August 26, 1897.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
167
India and the Far East, as was evidenced by the had further hopes that you would be able to baskets holding about 120 catties each, which recent grievous loss of life through the lament-render us some assistance in this matter, seeing are pulled and pushed over a rough tramway, able wreck of the P. & O. Company's steamship that our mark is rogistered in Great Britain. made of trunks of small pine or fir trees. At Aden off the eastern extremity of that island, Our English agents. Messrs. R. D. War- the slopes these have blocks placed transversly and the terrible sufferings of the survivors, burg & Co., will communicate with you with between them, making a rough stairway for this Chamber addresses the Board of Trade and reference to the same matter and will furnish the coolies to ascend and descend. The carry- arges that prompt measures be taken by the you with proofs, in the form of documentarying is done in short stages, each man going a British Government to thoroughly investigate evidence, of the injury done by such practices few yards with his loaded baskot and returning the question and ascertain in the light of actual to British manufactured goods.
with the empty oue the same distance, when experience how best the perilous shores of So-
he is met by the next in relay, the chain of cotra can bo rendered less dangerous to ship
coolies stretching from the workings to the ping than they now are, and take such steps as
When in full work the output of this may be deemed necessary to obviate the dangers,
pit is about 200 tons per day, or a ton per man and that this Chamber forwards copies of the
per day, including hewers, patters, and bank sail letter to London and other Chambers of Commerce and shipping Associations.”
The resolution was adopted.
TRANSIT PASS GUARANTEE FUND.
It was agreed, on the motion of the Chair- man, to cancel the guarantee signed 19th Septem- ber, 189, for the purpose of making trial con signments of goods to some of the interior markets, as the question has been settled and
thero is no longer any necessity for retaining the guarantee in existence.
(Correspondence.)
THE DANGEROÙS COAST OF SOCOTRA,
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce,
Hongkong, 17th August, 1897.
Sir, I have the honour to address you, by desire of my Committee, on the perils which at certain periods and under certain conditions beset navigation in the vicinity of Socotra,
We must apologize for troubling you upon such a matter, but feel sure that it will be of interest to you to know that such practices are being carried on.
If we might offer a suggestion, we should say that is would facilitate the sale of British manufactures if some system of registration could be adopted which would cover Great Britain and all her Colonies.—Yours &c.
MARSLAND, SON & Co.
A COAL FIELD IN KWANGSI,
existing in one of the districts of Kwangsi and Hearing reports of large quantities of coal
very fair samples being forthcoming, the writer seized a favourable opportunity and journeyed to the district indicated.
The way thither lay through some very in- teresting country, differing widely from that on the banks of the West River. The smell of new mown hay and the song of the skylark in the upland valleys were pleasing novelties. A striking physical feature of a large district is the number of tors rising out of the com- The dangerous nature of the coast of this paratively level land of the valloys. Sometimes island, which is situated on one of the chief singly and sometimes in groups, they give the trade routes of the world, namely, the great impression of rocky islets in the bed of a dried maritime highway between Europe, India, and
up sea. This impression is strengthened by the Far East, has for many years past attracted
the fertile land around their bases and the deop attention and at intervals raised strong appre-beds of gravel outcropping on the river banks hensious of disaster. The recent lamentable in the neighbourhood. wreck of the P. and O. S. N. Co.'s steamship Aden on its coast, attended as it was by a de plorable loss of life and most pitiable sufferings among the survivors, has served to aronse fresh notice and to deepen the desire among all those interested in maritime trade to avort similar calamities in the future.
Actuated by this desire, my Committee in struct me to urge on Her Majesty's Govern- ment the necessity for a comprehensive and well considered investigation of the question, in order to ascertain from the light of experience if by any means the shores of Socotra can be rendered less perilous to shipping than is now the case. This Chamber therefore respectfully prays that the Board of Trade will take such steps as may to them appear best calculated to achieve that most desirable object.-I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant.
B. M. GRAY, Chairman. To Right Hon. C. T. Ritchie, President of the
Board of Trade.
INFRINGEMENT OF TRADE MARKS.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 29th July, 1897. Sir, I am directed to transmit for the con- sideration of the Chamber of Commerce the enclosed copy
of a letter addressed by Messrs. Marsland, Son & Co., of Manchester, to the Secretary of States for the Colonies, and to request the views of the Chamber on the sub- ject therein dealt with and most especially in regard to the suggestion made in the first paragraph. I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
J. H. STEWART LOCKHART,
Colonial Secretary. The Secretary, Chamber of Commerce.
Manchester, 13th August, 1896. To Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the
- Colonies.
+
Sir,--We had occasion to wait upon you on Tuesday last with reference to one of our trade- marks, viz., the Horseshoe," which is being imitated by Belgian manufacturers, and sent in large quantities to Hongkong. Seeing that quite recently circulars have been issued asking for information as to why British goods were not in greater demand in the Colonies, and how the trade between Great Britain and its Colonies could be extended, we thought that this matter would be of the greatest possible interest to yon, the more so as it is not an isolated case, but one which is frequently coming up. We
The tors vary in shape, height, and bulk in endless variety. Some have assumed most fantastic shapes, either through the action of water when submerged or effects of weather since.
