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SWATOW
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supplied all material, the rails and engines coming from America and the carriages from Japan. The construction of the line brought about a great inflation of land values.
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Swatow has an electric light plant and a new waterworks was completed early in 1914, the reservoir being at Ampou, about eight miles inland. In the middle of 1919 a telephone service was introduced.
Swatow is by no means slow in the race with other China ports for im- provement. Road making and road widening are being carried out rapidly, and the public park at the back of Swatow is being gradually improved. Three Fire Brigades well equipped with modern apparatus protect the town, two of these being financed by different charitable guilds. An Orphanage, organised after the Typhoon of 1922, a Poor Peoples Workshop and a Leper Station, besides the Mission Hospitals, are among the charitable institutions of the
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TRADE IN 1932
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Trade having been so poor at Swatow during recent years, it was rather confidently expected that some improvement would be shown in the year under review, but conditions at home and abroad proved to be against this: The hinterland Served by Swatów remained unsettled by the presence of bandits and the general depression in world trade continued. The persisting low value of silver hampered imports from abroad, and the lack of demand for Chinese produce at paying prices affected exports to foreign countries in general and to Swatow's most immediate markets in Siam and the Straits Settlements in particular. The heavy local taxation and the anti-Japanese boycott were added burdens on the commerce of the port.
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Foreign cottons suffered heavily real poplins were practically ousted from the market in favour of imitation poplins; foreign cotton yarn, singlets, socks, and stockings were supplanted by Chinese-made articles; linen imports were curtailed and the embroidery firms reduced, their output to suit a stagnant market; artificial woollen yarns were more popular than the high priced all wool yarns; imports of dyestuffs were reduced on account of the higher duties imposed; kerosene oil ports
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were hard hit by the cheaper locally distilled oil; building materials, except timber, "decreased; sugar imports, on account of bigh duty, were reduced to but a few piculs; foreign matches were practically driven off the market by the Chinese-made article; and expensive sea products like Sharks' fins and cuttlefish gave way to the cheaper foodstuffs such as dried and salted fish. Amongst the imports showing an increase, rice and paddy from abroad are prominent with an advance over the previous year's figures of nearly 2 million piculs, the reason being that as the majority of land-holders have found it more profitable to grow oranges and other fruit, vegetables for canning, and sugar cane, the production of local rice is insufficient for the needs of the district. The export trade suffered from the reduced prosperity of Chinese settlers abroad, and this section of trade was further affected by the in- creased import duties, imposed in Siam.
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