September 24, 1904.
FOREIGN TRADE OF COREA.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
a view
increase of 12 million lbs. in the export of rice, and notabla increases also in the export of dried and salt fish, sa weed and millet. All of which goes to show that the chance of war, if it adversely affected trade in foreign-manufactured goods which is hardly supported by the statistical returns resulted in a larger Customs revenue than had ever been attained before. that Coren is a poor country," the British Nothing is further from the truth thau
Consul tells us. That is doubtless true, but we can scarcely regard her last year's foreign trade returns as satisfactory ovidence that she is commercially moving so rapidly along the path of progress as the totals at first sight suggest.
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HONGKONG JOTTINGS.
(19th September.)
when I realise to the full, with pain and mis- You might not think it, but there are times givings, my manifold mental limitations. One Dundreary, who gave his name to a special brand of whiskers, spoke of the existence of "things which no fellow can understand." Things of that kind-the un-understandable, not the whiskers confound my conceit in my own -are constantly cropping up in Hongkong to I cannot, for instance, understand why, in a savvy.". city where half the houses are officially stated to be tumbling down, house rent should be so con- foundedly dear. I know a moderately salaried person who is living in a house that isn't big enough to swing a cat in, and the monthly rent in for cat-swinging, his employer will have to is $180. If he should ever want to go
in lodgers. raise his wages, or the tenant will have to take The employer has enough to do to raise Either way it is a dilemma.
money to pay present wages, without raising them (you know what I mean), and in the other case, Jodgers are proverbially averse to cats, swung or unswang.
(Daily Press, 23rd September.) The statistics of the foreign trade of Cores for 1008 present some interesting featured which have been overlooked in the British Consular report. The Consul takes note of the fact that the foreign trade of the peninsula reached the highest figures yet attained and leaves the reader to infer that this is not due to any special cause, but is simply evidence of the country's steady commercial progress. Seeing that the statistics show an advance of considerably over half a million pounds sterling when compared with the highly satisfactory returns of 1902, one may be excused for expecting to find in the Consular report some explanation of this (for Corea) astonishing indication of progress and prosperity. The average of Corea's foreign trade during the previous five years was about £2,500,000; last year the total figured out at £3,384,387, So far from finding in the Consular report what special causes have produced this note worthy result, we find such statements as "the chance of war had a depressing effect, particularly during the s cond half of the year"; and, agnia, "much embarrassment was experienced by merchants in conse. quence of the continuous drop in the rate of exchange, and it bampered their transactions to a considerable extent And yet, withal, the returns of foreign trade show an advance of £639,112 sterling! Studying the figures in the recent Consular report and comparing them with those for the previous year, we discover that the imports are responsible for no less than £477,525 of this in- crease, and when We look into the Return of the Principal Articles of Import from Foreign Countries," we ob- serve that the import of rice, which in 1902 amounted to 11,447,466 lbs. (foll wing upon a wretched harvest in 1901), is represented Another thing that I cannot understand—and in the 1903 return as 20,961,000 lbs. not goodness knows I've tried hard—is that reply of withstanding that the rice crop of 1902 was
the Colonial Secretary to the Hon. R. Shewan, satisfactory. Of grain and pulse the importanent tree cutting. Ever since I was taught my at Thursday's Legislative Council meeting, last year was 25.974,433 lbs. as compared catechism and its strict injunction to cap the with only 3,998,266 lbs. in the previous parson and all set in authority over me, I have year. Flour was imported to five times the maintained a profound respect for those who amount represented in the previous year's know more than I do. There have been so many return, and the salt import rose from 17 deaths in the last thirty or forty years that I have still lots of respect in reserve; and I can million to 40 million lbs. In other respects lay my right hand over the third-from-the-top the articles of import showed no remarkable button of my alpaca waistcoat and declare, variations. The conclusion seems therefore truthfully, and without the least suspicion of to be that the increase noted in the trade of flippanoy, that I have been exhaling double doses the country does not represent a permanent of respect for our Colonial Secretary ever since advance, but resulted from preparatious I saw what an excellent Governor he made. either on the part of Japanese or Coreans for the war which broke out early in the present year.
We have compiled the following interesting table which will show how the various Treaty ports have been
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affected by this notable increase in
imports
Chemulpo Fusan
1902
Imports.
