Directory_and_Chronicle_1906 — Page 939

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

776

HANKOW

The local manufacturing industries include Government ironworks and arsenals, and cotton and silk weaving. The Government ironworks are manufacturing rails and other accessories for the Pei-Han railway. There is a quasi-official coal-mining com- pany in connection with the Ironworks, the pits being at Ping-hsiang in Kwangsi. The coal is brought down in lighters from the railhead, fifteen miles above Changsha. The Wuchang Cotton and Hemp mills together with the silk filature were leased by the Viceroy in 1902, to a company of Chinese capitalists for 100,000 taels a year, for a period of 20 years. Apart from the Hemp mill, which began operations only last year, under Japanese management, the concern is doing a flourishing business.

During the last few years foreign interests at Hankow have undergone a marked development, the chief factor in producing the growth being the steady progress of work on Lu Han Railway, a trunk line connecting Hankow with Peking, the contract for which was let to a Belgian syndicate in 1897. It was opened in November, 1905, when trains passed over the Yellow River Bridge, which was immediately closed again, as unsafe. At time of writing (December 1905), the passengers must cross the river by boat. The project had been discussed for some years previously, and in view of the importance the port will derive from direct railway communication with the capital and from the anticipated opening up of the country in other directions, Germany, France, Russia, and Japan have since 1895 acquired concessions, and the British concession has been extended. Thus, while there was formerly a bund of only half a mile in length, in front of the British concession, there is now a continuous line of concessions measuring in all over two miles of river frontage. Houses and godowns sprang up fast in 1904 and wells were bored. The English Church was re-built, and consecrated in May, 1904. Messrs. Vrard & Co. a few years ago imported and erected, on the Wuchang side of the river, machinery for crushing Antimony & Ore, which is dried, packed in bags, and exported abroad. These have recently been taken over by Messrs. Carlowitz & Co., who are making large additions to the plant. Antimony, Lead and Zinc Ores are crushed. A large business is also done by a match factory as well as by Albumen factories. Messrs. Arnhold, Karberg & Co., a German firm, agents for the Shell Transport Company, Limited, of London, have erected on the foreshore, several miles below the Foreign Concessions, oil tanks for storing bulk oil, to be tinned on the premises. Two tanks have been erected, each with a capacity of 2,50 tons of oil. During the low-water season small tank- steamers will bring the oil from Shanghai. The Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, Langkat, has followed suit and erected an installation. The Standard Oil Co. had three large tanks erected at the end of 1904.

Tea is the staple export. The total export in 1904 was 905,758 piculs, apparently a record. More than one-half the tea exported went to Chinese ports. Opium was imported to the extent of 253 piculs as against 207 piculs in 1903. It is computed that 70 per cent. of the opium used at this port is native grown drug; the import of the foreign article is declining. The trade under the transit pass system is larger at Hankow than at any other port, its value in 1903 being Tls. 9,074,498. In 1904 it dropped to Tls. 5,956.453. The net value of the trade of the port in 1904 amounted to Tls. 147,904,658, against Tls. 133,149,829 in 1903.

Directory_and_Chronicle_1906 — Page 939

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