One huge rock viewed in profile has at one end the lines of the bows of a gigantic three decker line of battleship of Nelson's time, while another has a square Norman tower, with gables, pinnacles, overhanging balcony, nearly all com- plete. One and all they are honeycombed with holes and caves, some of which are said to extend for long distances underground. Que which I explored for a short distance had chambers of great height in certain places, and it was said to extend for a day's walk" under- ground.
A part of the coalfield was reached twelve days from leaving the West River. To anyone who has travelled in China it is needless to sav
that directions given were contradictory and all more or less wrong. As an instance, in order to escape the fatigue and heat of a land journey between two places, inquiry was made if it could be done by boat on a neighbouring stream. The first answer was no, second answer yes, but it would take two days. As the dis- tance by land was 40 to 80 li T tried the river and arrived at the destination six hours from the start.
One small section of the coalfield has been worked for about three years in Chinese fashion, but to my surprise I found the officials were letting the enterprise alone, having so far only levied a small lekin charge on coal sent away by water.
The workings are of larger extent than would be expected, one pit which I entered having, it is said, 15 to 20 li of tunnels, slopes, and galleries. There are no vertical shafts to the mine, the entrance being a hole in the hill side, with a sharp slope for 40 to 50 feet, then a level for a few hundred feet, another slope, and so on. The tunnel is about 4 feet in height, fairly well timbered with fir poles, with coarse, matting behind to keep small stuff from falling down. Water was dripping in places, but nothing of any consequence. No provisibu had been made for ventilation, but the air was respirable, and the oil lamps burnt well. The heat was, however, terrific and combined with the exertion of creeping along the passages and down the slopes made the trip a very exhausting one.
The coal, some seams of which are quite near the surface, is hard, but brittle, and easi y won with pick and shovel. It is carried to bank in
bank.
men.
The lights used are the ordinary earthen sau- cer filled with teaseed oil with two or three wicks to each, and they burn freely in the deepest parts of the mine.
Of the coal now raised it may be said that it shows the effect of water action, but its fuel value is by no means to be despised, and I have very little doubt that the seams would improve in quality vastly at a greater depth.
Without pretending to have any accurate idea of the extent of this coalfield, I know in one direction it extends for sixty miles, as my course lay through it for that distance, and probably it extends over a very wide area indeed.
The coal has been worked by surface digging for very many years, and the practice was to convert it into coke on the spot, and convey the coke to an iron mining district lying to the westward, where it was used in smelting the Long ranges of coke ovens now disused, and gangs of coolies carrying the coal, show that the smelting is now carried on in a different manner.
ore.
The fact that within ten days' water carriage of Hongkong there exist immense deposits of coal, good enough in quality for all ordinary proposes, the low cost of winning and carrying which should place it on the market here at a price beyond competition, should also, given a little enterprise on the commercial side and a little energy and firmness on the diplomatic, have immense effect in the coming industrial development of this colony. F. W. WATTS.
18th August, 1897.
REVIEW.
Treaties between the Empire of China and Foreign Powers. Together with Regula- tions for the Conduct of Foreign Trade, etc.. etc., etc. First Edition, 1877, Edited by WILLIAM FREDERICK Mayers, Chi- nese Secretary to Her Britannic Majesty's Legation at Peking. New and Enlarged Edition issued by the Publishers, 1897. Shanghai: Printed and Published at the North China Herald Office, 1897. THIS invaluable work, which first appeared twenty years ago, has been long out of print but as there is stilla demand for it the publishers have been led to issue this new and enlarged edition.
Several important additions have been made to the original contents. To the agreements concluded with Great Britain have been added the Additional Articles to the Chefoo Convention, the Opium Article, the Chungking Agreement, and the Sikkim Treaty, For the sake of com-, pleteness it is to be regretted that the treaties relating to Burmah have not been included, especially the last one, to which is appended the special article relating to the West River, but the book had probably passed through the press before the last mentioned treaty was published. To the agreements with France that appeared in the first edition have been added the Patenotre Treaty of 1885, the Tonkin-China Regulations 1886, the Constans Convention of 1887, and the Gerard Convention of 1895. We would have been glad to see space found also for the Ber- themy-Gerard Convention relating to the ac- quisition of lands and properties by the Roman Catholic Church. The agreements with the United States are the same as those given in the first edition; it is a little remarkable that the Immigration Treaties since concluded have Other additions are the not been inserted. Supplementary Convention of 1830 with Ger- many, the Portuguese Treaty, and the Shi- monoseki Treaty with Japan and the Treaty of Commerce and Protocol relative to Settle- ments concluded with the same country in 1896. The treaties are printed with the original side
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