1903 Imports. £814,470 £910,355
276,769
Gensan
191,535
Kungan
10,522
Mokpo
21,515
63,413
3,365 762
366,939 225,693 92,947 45,868 186,594
17,300 20,007
Chinnampo Masampo Songchen The exports show an increase of £161,587 in value, and when we examine the returns we discover that this also is mainly ac counted for by the movement of foodstuffs. For example, the export of barley, which in 1902 was only 359,600 lbs., and in 1901 amounted only to 100,138 lbs., rose in 1903 to 2,816,200 lbs. There was a fall to the
at of 16 million lbs, in the export of Ha inll-from 11}. million lbs. to 11 million lbs, in the export of wheat; but an
he
pays
nowadays, not ever Chins. "In order necessary to eat it. it is necessary to spend it." help. One might even dolls (especially since that recent Shan. those silly reporters again. The Colon but-why, of course. Wo fa na Siam i Secretary never said it. I looked up papers. They were all guilty of the same life. Hé must have said it.
about it. How he did laugh! “Hal
I gave it up, and went out later to See a Fancy & Banyan not understanding forestry he said. When his smile: had evaporated (he took lemon and two lumps with it) he gave me his opinion. The Colonial Secretary meant, hoj said, that you have to make room for the young trees by rooting out the old 'uns. I said It sounded cruel. He quoted that other sentence' of the reply: "If the mature trees were not“ gradually replaced by young ones, these advan- tages would soon be lost." I said it would be soon enough to replace them when they got too old to be useful, which is the policy followed by Governments and Corporations who have no sentiment. I said that forests had a habit, if left alone, of repairing their own dilapidations. I said "the usual methods employed" are the methods employed when growing trees for timber, for filthy luore. I said the mowing of huge swathes of trees didn't seem to fit with the talk about gradual replace: ment. I said some other things, and had more to say, but the Man went away and began chalk his cue.
The wonderfully tenacious vitality shown by the Chinese has been commented upon by mors than one European observer of their national
brought down from Balkong, in the New characteristics. A. striking instance was brought' to my notice the other day. A fisherman was Territory, with both legs and part of his head blown off as the result of a premature blast when fishing with dynamite. His people asked that he be allowed to go to hospital. He was so t there, and, notwithstanding his terrible injuries, he had so far recovered in less than six weeks that he was able to leave the institution and rejoin his family.
Once more the Colony is free of plague, but the publication of suother Colonial Bluebook an the subject serves but to tell us that the St. Georges who for years have been combatting with the hydra-headed dragon have not yet killed has already cost the Colonial Treasury no man him. How many millions of dollars the fight has probably fully calculated. Under the head- ing of Plague in the Estimates of the Sanitary Department we have but part of the cost, and this part amounts in the current year to $115,000, while a reduction of only $11,000 is estimated for next year, though" the framers of the estimates hope and expect that in the setual The thing, inter aliu, that I could not under-expenditure a larger reduction will be shown stand was this. The Colonial Secretary said: But in reaching an idea of the cost of fighting "In order to plant it is necessary to fell." the plague we have to note, that under this When I read that, in the Daily Press on Fri: heading in the Estimates there is no mention day morning, at the breakfast table, I looked of the salaries of the staff employed excepting at Mrs. Banyan and sternly asked her why she the coolie labour. It would not therefore had not called me at the usual hour? I was
over the mark to say that the plague is costing under the impression, you see, that I must still the Colonial Treasury something like $160,000 be in bed, and dreaming. She said—well, maskee
a year. (What it costs the port in the form of what she said. I realised that it was no dream. loss of trade is incalculable). There are no Pied - I pushed my coffee cup to one side (the right- Pipers in these days to charm away rodents and hand corner of the table, it was) and my liver cockroaches and insects which scientists tell us and bacon to the other. (The left hand side, I carry the plague germ and infect the food they think, but am not sure.) Then I placed that are able to get at: the Sanitary authorities hare little sentence right in front of me, leaned on
to exterminate them with rat poison and traps, both elbows, and looked it square in the i. (It disinfectants, paint soap and turpentine, &o, begins with an "" and has two more further If the origin and dissemination of age it aloud, deliberately, with a pause between each gators the plague item in the Estim on.) There it was, without a doubt. I recited explained by the latest theories of the word. Mrs. Banyan remarked that if I con- afraid is one of a permanent tinned to talk foolishness, she would leave the yet remains to be discovers table. Astonishing how quickly the feminine Insects manage to get the intuition enables them to hit the nail on the bodies in Hongkong, and head, isn't it? Well, I grappled with that, re- ing cities of China whi mark once more, and again if baffled mo.
not. When the ĉi question ✨ westhall
I tried several analogies, ** In order distance of eradicating to live, it is necessary to die.” No. Ex- cept General Booth, nobody believes that
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