory. The Suanghai Club occapies a large and elaborate building at one end of the English Bund. It cost Tis. 120,000, and at that is said to have ruined three contractors. It has passed through a varied and peculiar history. There is a really fine Masonic Hall at the other en 1 of the Bund. Amongst the other conspicuous buildings may be mentioned those occupied by the Oriental and Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporations. There is a very fair Theatre, but it is as yet devoid of internal decoration. The members of the German (Concordia) Club have also a handsome little Theatre attached to their premises, A monument to the memory of Mr. A. R. Margary, of the British Consular service, who was murdered by Chinese in Yunnan, was unveiled in June, 1880. The principal buildings on the French Concession are the Municipal Hall and the Consulate.

Among the institutions of the place may be mentioned the Volunteer Defence Force, consisting of Field Artillery, Light Horse, and Rifle Brigade, the latter com- prising two companies. Originally formed in 1861 it gradually went to decay, until the fear of attack after the Massacre at Tientsin in 1870 caused its revival with considerable vigour. It again dwindled in numbers, but a recent effort to reorganise it has proved successful, there being about two hundred effective members. The Fire Brigade which is entirely volunteer, consists of seven Engine and two Hook and Ladder Companies. It is pronounced to be the most efficient Brigade out of the United States. There is a Hospital for foreigners, the new and commodious building for which was completed in 1877, and several Hospitals for natives. The Temperance Society has a good hall and weli furnished library, and having latterly been conducted on liberal principles is well supported by the community The other public institutions may be enumerated as, a Subscription Library containing about 10,000 volumes, a branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, with the nucleus of a Museu n, a Sailors' Home, a Polytechnic Institution for Chinese, a Seamen's Library and Museum, a well sup. plied Gymnasium, a Wind Instrument Band, which gives concerts in the Public Gar dens three times a week during the summer months, a Race Club, possessing a course of a mile and a quarter, a Country Club on the Bubbling Well Roa 1, a Parsee, and a Portuguese Club, also Pony Paper Hunt, Cricket, Rifle, Yacht, Racket, and various other Clubs for recreation. The last named owns a building containing two splendid Courts, Bowling Green, Tennis Lawn, etc. There are ten or eleven Masonic bodies, with over 500 members. In 1876 a District Grand Lodge for North China was con stituted, with Shanghai as its head-quarters.

There are four Docks at Shanghai, the one at Tunkadoo, opposite the it, having a length of 380 feet over all with a depth at spring tides of 21 feet; the Oni Dock at Hongkow is 400 feet long and 18 feet deep at springs, and the New Dock at Pootung at the lower end of the barbour measures 450 feet on the blocks with a depth at high water springs of about 21 feet. All steamers and most sailing vessels now discharge and load at the various public and private wharves. The premises of the Associated Wharf Company has a frontage of about three-quarters of a mile. The Chinese have an Arsenal and shipbuilding establishment at Kaou Chung-mow, a short distance above the city. The Great Northern Telegraph Company's cable was laid to Shanghai in 1871, and there are now two lines of communication with Europe. The Eastern Extension Company has an agency for the receipt of messages. A railway constructed by a foreign company was opened to Woosung in June, 1876, but after running for sixteen months it was purchased and taken up by the Chinese Authorities. During the short time it was running the passenger traffic alone covered the working expenses, leaving sufficient profit to pay a small dividend. In 1877 the property of the Shang- hai Steam Navigation Company, a foreign association owning the principal lines of steamers trading to the Yangtsze and Northern ports, was bought by the Chinese Government, acting through the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, for the sum of two million taels. The property then taken over consisted of about fifteen