The following extracts from this Com pany's report on its business covering the half-year from the Ist of October 1903 to the 3ist of March 1904 will be read: with a ae beginning of this term, every Since 3 rin, branch of trade was badly affected by the hip services suffered accordingly.: When li tical situation and the Company's steam-
the war broke out, the. greater part of the Company's fleet was chartered by the State; end the Company was.compelled to suspend many. of its steamship. services. The con+ dition of the business, therefore, greatly differed from that of ordinary years.
Coasting Services. were badly, affected, by the general depression of trade in the. beginning of the term; and later the vessels were engaged in, the transport of troops, thus compelling the suspension of nearly all of the lines, excepting the Hokkaido coasting line. The amount of cargo in consequence showed a decrease of about 100,000 tons compared with the corresponding period of last year.
Eastern Services.—These services were carried out under normal conditions during the first half of the term; but in the latter half some ports of call were ice-! bound, while others could not be reached without passing through the scene of Tostilities. Thus all these services were, suspended until the control of the sea had: fallen into our hands. Towards the end of the term, our services to Shanghai, Tientein, Chefoo, and Corean ports were resumed, but on the whole the amount of cat-; gq was much.smaller than that carried in, the period from, October, 1902, to March,, European Service—The number of the, European voyages successfully carried out during this term did not exceed half of the, regulation number. The Company had to exercise great, caution, for the purpose of preventing our steamers on the line encountering Russian warships. Some of the outgoing steamers reached their destinations after experiencing hardships, while others were only able to half finish their voyage. Some of the homeward bound steamers, after passing some time in' ai neutral port, proceeded round the southern end of Java, while one steamer sailed from the Medi to the Cape of Good Three of our steamers, which bad transports. Such be-vanced every day, rising at times above the there was an of cargo awaiting freightage itself. ' In spite of the fact, that
shipment at every port of call, the Com-v's ships had very little share of the ight, but they carried fair proportion of service -was specially prosperous, due to: the carrying of a large "number of Ohinese coolies to Canada prior.to the imposition of the increased poll-tax, which: came into force in-. January last... Owing to the suspension of the various shipping. services since the spring of this year, there has beea 8 considerable. diminution of:.passengers compared with the preceding half-year... view. of. the. circumstances, however, "the passenger receipts for the period: under te-'View. may be considered satisfactory.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.