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THE latter portion of Mr, Fox's report is so full of interest that our notice of ib can be little more than a string of What he w about the steamship in the China trade is familiar enough to residents in China but he justly d tention to the superior' attractions offered to passengers in the Hoating palaces of the German companies, and the disadvantage which springs from the necessity that passengers to and from China by the P. & O. mail steamers have to change vessels at Colombo. It is strange that the Messageries Maritimes, whose vessels were once so popular, should have dropped out of the running as they I notwithstanding. the rea' maguificence of some of the Inter additions: fo their fleet, In reference to the Blue Funnel line, M pertinently: "The s of their ginns earg, berth at Shanghai not indicate any seri that branch of Britis Mr. Fox draws. striking enterprise of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, "whose rise during the last decade from a local coasting company to its pr te among the great steamship lines of the world has been one of the most remarkable incidents in the history of shipping," He gives a brief account of the various lines ing steamers whose serv radiate from Shanghai, noting that the China Merchants' Company, "in spite its fine fleet and certain privileges conferred on it*hy Government, has not, doubtless owing to a want of foreign control and an © of! 8 ollicial interference. been the success its promoters anticipated." We sure that there is nothing deficient in the contro! or management of China Merchants' steamers, and we are equally sure that there must be an oxers of official interference. What Mr. Fox writes on Shanghai's future as a port, and on Chinese as seamen, we will give in his own words "Shanghai bids fair to become the great half-way house between East and West: the terminus eastward of the European lines and westward of the Trans-Pacific system. Should the long-talked-of conservancy of the Huangpu River ever become a reality dat the present tine there are indications that theory at last to be reduced to practice in this connection), the largest ceeangoing steamers which visit the port will be able to discharge their cargo alongside the wharves either here or at Woosung, and thus be abie to connect directly with the railway which, 16 is: rue, at present exists only on paper, but sooner or later must surely come.
"The small number of sailing ves-sols which visit the port, mostly four-masted iron ships of the latest pattern, are chiefly engaged in bringing oii from New York for the Standard Tae European crews re of the very ble when in port to the master and the Consulate. Cases have come to my knowledge where it has paid a captain to discharge his European crew in Shanghai and provide them with a passage home, shipping a Chinese crew in their place, rather than submit to the worries and penses incurred with Europeans. It is becoming every year more common for vessels, even those in the home trade, to carry Chinese crews. The sober, industrious, ly accommodated, and amenable ixcipline: with over 1,500 British h Chinese crews entering the yeu, nos more than cases of trouble between officers men re brought to my notice. One reason fur this, of course, is that whereas the European crews which come here are of all nationalities, othered together from all parts of the world, each man looking on himself asas good as, if nos better than, his neighbour, the Chinese are under the absolute control of, la the case of deck hands, the boatswain, and in the ease of men, the No. 1 fireman, They are often. fellow-townsman, even relations: in many the senior hands rem: and fr 10 and 13 year gradually overcoming goon long voyage ud at any rate, as Bastern trate is concerned, they the merchant seamen of the Mr. Pox anak viet remar on the unbind ws He between Shanghai and neighbouring nontreaty ports, and mentions the unsuccessful attempt of the Chi Navigation Ca. to establish a steamer service between Shanghai and Chuswn. As an example of how the Chinese worm will turn when the official boot comes down on it too heavily, he says that "the fleet of junks which supplies Shanghai with fresh fish has been lately placed under the British and Americ flags and now pays duty t> the Foreign Customs. It is apparently cheaper for them to pay the fees for foreign registration and representation than to deal as native vessels with the Native Customs.
Such a report as that before us woul] not be complete, of course, without a reference to the recent increase ut the general prosperity of Shanghai, and its joint-stock institu-
il'-success he ascribes to the high price of raw cotton, the rise in wages, and the competition. of American and Japanese mills. He mentions that the foreign population of the Settlement had increased when he wrote to a total of 6,774 (which includes Japanese, ete.), of whom 2,691 were British. He mentions how the old bungalows and one-storeyed godowns are being superseded by tall' masses of red and grey bricks, and the invasion of snipe-grounds and paperhunting country by villas and terraces. He notes the rapid increase in the value of land, and states that the equivalent of £21,270 per acre has been paid for land near the Bund, He might have stated that the equivalent of £60,000 an acre has been paid for land on the Bund itself, On the burning question of rents Mr. Fox remarks: "A similar rise in house rents has made the housing problem a most serious and ever-pressing question for a large number of residents. It is though by many that the introduction of tramways would remedy this state of affairs by enabling people to live in the suburbs, but so far, in spite of persistent attempts by various syndicates, the opposition of the landed interest has been too strong; also, it is only fair to add, the ill-defined and almost chimerical nature of some of the schemes brought forward has prevented tramways, becoming an established fact."
Then he notes that "rich Chinese, more especially of the official class, are each year in greater numbers waking their homes in the Settlements, investing in landed property and building houses, The fiction is still maintained that Chinese cannot hold land in' the Settlement, but: there are obvious ways of evading this restriction." This tendency on the part of Chinese officio's, it may be wided, is an excellent guarantee for the maintenance of the independence of Shanghai. The rich Chinese referred to are attracted by the fact that they are free in the Settlements from Chinese official interference, and they thoroughly enjoy the amenities that foreign administration brings in its train.
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Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.