Almost everywhere you go Formosa, you will have electric ight and you can buy ice-cream in summer. These are certainly plain of our much-vaunted western tion, which one is apt to is inthe interior of China, espe-laily in the hot summer time. The for to Formosa will be surprised to find electric light in his room in many quite remote villages. There no doubt that electricity is used far more generally here than in Britain.
'There are a number of " panies which are producing elec': city, and supervision. Mast of them are semi-official companies, Part of the electricity is developed from water jower, and part from coal. There Isa very large new plant just near Taihoku, which has been equipped with every. modern labour-saving device, and which is making electric power from coal. 'There ave large Goal-mines near Keelung, so. this should" be a profitable enterprise, All the power' the new plant can produce is being absorbed by the Progressive city of Taihoku, The most ambitious electrical project in Formosa is the damming up of the outlet of Lake Caniidius, in order to raise its level about forty feet. The intention is to use 1,200 cubic feet of water at an effective head of 1,080 feet. It is. hoped Ghat 100,000. kilowatts will be developed, andthe estimates a'l for an expenditure of about Yen 48,000,000." The Lake " Candidius project is nota new venture, fany means, ie iL was planned before the war. The money has been borrowed in New York, but the work lias been interrupted at, different times "due to. political changes in Japan, Indeed, this. electrical project. has "really boon a bit of a political football in Japan.
Vig enough to be very interesting toa large number of people. possibilities for the development of water power at many points in the mountains, There are a mumber of places where the rainfall, and con-Sequently the flow of water in the streams, is fairly steady. It is easy to find gullies where 'a fairly narrow dam could be built at con paratively small expense, and a good head of water obtained that would be sufficient to run a small plant. A number of small plants could' be put up without much expenditure on any one, and electricity developed as needed. The government, however, is committed to the Lake Candidius scheme, and is evidently prepared to wait a long time if necessary. It is inter esting to reflect that the original engineers who submitted plans for the big project, did not recommend it strongly, and could not assure the government that it would be a complete success. One wonders how it will finally turn out, The more expensive kinds of electrical equipment, such as electric refrigerators and stoves are not in general uso here, as they are in America, Of course there are no apartment houses with all these Intest conveniences supplied, not to mention sky high rents. Fans and: electric irons, and small heaters are used quite a lot, but most tasse only light. The cost of ligh very high, especially when compared with what is paid in Canada, We do not mind prying for the comfort and convenience which the current brings into the house, even if it is a bit more than at home Living in Japan is not cheap, especially for foreigners.
There ave not many telephones in Formosa, and a huge proportion of those there are must be used by the various government agencies The Japanese population in For: most is only 6 per cent, of the whole, and they use over 70 per cent. of the 12,000 telephones. Ail the police stations in the moantai districts are connected by telephone, and it must give a great sense of scourily to those why live isolated in fonoly places. They can call up their neighbours, who may be five or more miles away and they are also connected with the outside world, Telephones in large numbers will probably only be used as the cities grow larger. The population is mainly rural, and will probe ably continue to remain so.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.