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“...this,
Puklioi trade
seems on a
down grade.
The total value of Pakhoi trade for the year 1895 (603,743/.),
which for the first time since 1886 has failed to attain to
4,000,000 taels, has fallen off some 5 per cent, from that of 1894,
as stated in sterling, and over 7 per cent, according to the more
real test of silver ; the Haikwan tael having averaged 3s. 2d., viz.,
Id. more than in the preceding year.
The past year has been marked by unusual drought in the
region extending from Pakhoi to Nanning, some 80 miles to the
north-west, and the shrinkage of trade here noted is ascribed by
Chinese to the consequent dearness of rice having reduced the
consumption of goods of various kinds in this neighbourhood.
On the other hand, however, Pakhoi can this year plead neither
the plague of 1894, adduced by Mr. Johnson in explanation of
that year's decline, nor the floods of 1893, cited in a similar sense
by Mr. Eraser; and taking one year's accidents with another's, it
is simpler to conclude that...”
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“...Canton under transit
pass, reduced the Paklioi import lor that year by over 114,000/.;
while he had reason to believe that in 1892 a diversion of some of
the West River trade in essential oils to the Pakhoi route, pro-
duced an increase in our exports of 62,000/. If, then, the West
River is now to be opened to trade, Pakhoi will probably be seen
to have missed its chance for good and all.
Without going so far as to wonder why the slight land barrier
of 80 miles between this and the river below Nanning, is not effaced
by the desperate expedient of a railway, I have often been struck
by the ease with which the existing cart traffic of this region
might be so improved and extended, as in a great measure to solve
the problem of cheap laind transit.
This is the only region that I am acquainted with in Southern
China where wheeled vehicles other than wheelbarrows are in
use. The wide, dry plain seems, indeed, made for wheel traffic,
and already one bicycle is a familiar object on its expanse. But...”
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| 3 |
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“...more than twice what the existing vehicles achieve, and there
seems to be no reason why, with a certain amount of simple road- Wheel traffic
making, such a system of transit should not be successfully misht connect
extended across the low watershed that separates us from the R^rTrade
West River.
I may here note that a journey over some of the ground in
question was made in November last by H.I.G.M. Consul for
Canton, with another German gentleman; the party going over-
land from Pakhoi to Nanning.
Although without much apparent bearing on the trade of New French
Pakhoi, the opening in November last of a hew French Vice- pice"
Consulate at Tunghsing (written Tonghing by the French Tungbstng1'
authorities), on the coast, some 72 miles west of Pakhoi, may be Error in maps
here chronicled—perhaps with the more justification, that by its aa to course
position it invites attention to an error in most of the accepted °f. Lungchou
maps of the region, namely, that of making the river which runs...”
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