Directory_and_Chronicle_1906 — Page 813

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SHANGHAI

well stocked with flowers and ferns. A Park measuring 364 by 216 feet is laid out in Hongkew. The Public Recreation Ground has also been thoroughly drained, turfed and laid out, in spaces not devoted to sport, with flower-beds.

Immense sums have been wasted in various attempts to drain the settlements, principally from the want of skilled direction; but the great difficulties in this matter, arising from the low lying and level nature of the ground, have now been fairly overcome, though very much work of this nature has still to be undertaken in the recently acquired area. The settlements are well provided with telephonic fire alarms. The desire of the Municipal Councils to keep the monopoly in their own hands retarded for many years the inauguration of water works, but a public company is now established, which furnishes a continuous supply of filtered water at moderate rates and so successful has it been that the capital is being doubled. A separate system of waterworks for the French Concession is being inaugurated, and Chinese waterworks, to supply the native city, were completed in September, 1899. The electric light was introduced in 1832, and are lamps are erected on all the principal thorough- fares and wharves. In 1893 the Municipality purchased the property and business of the Electric Company, but the administration of the Electric Light Department has not given entire satisfaction and in 1899 the Municipal Council advertised for tenders for the purchase of its plant and the introduction of a private service. The French Municipality has an excellent electric light service and the native Bund is lighted by a Chinese Electric Light Company.

Shanghai can boast of several fine buildings of various and varied styles of architecture. Trinity Cathedral, erected from a design by Sir Gilbert Scott, is said to be one of the finest specimens of modern ecclesiastical architecture to be found out of Europe. The foundation stone was laid on 16th May, 1866, and the church was opened for public worship on 1st August, 1869. It is Gothic of the thirteenth century, 152 feet long, 58 feet wide, and 54 feet from the floor to the apex of the nave. The structure was not completed, however, until 1892, when the spire was erected, the cross being placed on the top on the 4th October of that year. It attains a total height of 160 feet, and, like the body of the edifice, is built of red brick, with stone dressings. There is a fine Roman Catholic Church in the French Concession called St. Joseph's, built in 1862, and another in Hongkew known as the Church of the Sacred Heart. There are also the Union Church on the Soochow Creek, a handsome church with spire and bells in Yunnan Road belonging to the American Methodist Episcopal Mission, 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 (latterly disused except for the purposes of a mortuary), besides several mission chapels for natives. The Jesuit Fathers have an extensive mission establishment and orphanages at Sicawei, where a mission has existel for over a hundred years. The present church was built in 1851. To this mission is attached a museum of natural history, etc., and an astronomical and meteorological observatory. In connection with the latter there is a time-ball on the French Bund and the Fathers hope to introduce Marconi's system of wireless tele- graphy between Sicawei, Shanghai, and Woosung for signalling purposes. Under the direction of this institution, a complete system of meteorological observations, embracing the whole of the China Seas, is carried out. The Shanghai Club occupies a large and elaborate building at one end of the English Bund. It cost £42,000 and at that is said to have ruined three contractors. It was opened in 1864 and has passed through a varied and peculiar history. The present buildings of the British Consulate and Supreme Court at the other end of the Bund were opened in 1873. Near to them is a fine Masonic Hall recently rebuilt. Amongst the other conspicuous buildings may be mentioned those occupied by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, and the Imperial Chinese Railway Administration. The Lyceum Theatre, situate in Museum Road, is a fair building seating 700 persons, opened in January, 1874, and extensively altered and improved during 1901. The members of the German (Concordia) Club have also a handsome little theatre attached to their premises in the Canton Road. A new Custom House was completed in 1893 on the site of the -old building on the Bund. It is in the Tudor style, of red brick with facings of green Ningpo stone, and has high pitched roofs covered with red French tiles. The buildings have a frontage on the Bund of 135 feet and on the Hankow Road of 155 feet. In the centre of the main building a clock tower, supplied with a four- faced clock striking the Westminster chimes, rises to a height of 110 feet, and divides the structure into two wings. The elevation is a very handsome one. Mr. John