Directory_and_Chronicle_1909 — Page 1124

CANTON

931

transhipment. The export of Sugar in 1907 was 111,133 piculs against 90,943 piculs in 1906; in 1905 the import was 297,101 piculs. The net value of the trade of the port coming under the cognisance of the Foreign Customs for 1907 was 103,782,947 as com- pared with Tls. 94,108,696 in 1906; Tls. 92,243,650, in 1905; Tls. 96,247,076 in 1904, and Tls. 110,559,826 (the largest on record) in 1903.

Ample means of communication exist between Canton and Hongkong a distance of about ninety-five miles, by foreign steamers plying daily, and a large number of native craft. There is daily steam communication with Macao and regular connection with Wuchow and West River ports, and with Shanghai, Newchwang, and Kwangchauwan. The total tonnage for 1907 entered and cleared was 4,758,564. The steam-launch traffic under the Inland Steam Navigation Regulations has proved a great success, though since rules were enforced in December, 1901, compelling all Chinese launches to undergo inspection at the hands of an engineer appointed by the Customs before obtaining licenses to ply, the number of launches is not so large as previously. There is a safe and commodious anchorage within 150 yards of the river wall at Shameen. Canton was connected by telegraph (an overland line) with Kowloon in 1883, and another overland line was completed from Canton to Lungchau-fu, on the Kwangsi and Tonkin frontier, in June, 1884. The electric light and the telephone system have been intro- duced into a portion of the city. A projected railway between Canton and Kowloon received the Imperial sanction in 1898 and a preliminary survey was made, but it was not until the Autumn of 1905 that the actual construction of the line was commenced. The British section of the line will extend from Kowloon Point to Samchun and will probably be completed next year. The Chinese section of the line has only just been commenced, but as the route presents no engineering difficulties progress should be rapid and its completion is expected not long after the British section is opened. The survey by an American syndicate of a railway route to connect Canton with Hankow was also made in 1899. Work upon the branch line from Canton to Samshui (about 30 miles) commenced in December, 1902, and a length of ten miles, as far as Fatshan, was opened on November 15, 1903. The line was extended to Samshui the following year. The completion of the railway to Samshui brings the West River ports within easy distance of Canton, it being now possible to reach Wuchow in Kwangsi in less than twenty-four hours. That the advantages of rapid communication are appreciated may be gathered from the fact that about three millions of passengers a year are carried on this short line, very little freight is carried. The railway has prac- tically killed the passenger traffic by steam launches to Fatshan, but an increase in the railway fares in 1908 revived it to some slight extent. Work on the grand trunk line has been started at both ends, and a section, about 12 miles long, from Canton, northward to Ko Tong Hü was rapidly approaching completion, when in October, 1904, on account of friction between the Chinese authorities and the constructor of the railway, work was entirely stopped. Then it became known that Belgian capitalists had acquired extensive holdings in the American-China Development Company, and, in consequence, a strong agitation was aroused among the Chinese aiming at the cancellation of the concession, and the construction of the line with Chinese capital only. The agitation proved entirely successful. The concession was cancelled by the Chinese Government who paid to the American-China Development Company a sum of Gold $6,750,000 as compensation, including the cost of the works already completed. As soon as the concession was cancelled a movement was organised by the commercial men of the three provinces which the line will traverse to raise the necessary funds for its construction. A large sum of money was subscribed or promised by Chinese at home and abroad on condition that there would be no official control of the railway. This attitude on the part of the merchants naturally brought them into serious con- flict with the provincial authorities, but they successfully urged their claims to freedom from official interference, and construction work is now in progress under the direction of a Chinese engineer. The first section of the line-from Wongsha to Kongtsun, a distance of 17 miles, with three intermediate stations-was opened on July 17th, 1907, and since then good progress on the line has been made. Owing to the difficulties experienced in getting the Chinese shareholders to pay up the calls on their shares as they fell due, the government resolved at the end of 1908 to raise a foreign loan. A Chinese-owned line from Canton to Whampoa and thence to Amoy has been projected and surveys have been made. The capital of the company is 40 million dollars, but only about one-fifth has been paid up or promised. A concession for a line from Macao to Canton was granted in November, 1904, to a Sino-Portuguese syndicate after prolonged negotiations, but this has now been cancelled. In accordance with stipulations in the Supplementary Commercial Treaty between Great Britain and China, concluded