Directory_and_Chronicle_1939 — Page 778

SANTUAO

Santuao was voluntarily opened to foreign trade by the Chinese Government on the 8th May, 1899. The port includes the whole of the magnificent Santu Inlet, which is situated some 70 miles north of Foochow. The island of Santuao in the centre of the inlet. The harbour is certainly one of the finest on the China coast the approaches to it are well-defined, and vessels of the largest size may enter at any time, regardless of the state of tide. H.M.S. Waterwitch surveyed the whole of the inlet in 1899, and an Admiralty chart has been published. A telegraph cable was successfully laid from the mainland to the island July, 1905, and communication established with all China ports. A new cable connecting the telegraph office at Santuao with the mainland was laid in May, 1921, and the inconvenience caused by receiving and dispatching all' messages from the other side of the harbour, which had been experienced for four years previously, was thus removed. A long distance telephone system was installed in 1936 connecting Foochow as well as the principal towns bordering the Santu Inlet.

The port of Santuao serves important tea districts as much of the tea exported from Foochow to Europe is first shipped from Santuao. No building operations worth mentioning have been undertaken at the port, and no modern methods have as yet been introduced in the manufacture of the principal local products paper and pottery, except softwood planks, which are manufactured by a modern saw mill though excellent raw material is close at hand, especially extensive deposits of kaolin capable of yielding far superior pottery than is now brought on the market from this district. The iron mines in the districts of Kutien, Fuan, and Siapu, where the deposits were reported in 1918 to be of a promising nature, have not yet been properly exploited, and so far no smelting work s at Santuao, as then anticipated, have been erected, so that a regular trade in this, valuable mineral does not yet exist here. Since 1937 manufacture of black tea by machinery has been intro uced by the Fuan Agricultural Experimental Station under the auspices of the progressing Fukien Provincial Government. Most of the trade is transhipped at Foochow though occasionally direct imports were effected by tramps arriving from Shanghai with cotton piece goods, flour, etc. or from Hongkong with sulphate of ammonia. The chief towns of the district are Funing, Fu-an, Ningte and Shouning.

TRADE IN 1937

Despite the outbreak of hostilities and the enforcement of the blockade, the year passed smoothly at Santuao, although much anxiety was experienced from time to time; the appearance of hostile aeroplanes over the district was almost a daily occurrance during the early part of the conflict, while the bombardment of Saihu by Japanese warships from Spider Island in November caused no little alarm.

The value statistics, in so far as they are recorded by the Customs, are as follows: direct foreign imports, $160,000 as against $120,000; direct exports to foreign countries, $14,000 as against $8, 00; coastwise importations of Chinese produce were valued at $670,000 as compared with $674,000; and coastwise exports of Chinese produce at $4.2 million as against $4.8 million. The aggregate value amounts to $5.1 million, showing a decrease of $0.5 million owing to the enforcement of the blockade, when all available steamers on the run between Santuao and Foochow, etc., had to be recalled to Foochow. Imports of kerosene oil from abroad decreased from 39,221 to 2,862 litres, as, instead of importing from Hongkong, the oil was reshipped from Foochow and Amoy. Sulphate of ammonia becomes the most important article of direct import, the total amount being 9,908 quintals as against 7,197 quintals in the previous year. As in the year 1936, no matches were imported from abroad. The tea industry was pro- gressing well under the efficient system of controls administered by the Provincial Government. Under the auspices of the Reconstruction Bureau a Tea Experimental Station was established at Fuan, 100 chests of black tea shipped to Foochow-Shanghai giving an excellent impression as to what can be done when the limited economic resources of a province are mustered towards reconstruction. The trade in both