Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/690

682 being driven is decomposed granite for the first 1,000 feet at each end, changing to very hard granite in the interior.

After passing through the tunnel the line crosses Shatin Valley on a high bridge, and runs down the north side towards the coast at Lok Cha. There is a station at the seventh mile for Shatin village. From this point on to Taipo the line skirts the coast, which is rather precipitous and indented with deep bays. There are three tunnels between Shatin and Taipo stations, the largest of which is 900 feet long. All these are being built for double line.

From Taipo station at the thirteenth mile the line runs inland past Fan Ling station, eighteenth mile, till it reaches the frontier, 21½ miles, at Lofu Ferry, nearly opposite the village of Sam Chun. From this point to Canton the distance by rail will be about 90 miles. Taken as a whole, the line is a very difficult one to make, and the work entailed is heavy and costly. The cost, namely, £1,000,000 sterling for 21½ miles of line, shows that construction necessitates very large works, of which Beacon Hill tunnel, the reclamation for Kowloon station yard, and the five mile section approaching Taipo are the chief. It is hoped that the tunnel will be completed by the end of May, 1910, by which date the rest of the British section ought to be ready for opening. The Chinese section, however, has some heavy bridgework, about 40 miles west of Canton, which may not be constructed by that date.

THE BRITISH AND CHINESE CORPORATION, LTD.

Corporation, whose head office is at 22, Abchurch-lane, London, E.C., was founded in 1898 for financing and undertaking railways and other industrial enterprises in China; and, in particular, for the financing and construction of certain railway concessions granted by the Imperial Chinese Government in that year. Of these, one line, that from Shanghai to Nanking, was completed in April, 1908; the Canton-Kowloon Railway is under construction; and the final loan agreement for the Shanghai-Hangchow-Ningpo Railway was signed at Peking on March 6, 1908. The loan authorised by the Imperial Chinese Government for the imperial railways of North China in 1898 was also issued by the Corporation; and a further preliminary contract was made with the Manchurian authorities in November, 1907, for a loan to construct the extension of this system from Hsinmintum to Fakumen, which extension is, however, at present opposed by the Japanese Government.

The Corporation's representative in China is Mr. J. O. P. Bland, who resides in Peking.

mining questions were very much neglected, both by the Chinese themselves and by foreigners until recent years; indeed, it was not until the Russian occupation of Manchuria that the mineral possibilities were given so much as a thought. That the country is rich in minerals has been proved beyond doubt by the surveyors and geologists who have made investigations both for the Russian and Japanese Governments. The Chinese Government having recently awakened to the possibilities of mining, not only in Manchuria but all over the Chinese Empire, have, wherever possible, discouraged the efforts of the more enterprising foreigners, lest by allowing them to work they should lose what they consider to be the country's natural heritage.

Manchuria is prolific in minerals, there being found in the three provinces, gold, silver, galena, antimony, copper, coal, iron, asbestos, &amp;c., but at the present time the only mines that are actively engaged in producing are those at Fushun, which were taken over as a legacy from the Russians by the Japanese as a subsidiary to the South Manchurian Railway. Tremendous efforts are being made to increase the output as rapidly as possible for the purpose of supplying the locomotives entirely from these mines. The other mines of note are those at Peh Shi Hu, owned by the Japanese but not producing at the moment owing to some litigation between the Japanese and Chinese Governments; the Kirin Coal Mines, owned by a British company, and waiting only for the railway from Changchun to Kirin to be completed; the Sa Sung Kang gold and silver mines, also a British proposition; the Tieling gold mines, entirely native and at present non-producing; and last of all, the mines of the Cathay Mining Syndicate, a gigantic Anglo-Japanese combine, which holds by far the most important mining interests in all Manchuria, if not in all China.

The history of the Cathay Mining Syndicate is very interesting, and it may be said that its inception, conception, and its bright future is entirely due to the actions of a very far-seeing British merchant by the name of Bush, who having dwelt in Manchuria for the greater part of his life, came to the conclusion that the native methods of mining were so crude and so unproductive that it would be well to acquire the mining areas and develop them properly. To this end he bought out the native owners, gradually obtaining the Imperial sanction in 1902 to allow foreign capital to be introduced.

The Boxer trouble and Russo-Japanese war, however, prevented work from being even commenced, as the Cathay mines were in the war zone and their machinery, &amp;c., was commandeered. After the Russo-Japanese war was over the Japanese made overtures to Mr. Bush and paid very handsomely to participate in the venture.

The amalgamation took place on April 17, 1907, and the syndicate is now a combination of Mr. H. A. Bush and the Japanese Government. Since the amalgamation both the British and Japanese concerned have brought out parties of engineers and surveyors, whose reports have more than satisfied the promoters and partners, with the result that the mines may be brought to the notice of the public in the very near future.

The districts in which these mines are situated are those bordering Korea on the northern bank of the Yalu River, and the principal and most valuable mines are situated in the district of Mao Erh Shan, which was referred to by Sir Alex Hosie in his well-known work on Manchuria.

The difficulty in the way of mining in China is either official interference or, failing that, bad communications, and so long as the officials persist in extorting profit illegitimately from their compatriots so long will native mining continue to be an absurdity.

Within a quite recent period the Chinese Government promulgated mining regulations of such a nature that it would have been impossible for any one, even a native, to work them, but it is satisfactory to learn that the diplomatic body in Peking refused to countenance them and they have consequently been withdrawn for revision. It will, no doubt, be a considerable time before they are again submitted for the Ministers' approval, for it will be a difficult task to draw up regulations to satisfy foreigners and, at the same time, preserve the semblance of not giving anything away on the part of China. There is no doubt that, with the new spirit of China for the Chinese that permeates the half-educated native, the lot of the official who has the misfortune to revise the old and compile the new regulations, will be very unenviable.