Directory_and_Chronicle_1919 — Page 557

KEELUNG, TAINAN, TAKOW AND ANPING

CUSTOMS-at Soshiryo

K. Ide, director

KEELUNG DIRECTORY

M. Hayashi, accountant

S. Chihaya, inspector

K. Yoshida, appraiser

HARBOUR OFFICE

M. Toshima, director T. Yamada, inspector I. Kumagai

do.

S. Mimura, medical examiner

MITSUI BUSSAN KAISHA, LTD.

499

NIPPON YUSEN KAISHA (Japan MailS.S. Co.)

S. Yasuda, manager

J. Oda, sub-manager

H. Ikeda

S. Ikawa

T. Maruyama

H. Matsuo

隆基社會式船商阪大

OSAKA SHOSEN KAISHA

SAMUEL SAMUEL & Co., LTD.--Keelung,

-Tel. to Taipeh

M. Oda, in charge

TAINAN, TAKOW AND ANPING

The city of Tainan (until 1889 known as Taiwan), situated in lat. 23 deg. 6 min N., and long. 129 deg. 5 min. E., is the commercial capital of Formosa. Since the Japanese occupation many improvements in the city have been made, and at the present day the main roads are all wide and well constructed. An extensive scheme of alterations is in hand, the programme extending over ten years. When this is completed the city will be second to none in the Island in arrangement. The old Chinese walls, some five miles in circumference, have been demolished in many places and the gates removed for the passage of the railway and new roads. Waterworks are in course of construction in the hills some distance from the city. The city is lighted by electricity, the power being carried by an overhead line from a generating station a few miles south of Takow.

Anping is the shipping port for Tainan, situated about three miles west of that city. Communication is by a trolley line and a creek navigable for chutehs and small junks. The port itself is an open roadstead, vessels anchoring outside the bar and a mile or so from the beach. From November to the end of May the anchorage is a good one, but during the S. W. Monsoon a heavy swell sets in, rendering it difficult and sometimes impossible for vessels to load or discharge. As regards climate Anping, during the summer months, can boast of a comparatively cool temperature owing to sea breezes. Tainan is usually two or three degrees warmer. From October to the end of April. there is little or no rain, and the cool weather then leaves nothing to be desired.

The import trade is mainly in the hands of Japanese firms, the only item still in the hands of foreigners being kerosene. The Government has given every encourage- ment to the Sugar industry, and many large modern mills have been erected during the past few years. Of the six staple industries of Formosa, namely, Tea, Opium, Camphor, Salt, Sugar and Rice, three-Opium, Camphor and Salt-have been monopo- lised by the Formosan Government, which now derives three-fourths of its ordinary revenue from these sources. Formerly, the trade in Opium and Camphor in this district was in the hands of the foreign merchants at Anping and Takow, and amounted before the Japanese occupation to nearly £250,000 per annum. Since the creation of the monopolies the merchants have thus been deprived of a large propor tion of their income. They feel the hardship, particularly in the case of the Camphor trade, which was originated and developed in this district entirely by their capital and enterprise, for the loss of which they have received no equivalent.

Takow is a port twenty-four miles to the southward of Anping. There is an excellent harbour there which can cope with the export of all products of the south, but as the southern districts are developing at such a rapid rate, it is felt

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