CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
FROM OUR
FORMOSA
resent takes
the
and 2166 1 Hongkow houses built in 1895.
6,6971
an
show how greatly moreasing in the
ie says " the want of ev day especially will be felt more as et warmer, when the Chinese take to out in carriages more than they do at ars ago it was enjoyable to n's or evening's drive down Road, but there is no pleasure the mills have been erected; and it be when they are all completed Mackenzie says :--.
afte
OFF menally com
early in April the tea their quarter read
the
ittleThe conditions of trade have been
altered since the Japanese came into as many of the smaller Chinese mercha left the field, throwing the business more the hands of the foreign firms. However, several Japanese firms express themselves as intending one solution to to engage in the trade, although without agents in Amoy it would seem that they would be placed at some disadvantage. The American firm, Smith, Baker & Co., who took over the business of Brown & Co. last year, are making some alterations, as well as an addition, to their quarters, no doubt with the intention of doing. their share of the business this year.
The following mills of the Yangtzepoo Road are now working and employ hands as follows:- Hds.
Chang Kee Silk Filature...
Cotton Mill
Jardine's Silk-Filature
Woo Sing Cotton Mills (2)
Paper Mill...
12
19
!...
200 1,000 1,000 2,000 300
19
21
6,000
-8 Chinese-owned Cotton Mills be- yond the Yangtzepoo Station
Hands... 10,500
19
19
"The following mills are in course of con- struction and will shortly be working :-E-wo Cotton Mill, Soy-chee Cotton Mill, Laou-kung- mow Cotton Mill, Tung Woo (Japanese Cotton Mill, just commenced).
At the establishment of the Japanese ad. ministration in Formosa Count Kabayama declared that the people should be relieved from all taxes for the first year. It is now the inten tion of the Japanese to impose a tar on tes manufacture, and stations for collection will be established at the principal points where tes is prepared. The impost is to be yen 2.40 per picul, which, with the addition of the Customs export tax of $1.10, gives a total impost of yon 3.50 per pioul.
Although large compared with the Japan tax it is small compared with either the old Chinese tax in the island or the present tax on the mainland. The export duty during the Chinese These mills will employ between them some régime was Hk. Tls. 2.50, plus 10
cent. per per 12,000 hands. There will therefore be, includ-picul and the lekin $2.40, which gives a total of ing those already working, nearly 25,000 opera-yen 6.20 per picul. The present Amoy tax is tives alone, this number may be multiplied by an export duty amounting to yen 3.85, per picul 3 to get somewhere near the actual population. and lekin about yen 3, which gives a total of The population of the Yangtzepoo district will yen 6.85. enormously increase within the next year in consequence, and through the district there. is only one road, which now is most inconveniently crowded and at the rate at which the traffic is increasing it will shortly be closed to carriages unless some other highway is made."
With the extremely heavy expenditures of the island which the Japanese are called upon to meet, it is not unlikely that such exports as can bear a tax will be subject to an impost as large as can be safely carried without endanger ing the market. Commerce has not been im- peded in Japan by excessive taxation, and it is safe to believe that the officials interested in Formosa will keep an eye open to see that Formosan trade is not placed at a disadvantage.
There is no mistake about the want of more roads, which will be very plainly felt in the course of a few months, when we shall be glad to get into the open air more, for a walk or a drive. Capt. Mackenzie also says in his report-
Amoy is dependent to a great extent upon "The traffic on the Bubbling Well Road the Formosan tea districts for its prosperity and continues to increase, and an extra Trooper there has been some apprehension as to the has been placed on it. The number of Police danger of Tamani absorbing the business of that on the road is not nearly sufficient. 355 arrestsport by direct tea shipments to America. While for reckless and furious driving were made during the year, against 234 in 1895. I am sorry to have to report that several foreign residents show a very bad example to the natives in this matter. My best thanks are due to the Mixed Court Magistrate, Mr. Tu, for the assistance he has invariably rendered the Police.'
