Directory_and_Chronicle_1933 — Page 479

TIENTSIN

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lowed to any of the residents, either foreign or Chinese. The other concessions have excellent and well-lighted roads, and an electric tramway system links team with the Chinese city. The British Municipality has a handsome Town Hall, completed in 1889; adjoining there is a well-kept public garden, open- ed in the year of Jubilee and styled Victoria Park. Two excellent recreation grounds of 10 acres and over here have been developed, in which tennis-courts, etc., have been laid out. The various British areas-known as the British Concess on, British Extension, and the Extra-Mural Area-have been amal- gamated to form one Municipal Area under a Council elected on a broad franchise. New land regulations have come into force, and it is stipulated therein that the new Council consist of ten members, of whom five shall be British subjects and five shall be Chinese. Candidates must be nominated by two electors and all electors are eligible to serve on the Council. The mini- mum qualification for any voter, irrespective of nationality, is the payment of Tls. 200 per annum in respect of land-tax or rental assessment tax or the occupation of premises of an assessed annual rental value of Tls. 600.

A feature of Tientsin which arrests the attention of visitors is the open-air storage of cargo on the British and French Bunds, which have thus become in effect a "general godown." A great deal of confusion and congestion formerly existed from this practice, but the British Municipality has since elaborated an excellent scheme whereby the Bund is divided into numbered steamer-sec- tions and storage-spaces, and the roadway is now kept clear of cargo. The result has more than justified expectations, and the orderly storage of goods in marked-off spaces not only allows a proper control to be kept over all such cargo but has facilitated communications by keeping the carriage-way clear of obstructions.

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The Racecourse is situated about 3 miles to the west of the Gordon Hall and comprises a very valuable property to which about 350 mow of land have recently been added. New betting buildings of reinforced concrete,

concrete, which surpass anything of the description in the Far East, were constructed in 1921.

In spite of the general trade depression, the Chinese Government Tele- phone Administration registered an increase both in activity and in revenue for the year 1930. An extension of lines was made in the west end of the na- tive city in May, and another was made in the Hopei district in December. There was a partial change to automatic machines, which are greatly appre- ciated by the subscribers. At present there are 11 long-distance lines operat- ing between Tientsin and places as far afield as Peiping and Shenyang, while a relay service was established between Tientsin and Antung, Dairen, Port Arthur, and Japan.

TRADE

Following are the comparative trade statistics for the years 1929, 1930 and 1931:-

Imports:-

Foreign (net)

Native (net)

Exports

Value of trade of Port

1929 Hk. Tls. ...145,095,553

***

82,250,857

...108,284,739

..342,631,149

1930 Hk. Tis.

1931 Hk. Tls.

133,246, 191

134,702,697

71,642,482

82,563,190

110,225,213

132,964,050

315,113,886

350,229,937

The following extract is take from a review of the trade of Tientsin for the year 1931 by Mr. H. G. MacEwan, the statistical secretary of the Chinese Maritime Customs:-

The year 1931 opened hopefully at Tientsin. In the early months the port was settling down again after the military operations that so disturbed North China in the previous year. Silver remained abnormally low in value, but exchange was steady. Later in the year, however, the port became involved in local and regional troubles, nervousness about the taxation measures to be introduced by the provincial

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