Directory_and_Chronicle_1885 — Page 475

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TAKU-TIENTSIN.

DIRECTORY.

IMPERIAL MARITINE CUSTOMS,

Assistant Tide-surveyor-W. F. Stevenson Tide waiter-W. French

Signalman H. A. Behrke

Lightship Taku.

Captain Jae Sloane

Mate-H. A. Frandsen

Lightkeeper-W. Koight

IMPERIAL NAVAL YARD,

Directors-Liu, Taota', and Wen-jui Secretary-W. F. Stevenson

Superintendent Shipwright-W. Grant

do.

Engineer-

Clerk R. Klienc

W. Boad

J. C. Hill

TAKU PILOT COMPANY.

G. Mitchell (absent) C. B. Sherman

C. Parker

H. Crowlie

F

Г

W. Blanchard

G. Lembke

A. H. Talper

A. G. Barter (abt.) T. W. Conner

C. Parker, secretary

Taku Tuo AND LIGHTER COMPANY. G. W. Collins, H. Crow lie, directors

Jas. Watt, secretary (absent)

C. Kossow, clerk

J. McMurray, superintendent engineer

and chief engineer tug Gem

Wylie, engineer tug Peiko

Ahmow,

do.

Orphan

TIENTSIN.

Tientsin is situated at the junction of the Gran 1 anal with the Peiho river in lat. 39 deg. 3 min. 55 sec. N. and long. 117 deg. 3 min. 55 sec. E. It is distant from Peking by river about 80 miles. It was formerly only a military station, but towards the close of the 17th century it became a place of some importance. The walled portion is small compared with the suburbs, the circumference of the walls being only a little over three miles. The principal trade is carried on in the suburbs. The purely native city has the reputation of being exceptionally dirty, and the stench from open drains in and about the city is said to be the cause of a high rate of mortality there. There are a number of soap-boiling works in the neighbourhood, and the smell that arises from them is most disagreeable.

A number of foreigners live in the suburbs of the native city, but the concession, which is situated about a mile and a half farther down on the south bank of the river, has been largely taken up during the last few years, and is now pretty well covered with buildings.

Tientsin will always be famous for the Treaty signed by Lord Elgin in a temple since called the Treaty Temple, or Elgin's Joss-house, on the 26th June, 1858, and known as the Treaty of Tientsin. The port is also infan ously notorious for the massacre of the French Sisters of Charity and other foreigners on the 21st June, 1870, by a Chinese mob, under circumstances of shocking brutality. Tientsin is now connected with Shanghai by telegraph, a line having been constructed overland in 1881 and opened to traffic on the 28th December of that year; in 1883 the port was connected with Tungehow, and in August, 1881 with Peking by telegraph. The population of Tientsin is estimated at 950,000.

There is a fair foreign trade done at Tientsin compared with the other open ports. When the port was first opened, it is said that money was picked up very quickly by the few merchants then on the scene. In course of time, however, the Chiness began to make headway, and they have the trade now pretty well in their own handa. One great advantage that natives here have over foreign competitors is that the former "purchase their stocks in Shanghai when there is a favourable market, rarely if ever insure their goods, sell in small quantities, and, constituting themselves their own salesmen, at once procure ready buyers, and save the standing commission

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