Directory_and_Chronicle_1908 — Page 674

Agencies

SHIMONOSEKI AND MOJI-NAGASAKI

Shell Transport & Trading Co., Ld. East Asiatic Company, Limited International Banking Corporation Law Union & Crown Insurance Palatine Insurance Co., Ld. Manufacturers' Life Ins. Co. of Canada North China Insurance Co., Ld. Russian East Asiatic S S. Co, Ld. Swedish East Asiatic S.S. Co, Ld. The Robert Dollar Co. Chargeurs Reunis

585

SIEMENS SCHUCKERT DENKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Electrical Engineers and Con- tractors, 19, Nishi Hom-machi; Tel. Ad. "Siemens" Moji, Telephone 114 (L.D.)

G. Ihara, elec. engr., manager K. Sekiguchi, elec. engr.

J. Kasai

TAIMO YOKO, Coal, Import, Export and General Commission Merchants, Owners

Tel. Ad. "Taimioyoko"

**

8.S. Norrona"; Tel. Ad.

S. Orita, signs per pro.

VACUUM OIL Co., Moji

NAGASAKI

Nagasaki is a city_of great antiquity, and in the early days of European in- tercourse with the Far East was the most important seat of the foreign trade with Japan. It is admirably situated on the south-western coast of the Island of Kiushiu. A melancholy interest attaches to the neighbourhood as the scene of the extinction of* Christianity in the empire and the extermination of the professors of that religion in 1637. At the entrance to the harbour lies the celebrated island of Pappenberg, where thousands of Christians are said to have been thrown over the high cliff rather than go through the form of trampling on the cross. Not far from Nagasaki is also the village of Mogi, where 37,000 Christians suffered death in defending themselves against the forces sent to subdue them. When the Christian religion was crushed and the foreigners expelled, to the Dutch alone was extended the privilege of trading with Japan, and they were confined to a small plot of ground at Nagasaki called Deshima. By the Treaty of 1858 Nagasaki was one of the ports opened to British trade on the 1st July in the following year.

On entering the harbour of Nagasaki no stranger can fail to be struck with the admirable situation of the town and the beautiful panorama of hilly scenery opened to his view. The harbour is a landlocked inlet deeply indented with small bays, about three miles long with a width varying from half-a-mile to a mile. A reclamation scheme was commenced in October, 1897, and completed in January 1905; 147 acres have been reclaimed, and retaining walls measuring nearly five miles in length have been built in front of what were formerly the foreign concessions at Deshima and Megasaki. Simultaneously the harbour has been deepened. The cost of the work was four million yen.

The town is on the eastern side of the harbour, and is about miles long by about three-quarters of a mile in extreme width. The foreign quarter adjoins the town on the south side. The chief mercantile houses are situated on the bund facing the harbour, behind which are a few streets running parallel with it, and there are a number of private residences on the hill-side. There are English Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, three clubs (Nagasaki, Bowling and International) and a Masonic Lodge. The principal hotel is the Nagasaki Hotel, opened in 1898, a three-storeyed brick building situated on the Bund. There are several other hotels, of which the largest are the Hotel de France, the Cliff House, the Hotel du Japan, Antonetti Hotel, and the Belle Vue Hotel. The Mitsu Bishi Com- pany own three docks in Nagasaki, the largest of which has a length of 714 feet on the keel blocks and a depth of water at ordinary spring tides of 34 ft. 6 in. As a ship building centre the place is rapidly developing, and since 1889 eight large ocean-going vessels, of between 6,000 and 7000 tons, have been launched, having been built there for the Nippon Yusen Kaisha. The waterworks,

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