Directory_and_Chronicle_1934 — Page 927

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PAKHOI

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the vicinity of Pakhoi: quails, snipe, partridges, wild pigeons, wild ducks, and some woodcocks and pheasants. Tigers can still be found in the hills, some 25 miles to the N.E. of Limehow. Good cross-country riding is obtainable. The Pakhoi-Limchiow motor-road is being kept in an excellent condition, and the pleasure of cycling and motor-cycling is afforded. The climate of the port during at least six months of the year is a trying one for Europeans, though the nights are, for the tropics, com- paratively cool. It is satisfactory to be able to state that the question of sanitation is receiving increasing attention as the modernisation of the town progresses. Accurate figures for the population of the town, as elsewhere in China, are difficult to obtain, but the number of inhabitants may perhaps be put at some 35,000. Fishing is one of the most important of the local industries, and a large number of vessels are employed in it. The manganese orc mines in the district of Cl'inchow (Yamchow H) have developed a great deal of late years, and the export of this mineral through Pakhoi increases from year to year. The past year has seen many improve- ments in the municipality. The narrow lanes that served as thoroughfares have now been widened and paved, These streets and the new fronts to the shops give the impression of a new and modern city. New schools have gone up and the Middle School, housed in new buildings, has an attendance of over 400.

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No railway construction has yet been commenced in the district, and there seems to be little likelihood of any of the projected undertakings assuming shape in the immediate future.

TRADE IN 1932.

There were no importance to chronicle in the Pakhoi district during the year under review except, perhaps, the occurrence of a general strike that took place in protest against the taxation of fishery products, a movement that was successful in obtaining the suppression of the local levies on exports of such commodities. Never- theless, trade rather less than held its own in comparison even with the previous year's poor results. Business with foreign countries was particularly depressing, the district being unable or unwilling to pay the high import duties recently imposed and placed on a gold basis (only 142 piculs of sugar were imported as against 4,589 piculs in 1931, for instance), while exports suffered from the poor demand from abroad. Considerable development of preventive activities was necessary to check the rising tendency towards smuggling, and a good deal of success attended the Customs efforts to suppress illicit trading in kerosene oil and other articles. The chief export staple of Pakhoi are pigs, poultry, feathers, fishery products, aniseed star, and groundnut oil and the statistics for all these commodities register lamentable decreases. As at many other southern ports, a distilling plant was set up during the year for the refining of liquid fuel into kerosene oil.

A motor highway from Pakhoi to the Kwangsi frontier was completed-except for the last section between Pingnan and Nanhsiang and opened to traffic in November.

ASIATIC PETROLEUM CO., LTD.

Tai Cheong & Co., agents

BRITISH-AMERICAN TOBACCO. Co..

Wing Tai & Co. Agents

DIRECTORY

CENTRAL BANK OF CHINA-Cable Ad: 1135

Yuen Wing Chen, director

Wong Sai Kwong

司公船輪洋東

COMPAGNIE INDO-CHINOISE DE NAVI-

GATION

Kung Yuan Tai, agency

"Tonkin")

(S.S.

CONSULATES

府事領國法大

Tai fat kwok Ling sz fu

FRANCE (also in-charge of Portuguese

interests).

Consul R. Wache, H.E.C., L.O.V.

Copyist-P. T. Poun

官事領國英大

Tai ying kuok Ling sz kun

GREAT BRITAIN

Consul (residing in Canton)"