Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/746

738 China, a canal joining up all the local waterways, the "Ping" Line of steamers, and wharves and storage godowns in the principal ports on the China Sea. A private telegraph line connects the offices in Tientsin and Chinwangtao and the collieries and the Tongku district, and facilitates the administration of the huge concern. Indeed, in the case of Chinwangtao, this line affords the only means of telegraphic communication available to the public.

It will thus be seen that in its completeness the concern is almost unique. The labour for which it finds employment, and the impetus it has given to native industries, has furnished a most powerful argument for the introduction of foreign capital into the Chinese Empire. Again, the short section of railway which was opened in the early eighties to connect the mines with the canal, proved effective in removing the Chinese prejudice against the Western iron road, so that the Company may be said to have given birth to the now extensive railway systems of North China. The section which they opened now forms part of the Imperial Railways.

As may be gathered from the following details of the various departments, the Company's plant and appointments generally are of the most modern type.

The coal mines at Tongshan and Linsi are situated in the Kaiping district of the Chihli Province, about 60 miles from the ports of Tongku and Chinwangtao, with which they are connected by the Chinese Government

Tcitp d746 tientsin offices of the chinese engineering and mining co.jpg THE TIENTSIN OFFICES OF THE CHINESE ENGINEERING AND MINING COMPANY, LTD.

railway system. In addition to the usual steam haulage, having a maximum capacity of about eight thousand tons per day, these collieries employ, in pumping and lighting, an electrical installation which cost considerably over a million dollars, and is reputed to be the largest electrical plant in the East. The output of the collieries is at the rate of one and a half million tons of coal per annum. The best coal won is very similar to the best Cardiff lump, and is much in demand among the foreign navies as a first-rate steam raiser. It is also used in admixture with dust coal by the Chinese arsenals, and gives excellent results in the manufacture of steel. The second quality may be likened to the best Japanese, Australian, or Scotch coals; it is a good steam coal, and is much used on the North China railways, and by most of the large coasting lines in the China seas. A third quality is principally in demand as a household coal, but is also very popular as a steam raiser in mills and factories, and, when mixed with dust coal, for shipping purposes. In the development of native industries, such as brick-burning, the expression of bean oil, and distilling, the use of coal dust plays a very important part. It is also replacing grasses, hemp sticks, millet stalks, and other native fuel for domestic purposes, for the Company are demonstrating to a large section of the population, notably in Tientsin, that by a small alteration in their stoves they can burn coal with great economy. The collieries give direct employment to ten thousand Chinese, while another ten thousand families are engaged in supplying grains, fodder, oils, baskets, and all manner of native produce consumed in the works. Seven locomotives are engaged in moving stores, coal, &c., in and about the mining properties.

The manufacture of coke is one of the least progressive of the Company's industries, but the product is easily disposed of to the local mints, arsenals, and dockyards. At present only native open kilns are employed; but the business is capable of considerable expansion, and the erection of a modern type of plant will give the necessary impetus, ensuring a better quality of coke and at the same time reducing the cost of manufacture by the saving of the by-products now wasted.

The country in the vicinity of the coal mines is unusually rich in fire-clays, and some of the seams lying on the Company's property contain material of the finest quality. This clay is manufactured into bricks by a modern plant driven by electricity, at the rate of from 1,750,000 to 2,000,000 pieces per mensem, or, roughly, 20,000,000 per annum. These bricks are highly finished, and the degree of heat resistance without deformation is certified at not less than 2,930° Fahrenheit, a degree of refractoriness which European manufacturers will rarely guarantee. The numerous Chinese Government mints and arsenals, the Hanyang Iron Works at Hankow, the Chinese railway systems, and the several Government dockyards, not to mention many progressive native industries utilising Western power, all draw their supplies of firebricks from the Company, to much mutual advantage.

Anticipating that a more thorough system of drainage will become necessary in the Treaty ports, if not in purely Chinese localities, the Company have erected a modern pipe-making machine for the manufacture of stoneware drain-pipes. They are also engaged in the manufacture of glazed brick and flooring and roofing tiles, conveniences which the heavy steamer freights have hitherto placed beyond the reach of both native and European residents.

The "Ping" Line of steamers belonging to the Company may be seen flying the appropriate "black diamond" house flag in any of the China ports between Newchwang and Canton. Outward bound they usually carry the Company's coal and other products, and they bring back piece goods and general cargo principally from Shanghai. The Company have wharves and godowns at Tientsin, Chinwangtao, Tongku, Shanghai, and Canton; and godowns and property for the storage of