Directory_and_Chronicle_1907 — Page 852

SHANGHAI

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Admiral Protet, who was killed when directing an attack on Nan-yao on 17th May, 1862, stands in front of the Municipal Hall. The Public Markets of the French Concession are large and well built and are perfect as regards sanitary arrangements.

The Council of the French Settlements voted in 1902 the amount of 90,000 Taels for the building of a street tramway-line from the Place de l'Est via the French Bund and the Rue de Consulat to the French Camp, but not a rail has yet been laid. The tramway scheme in the International Settlement is now in more advanced state. A contract was entered into with a British firm early in 1903, but owing to general financial depression the firm asked for an extension of time which the council refused to grant and the company thereupon abandoned the conces- sion. A contract has now been entered into with another British firm, and a commencement has been made with the work,

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INSTITUTIONS

Among the institutions of the place may be mentioned the Volunteer Defence Force, under the command of Lt. Col. W. M. Watson (West Riding Regiment) with Major Brodie A. Clarke as second in command. It consists of Staff 8, Light Horse 42, Mounted Infantry 28, Artillery 59, Maxim Company 40, "A" Company 94, "B" Company 57, German Company 61, Customs Company 76, Japanese Company 47, Ambulance Corps 13, Signallers Company 18, Reserve Company 83, retired officers 7, total 33 officers and coo non-commissioned officers and men. These numbers are exclusive of the Medical Staff and the Band. Originally formed in 1861 the Volunteer Force 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 the last re-organisation under the late Major Holliday proved successful and in 1900, during the China crisis, the membership of 300 was more than trebled and included an American and Naval Cem- panies, since disbanded. The annual inspection was made in 1906 by Major-General Villiers-Hatton, C.B., Commander of the Hongkong Garrison, and the Corps was awarded high praise. The infantry is aimed with the Lee-Metford rifle. A separate Company of Volunteers. under the crder of the French Consul-General, was formed in May, 1897. The Fire Brigade consists of 84 Foreign volunteers with a paid departmental Engineer, 6 paid assistants and 60 Natives, a total strength of 151, and is composed of five Fire Engine and one Hook and Ladder Companies, and a fire float. It attended 116 files in 1905. It is pronounced to be one of the most efficient volunteer brigades in the world. There is now a Public Health Laboratory at which bacteriological investigations and chemical analyses are carried out, vaccine lymph prepared, and the Pasteur treatment of rabies undertaken. The settlements are well provided with hospitals. In addition to the large General Hospital, recently rebuilt and forming a four-storied block on the northern bank of the Soochow Creek, there is the Victoria Nursing Home, presented by the community as a Jubilee Memorial, with 25 beds and an efficient English nursing staff available for outside attendance, and a large isolation hospital for infectious cases, native and foreign, all these being directly under Municipal control. There are likewise several private institutions under the control of the various missionary bodies. The other public institutions may be enumerated as, a Subscription Library containing about 25,000 volumes, a branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, with the nucleus of a Museum, a Masonic Club, a Sailors' Home, a Polytechnic Institution for Chinese, a Seamen's Library and Museum, a Wind Instrument Band of thirty-five men, paid by the Municipality, which gives concerts in the Public Gardens every day during the summer months, a Race Club, possessing a course of a mile and a quarter, and which holds race meetings in May and November, a Country Club on the Bubbling Well Road, Parsee, Portuguese, and Customs Clubs, also Pony Paper Hunt, Cricket, Rifle, Yacht, Baseball, Racquet, Golf, Skating, Football, Swimming and various other Clubs, Philharmonic and Choral Societies, English and French Amateur Dramatic Societies, and other institutions for amusement and recreation. There are sixteen Masonic bodies, with over 500 members. In 1876 a District Grand Lodge for North China was constituted under the Grand Lodge of England; and in 1902 the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts also erected a China Province with a District Grand Lodge under a District Deputy Grand Master, both having their headquarters in Shanghai.

INDUSTRIES

There are five Docks at Shanghai. The one at Tungkadoo, opposite the city, has a length of 380 feet over all, with a depth at spring tides of 21 feet; the Old Dock at Hongkew is 400 feet long and 18 feet deep at springs; the New

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