Certain improvements in the line $2,500,000 was made by the syndicate Inst year towards the cost of the bridge and provision for repayment is Included in the loan, 'The great importance of through rail connection between the cities of Shanghai and Hangchow and. Ningpo is apparent, and access, either to Ningpo or Hengchow, by' train from the busy town of Shaohsing will greatly facilitate the trade of the latter city. The length of the section of the railway, already working, from Ningpo westwards to Pakwan, where the line terminates at the Tsao Ngo River, is 77% kilometres, and there busy trame from Shaohsing, by road and river, to Pakwan Stallion, which is inconveniently small and restricted in facilities for handling the trae, 'The distaneg of the un= completed' section from Shaohsing. Pakwan is 30% kilometres and pa: Sengers and goods have to be transported across the Tsao Ngo River by ferry to reach the railway station, When Bridge was Begun 'When the railway, which had been constructed by provincial railway companies of Kiangsu and Chekiang, was taken over by the National Gove ernment in 1914, It was intended to prolong the section from Ningpo to Pokwan, og far as' Shaohsing to tap the traffic from that town, A. con tract had been tet by the Provincial Company for the construction of the bridge over the Tsao Ngo. River, the foundations and the masonry piers had been completed, and the steelwork of the girders was shipped Europe. Owing, however, to 1 break of the European war, a steamer conveying one of the spans was sunk ear the Suez Canal, while the other span, which had been carried on to Tsinglag and unloaded there, was damaged by shell-fire in the bombard~ ment of that port, and the bridge has never been completed, The length of the uncompleted section of the line from Shaohsing to the Chien Tang River is about 48 killometees, and th nse rae in passengers and goods across the tiver to Zahkou and Hangchow. Transportation across the river is effected by ferry boats towed by motor launches, and this is dimeult and inconvenient in the varying con-Aitions of the river and tid The total length of the gap, now to be linked up, from Pakwan to the Chien Tang River 1s thus about 78% kilometres.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.