Directory_and_Chronicle_1906 — Page 1066

HONGKONG

901

chiefly restricted, however, to the Straits Settlements, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, Siam, and Indo-China, but since the middle of last year considerable numbers of Chinese from the neighbouring districts on the mainland "have emigrated to South Africa, though the number has not come up to expectations.

Hongkong possesses unrivalled steam communication. The P. & O. S. N. Co, and the M. M. Co. convey the European mail weekly, the Norddeutscher Lloyd Co. maintain a regular fortnightly mail service between Bremen and Hongkong, the P. M. S. S. Co., O. & O. S. §. Co. and the Toyo Kisen Kaisha maintain a mail service with San Francisco, the Canadian Pacific Railway Co. a regular mail service with Vancouver, B.C., a regular line has been established by the Northern Pacific S. S. Co. to Tacoma, and Portland, Oregon, and the Portland and Asiatic S. N. Co. also run a line of steamers to Port- land, the Great Northern Steamship Company maintain a monthly service to Seattle with ships of over 20,000 tons gross register, the Eastern and Australian S. S. Co., the China Navigation Co, and the Norddeutscher Lloyd keep up a frequent but rather irregular service with the Australian Colonies, and before the Russo-Japanese War the Nippon Yusen Kaisha maintained services to Europe, India, Australia, and the United States (Seattle). These services will doubtless be resumed as the ships are released from trans- port service. In addition to all these, several great lines of merchant steamers run between ports in Great Britain and Hongkong, of which the China Mutual S. S. Co., Ocean S. S. Co. and the Glen, Warrack, Mogul, Ben, Union, and Shell lines are the most conspicuous. The Austrian Lloyd's steamers also ply from Trieste to Hongkong, those of the Hamburg-Amerika line from Hamburg, and the Navigazione Generale Italiana Company's steamers run monthly from Genoa. Regular steam communication between Java and Hongkong has been established by the Java-China-Japan Line. The coolie emigration to South Africa has given the Colony direct though very irregular steamship communication with Durban and Natal. Between the ports on the east coast of China, Formosa and Hongkong the steamers of the Douglas S. S. Co. ply regularly twice a week, and those of the Osaka Shosen Kaisha weekly, and there is constant steam communication with Hoihow, Manila, Saigon, Haiphong, Tourane, Bangkok, Borneo, &c. With Shanghai, Tientsin, and the ports of Japan there is frequent communication by steamers of the Indo-China S. N. Co., China Navigation, and other lines, in addition to the English and French and German mail steamers, which leave weekly. Between Hongkong, Macao, and Canton there is a daily steam service, and tri-weekly steamers as far as Wuchow on the West River.