At the beginning of this year, 84,800 Kilometres (52,700 miles) of roads had been constructed in China, the largest provincial kilometrage being Kwangtung with 11244 kilos. The work is being rapidly pushed on, and these totals have, by now, been'considerably increased, It should not, of course, be imfagined that more than a small proportion of these totals is surfaced, as this can only be accomplished ' by slow degrees. Nor should it be forgotten that the quality of even the Dest roads cannot, and should not, even approximate {0 the best European and American roads. The new road from Liverpool to Manchester, for example, cost over £16,- 000 per mile ($120,000 per kilo.) and were new construction of this quality attempted in China, the new Kilometrage built per year would be The policy is, therefore, to build the simplest and cheapest road which will withstand the traffic without unreasably heavy repair-bills—such a road averaging about, $5,000 per kilo—and to increase the kilometrage as rapidly as possible in order to open up the country to settlement, agriculture, and commence, and thus cheek the sporadic banditry which the result more of natural than of economic oF political conditions.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.