Directory_and_Chronicle_1926 — Page 749

SHANGHAI

693

on

Admiral Protet, who was killed when directing an attack on Nao-yao

7th May, 1862, stands in front of the Municipal Hall. The Public Markets f the French Concession are large and well built and are perfect as regards anitary arrangements. An efficient tram service is maintained in both Settlements. he Shanghai Tramway Co.'s statistics for 1922 showed that over a system covering but 7.765 route miles and 25.825 track miles no fewer than 126,684,226 passengers were arried. This extraordinary figure of over 19,500 passengers per route mile per day is believed to be unequalled in the world.

A small but well laid-out and admirably kept Public Garden was formed about 868 on land recovered from the river in front of the British Consulate. It has been considerably extended in area by reclaiming the foreshore, and a further extension of five and a half mow by diverting the Soochow Creek was completed in 1905. A general Public Garden, intended for Chinese, eight mow in extent, by the bank of he Soochow Creek, was opened in December, 1890. A Park measuring 364 ft. by 216 ft. is laid out in Hongkew. The Public Recreation Ground has also been thoroughly drained, turfed and laid out, in spaces not devoted to sport, with Hower-beds. A large extent of ground near Jessfield has been converted into a decorative park and botanical garden.

Immense sums have been wasted in various attempts to drain the Settlements, principally from the want of skilled direction; but the great difficulties in this matter arising from the low-lying and level nature of the ground have now been fairly overcome, though very much work of this nature has still to be undertaken in the recently-acquired area. The Settlements are well provided with telephonic fire-alarms. The desire of the Municipal Councils to keep the monopoly in their own hands #retarded for many years the inauguration of waterworks, but a public company now furnishes a continuous supply of filtered water at moderate rates, and so successful has it been that the original capital has been more than doubled. The acquisition of this undertaking by the Municipality has been approved in principle. A separate system of waterworks for the French Concession has been inaugurated, and Chinese waterworks, to supply the native city, were completed in September, 1899. The electric light was introduced in 1882, and are lamps are erected on all the principal thoroughfares and wharves. In 1893 the Municipality purchased the property and business of the Electric Company, but the administration of the Electric Light Department has not given entire satisfaction. The French Municipality has an excellent electric light service, and the native Bund is lighted by a Chinese Electric Light Company.

INSTITUTIONS

Among the institutions of the place may be mentioned the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, composed of members of all nationalities. On the declaration of war by China on Germany and Austria-Hungary, the companies drawn from the subjects of those countries were disbanded. Originally formed in 1861, the Volunteer Force gradually went to decay, until the fear of attack after the massacre at Tientsin in 1870 caused its revival with considerable vigour. It again dwindled in numbers, but a re-organisation under the late Major Holliday proved successful, and in 1900, during the Boxer crisis, the membership of 300 was more than trebled and included a Naval Company, since disbanded. A separate Company of Volun- teers, under the order of the French Consul-General, was formed in May, 1897. The Fire Brigade consisted until 1919 of 42 foreign volunteers under chief officer M. W. Pett, with a paid departmental engineer, and a staff of 187 native assistants, and was pronounced to be one of the most efficient volunteer brigades in the world. In 1919, however, owing to a misunderstanding, the volunteer members tendered their resigna- tions, which were accepted, and as from April the Brigade became a purely professional organisation. Owing to the increased number of fires an independent brigade for the French Settlement was formed in April, 1908. Stimulated by these examples, no doubt, the Shanghai native city fire-brigade was reorganised in 1920. A substantial new building on the Nantao Road was inaugurated as a fire-station in December, and modern engines and equipment were purchased by public subscription. There is a Public Health Laboratory at which bacteriological investigations and chemical analyses are carried out, vaccine lymph is prepared, and the Pasteur treatment of rabies under- taken. The Settlements are well provided with hospitals. In addition to the large General Hospital, a four-storied block on the northern bank of the Soochow Creek, to which extensions have been added recently, there is the Victoria Nursing Home. presented by the community as a Jubilee Memorial and enlarged in 1913, with a