Directory_and_Chronicle_1924 — Page 1001

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

SWATOW

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to traffic on November 25th, 1906. The contractors were Japanese, who supplied all material, the rails and engines coming from America and the carriages from Japan. The construction of the line has brought about a great inflation of land values.

Swatow has an electric light plant of its own, and on account of the cheap price at which the current is supplied this method of lighting is finding favour with the Chinese, and, to some extent, replacing the use of kerosene lamps. A new waterworks. was completed early in 1914, the reservoir being at Kia-kun, about eight miles inland. In the middle of 1919 a telephone service was introduced.

The foreign trade of Swatow has never been large. Tea and sugar were formerly the principal exports, but the tea trade here, as in other China ports, has to a very large extent passed away. Increased attention is being given to the cultivation of vegetables, fruit, indigo and tobacco leaf. It is thought probable that in the near future minerals will assume increased importance in the export trade of this port, as prospecting discloses more of the latent wealth of the district. The net value of the trade of the port coming under the cognisance of the Foreign Customs for 1922 was Hk. Tls. 74,065,906, as compared with Hk. Tls. 82,121,489 in 1921, Hk. Tls. 63,853,119- in 1920, Hk. Tls. 58,440,581 in 1919 and Hk. Tls. 50,182,937 in 1918.

Directory_and_Chronicle_1924 — Page 1001

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