Directory_and_Chronicle_1931 — Page 960

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

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KIUKIANG

among the Treaty Ports. The former foreign Settlement lies to the west of the city and is neatly laid out. It possesses a small bund lined with trees, a club, and a Roman Catholic cathedral. Since the end of 1927 the foreign settlement has been changed into a Special Administrative District under control of the Chinese authorities. Roads and innumerable houses are being rapidly constructed, and thus a new residential and business district, close to but outside the city, is rapidly coming into being. During 1921 a system of drainage of approved foreign style was initiated. Pinhingchow now comprises either in or adjacent to it the following prominent buildings: the railway station and godowns, the electric-light power-house, the Yü Sung Match Factory, the Kiuhsing Spinning and Weaving Company's factory a large our-storied hotel, and the Kiukiang Customs Lights Repair Yard.

TRADE

The idea which led to the opening of Kiukiang was, no doubt, its situation as regards communication by water with the districts where tea is produced. But the hopes entertained respecting the port have never been wholly realised, Hankow having become the market for black teas. The net value of the trade of the port for the year 1929 was Hk. Tls. 67,758,913, as compared with Hk. Tls. 69,216,274 in 1928, and Hk. Tls. 50,331,289 in 1927. Kiukiang is the port whence the ware made at the far-fained porcelain factories at Kin-tê-chên is shipped. The specimens sent to the Paris Exhibition in 1900 secured a silver medal in competition with European porcelain. Rice, beans and peas, hemp, indigo, paper, melon and sesamum seeds, tungsten ore, and tobacco leaf are also important exports.

Mr. H. D. Hilliard writes in his trade report for 1929 that Kiukiang, possibly more than all the river ports, suffered from the effects of warfare, banditry, communism, and taxation during that year. Adjacent as it is to those provinces most affected, it is surprising that the decline in trade generally was not more marked. In addition, phenomenal low water during the spring caused congestion on the hulks of those com- panies whose steamers had not been commandeered for military purposes, and ship- ping hongs had to refuse freight which might otherwise have been brought down from the interior. Turning to imports, cigarettes show a substantial increase, due to the popularity of two particular brands which were largely advertised throughout the province. Swedish matches more than held their own and competed successfully with the native article. Practically all crops gave a poor return, due to unseasonable weather. Considerable progress has to be noted in municipal enterprise. In Kiukiang itself the main ma-lu has been widened and relaid with cement and, after skirting the back of the ex-concession, now continues to the main road which has been built on the old city wall. The road through the native city in the direction of Kuling is nearing completion. Similar improvements are possibly still more noticeable in the provincial capital of Nanchang, where the improvements made would seem incredible to former residents, to whom the present fleet of motor-cars and omnibuses would ap- pear but the vagaries of some fanciful dream. The level of the river registered 2.4 feet on the 1st January and continued to fall slowly until the 28th March, when a reading of 0.5 foot below zero was reached. With the exception of the year 1902, when the gauge registered 0.75 foot below zero in January, this level is the lowest recorded since 1870.

Directory_and_Chronicle_1931 — Page 960

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