Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 952

876

WUHU

Hk. Tls. 25,339,261 in 1922, Hk. Tls. 32,992,971 in 1921, Hk. Tls. 40,144,619 in 1920, and Hk. Tls. 47,688,790 in 1919. Coal may some day become a considerable article of export from Wuhu, both native and foreign capital having been directed to the great, coal- fields of the province. The China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company are interested in several coal districts and have expended large sums in the opening of their mining property; the output has thus far been small, owing to the lack of proper machinery and management. The Chin Kang Company, a wealthy native syndicate, have a Government permit to open mines in several districts and have been prospecting with a view to developing their property in the near future. A number of smaller companies are operating at present with the sanction of the above Corporation, to whom they pay a royalty. Two companies representing foreign capital-the Yangtsze Land and Investment Company, Limited, and the I Li Coal and Mining Company, Limited-have purchased a number of the most valuable mining properties in the immediate neighbourhood of Wuhu. The Yu Fan Iron Mining Com- pany completed a mountain railway, about five miles long, from their mines to the river bank at Tikang, a small port 30 miles up river from Wuhu, in 1918, and they commenced to ship ore in October.

Wuhu is the distributing centre for most of the rice harvested in Anhwei province, and merchants from Canton, Swatow, Ningpo and Chefoo are established here to obtain supplies for their home markets. There is a large trade in timber, but that, like all other trades, is in the hands of the Chinese. There is a steam flour mill, a soap factory and a brick and tile manufactory. The soap does not sell well. The preservation of egg yolk and albumen is an industry which was started in 1897, and has been carried on with several changes of proprietorship. The Yu Chung Ti I Spinning and Weaving Joint Stock Co, Ltd., a factory owned and inanaged by local Chinese, started operations in December, 1919, and its 10,000 spindles should help to develop cotton-growing in the district. The Ta Ch'ang Match Factory, a Chinese concern with an equipment capable of manufacturing 2,000 gross of matches a day, began operations in March, 1921.

The town is fairly well built, with rather broader streets than most Chinese cities possess, and is tolerably paved. The tract of land selected 30 years ago for the Foreign Settlement was definitely ceded in 1906, and sites were allotted to the Anhwci Railway Company and to various shipping companies, each lot having a river frontage of 600 to 1,100 feet. In 1914 the Ministry of Communications took over the Anhwei Railway Company with its entire assets and liabilities. Bunding operations have progressed satisfactorily, and the place has taken on a decided air of prosperity. The roads in the Foreign Settlement are well laid out, forming a good promenade for those who care to avail themselves of walking exercise. Four large godowns have been built by Messrs. Butterfield & Swire on their ground in the New Settlement for storing rice, and Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co. have also acquired property in the vicinity. On the plots of ground acquired by the Asiatic Petroleum and the Standard Oil Companies below I-Chi-Shan, a hill which forms the lower boundary of the Foreign Settlement, the former company has erected oil godowns and the latter, also, has established premises. New Customs buildings on the foreshore near the Foreign Settle- ment were completed and occupied in 1919. Nevertheless, the Foreign Settlement is still waste land for the most part. The Trade Report for 1912 alluded to the need there was of broadening its road connections with the business centre of the town and of construct- ing a wide bund along the port's river front. There is no immediate prospect (wrote the Commissioner of Customs in 1920) of expanding to serviceable dimensions the connecting roads that now exist, bounded on both sides as they are by shops and dwelling-houses for a great part of their length. A bund road along the foreshore would appear to be not only a more feasible proposition, but one, also, that offers far greater advantages to both trade and shipping. A scheme for the levy of wharfage dues to pay the cost of constructing such a bund was elaborated in 1915 and has since been approved by the inercantile classes, whose business must be taxed to finance it. It is strenuously opposed, however, by influential proprietors of timber-yards occupying a large section of foreshore on the proposed bund line, and it cannot be carried into effect until these yards are removed to another locality. Similar opposition delayed for many years the cession of the Foreign Settlement area. The local officials, under instructions from the Government, are looking for the best way to mect the difficulty. The solution of the same problem, in so far as it concerned the Foreign Settlement, gives good grounds for expecting a favourable issue in the present instance also. The Electric Light Co. appears to be doing well, for electric lighting has superseded that of oil to a great extent. The population of Wuhu is estimated at 100,000.