The traffic, considering the few roads we have, is very great, the number of carriages let out by native livery stables for hire is over 530, and 675 ponies; besides these, we find that a very large addition has been made to the number of licensed jinrichas; these amount to 8,610 per month. To be added to these are. 4,210 wheelbarrows which are granted licenses every month. There are also 317 handcarts licensed every month, besides 203 water-carts, 8,870 vehicles, besides private carriages, kehas, barrows, carts, bicycles, etc., making ten thousand vehicles continually on the hich is a very large number considering few roads we have in Shanghai This being the case, and taking into consideration that the population is rapidly increasing, no time ought to be lost in opening up new roads.
Mercury
On Monday Commander Hastings commended conduct. The con- Thursday night when he ouching under the staircase of a
Hin
A bor ing some- found that I mainly tolen from
house at5H was hear himear
six months w
erday.ser
no doubt some loss may be felt in other ship ments of small importance which formerly were sent via Amoy, as to tea it does not seem that there is any probability that it will be shipped either to Japan for transhipment or to America direct for some years to come. The present centre and most convenient station of the tea district is Twatutia. After the tea has been packed and rolled sufficiently to permit of its transport, it is carried to the hongs at Twatutia, where it is fully prepared for foreign markets. Down the river to Hobe, where the shipping is done, is an easy sail of some ten miles for the cargo boats, and there the steamers lying in quiet waters are loaded with perfect ease and convenience. The cargo boat charge to Hobe is some 3 cents per half chest and the freight to Amoy 10 cents. At Amoy the large America bound steamships find it not much out of their way to call in for the tea which has there been packed ready for the foreign markets. And with the facilities for loading in that har. bour they are only detained for a few hours.
What can Kelung offer to obtain the trade? In the present condition of the harbour direct ten shipments are out of the question, but when the harbour work has been completed an under- taking of such enormity that it will require years in itself there are other difficulties nearly as great. As to the suggestion that the pack- ing be done in Japan, it would seem necessary that the railway be prepared with big trains
only during the tea season, to carry th
at the same rate as the
lobe-3 cents per half
tes Lo
carry it to
arried to
for the reason
America and the
to America are very nearly
|
an
Japa
ith l on this America: maki
at as low a rate as the
prepared to do from Amoy cessful the Formosa railwaya assistance and carry the tea the
Kelung at probably some rate leas per half chest.
marked ad
For the foreign tea firma who are so comfortably. stablished in require promises duce them to forsake cozy Kulan stricken Kelung with its two hun rain. The new frms would, I
n for the Welcome the innovation, f establishing a bran and this could to final packing and Formosa.
CANT
shipmen
| FROM THE CHUNG, A lekin station in I destroyed by boat people on the at 2 p.m. The cause of its destruc that some boats conveying students to examination for the degree of Shan illegally detained by the officers of the who charged the boat people with smug and demanded money from them under that if the demand was not complied with would arrest them. The boat people became angry and, encouraged by the people belo to the other boste lying there, at once set the station, which was burnt to the gron
been
A welynen and two mineralogista hay sent by the Viceroy to pros bot for mines in the districts of Shaohing and Kachow
On the 7th instant a shop named Poynen ching, in San-tau-lan Street, was robbed by a band of about twenty robbers. The robb were all dressed in long coats. They knoc at the door and said that they were coming pay visits to the shoppeople. When they admitted to the shop they took out weapons, which were hidden in the The inmates dared not speak a word robbers sought out all the valuable thing booty amounted to eight hundred taels
A big fire broke out in the city trict on the 2nd February. Over one and forty houses were destroyed, brothels. Ten girls were burnt
It is said that some Sansz the Governor of Kwangsi as to run the Wei-sing lottery in
纳
MACAO
FROM OUR COR
Last Friday abou vessel Alacrity Sar Vice-Admiral and
Balutes were fired. or five miles out and land until about noon cellency and party stayed A torped Hotel
come.
Alacrity
Procession of
nded:
afford
-to
March,
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