that native labourers had to be employed, and finally, in November 1889, the cutting had to be abandoned, and the diversion previously recommended round, instead of through, the spur was adopted; this increased the length of the line by about half a mile, and was completed early in 1890."

The line was then continued to Kelung, being completed and opened for traffic in the autumn of 1891. On this section, about four miles outside Kelung, the Chinese had gained their first experience of tunnel-making through a ridge which divided the Kelung River valley from the sea. It had been realised that this work would occupy a considerable amount of time, and it was therefore put in hand in 1887, almost as soon as the work of construction commenced at the Tuatutia end. It was carried out by the Chinese themselves with the same disregard of common sense, to say nothing of engineering principles, which characterised the Katongka cutting, while the carelessness of the tunnel-makers was quite unique. To instance an example, the General in command of the soldier-navvies fixed the level of the heading at one end fourteen feet higher than at the other. Again, in order to keep the expense at a minimum, the Chinese refused to adopt the most ordinary safeguards. No drainage measures were taken, nor were the sides of the tunnel timbered or props used in accordance with the instructions of the engineers. The result was a series of landslips, while, on at least one occasion, the roof fell in.

Meanwhile some twenty miles had been constructed southward, including a bridge over the Tamsui River at Tuatutia. The river at this point is about a quarter of a mile wide, except in the rainy season, when it attains a much greater width. The engineers advised an iron bridge, but the same mistaken ideas of economy continued to prevail, and the authorities gave a contract to a Cantonese for a wooden bridge, which was accordingly constructed in 1889. When completed the bridge was 1498 feet in length, contained forty-seven spans, one of which, at the north end, was an iron swinging span centred on a masonry pier, which allowed a passage for junks and large river boats. This was worked by hand, and, when opened, give a channel of 23 feet.

It may be noted in passing that on this occasion the ideas of economy prevalent among the Chinese served them well. For the Tamsui Bridge lasted out their time and came to no harm 1 Railways in China, by H. C. Matheson, A.M.Inst.C.E., Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, vol. cix. p. 325.

until a year or so after the Japanese occupation, when it was washed away by a freshet.

This twenty miles of line south of Tuatutia was opened to traffic simultaneously with the completed line to Kelung. And two years later, in 1893, a twenty miles extension to Hsinchu was completed, and a regular through train service instituted from that point to the northern port. There was now in existence a railway of sixty miles in length characterised throughout, as was only to be expected, by very inferior workmanship and an alignment in places that rendered high speeds impossible. It nevertheless marked a distinct advance.

Unfortunately at this stage the central Government in Peking interposed a check. Apparently they feared lest further developments should tempt the cupidity of some foreign power in want of a coaling station in Far Eastern waters. The work of improving Kelung harbour was consequently dropped, and though the route of the railway had been surveyed through to the proposed southern terminus, the line was not continued beyond the city of Hsinchu, the point already reached.

The energetic governor, Liu Ming Chuan, had been compelled by ill-health to resign his position in 1891, and his successor, the inheritor of his progressive schemes, was content to acquiesce without protest in the Imperial views.

If the policy of the Government was to kill Kelung, it was entirely successful. To this Mr. Davidson, Consul for the United States in Formosa, bears eloquent witness:

"Nothing more was done at Kelung, so that instead of its becoming the great shipping port which had been anticipated, even the old trade dropped off year by year. The railway became a mere passenger line, the service not being sufficiently reliable to be entrusted with freight. The Government collieries were now closed, and frequently months elapsed without the appearance of a single foreign vessel. A big white building of the usual style of foreign architecture was the ghostly remnant of the last foreign firm long since gone. As time went on matters grew worse and worse, until, in 1904, the Custom House officers, the only foreigners in Kelung, wearily spent their days in enforced idleness watching for the smoke of a foreign steamer. Kelung was dead. It might have dropped off the island completely without causing the least inconvenience to anyone save the pitiably poverty-stricken natives who lived in their squalid huts in the tumbledown village."

1

1 The Island of Formosa, by J. W. Davidson, p. 251.

The railway also deteriorated rapidly, the control being left largely in the hands of subordinates with most disastrous results. By the time the Japanese came the rolling stock had, for the most part, been rendered practically useless by continued neglect, and the permanent way was in a dangerous state of disrepair.

The Japanese, however, were not long in straightening matters out, and since their occupation the line already constructed has been improved and continued in a southerly direction to Taiwanfu. A branch line from Taipeh to Tamsui has also been constructed. More recently, in 1901, work was commenced at Taokow, a coast town a few miles beyond the southern terminal projected by Liu Ming Chuan, and since then the line has been under construction northward to join the northern section at the capital in the centre of the island. At the time of writing the whole line is completed, with the exception of a few miles to the south of Taiwanfu, which has involved a certain amount of tunnelling and bridging work. It is estimated, however, that trains will be run through during the present year. Meanwhile the railheads have been connected as far as possible by a temporary line. The total length of railway will be about 260 miles.

CHAPTER IV

THE KAIPING TRAMWAY

HILE the rails were being torn up along the Woosung Road,

and every conceivable obstacle placed by the Central Government in Peking in the way of Ting Futai's enlightened Formosan scheme, a forward movement was quietly taking place in the north, at Tongshan, less than a hundred miles distant in a south-easterly direction from the capital itself. The pioneers in this case were Tong King Sing and Li Hung Chang, Viceroy of Chihli.

As Governor of Kiangsu, it will be remembered, Li Hung Chang had administered a rebuff to the Shanghai petitioners in 1863. But his objections on that occasion had been founded in the main on the desire to avoid the extension of foreign influence; in less degree, perhaps, they might be ascribed to a lack of appreciation of the advantages that would accrue from the development of a railway system. In later years, when he understood the problem better, railway enterprise always commanded his powerful support

At this time, that is to say in 1878, Li had been Viceroy of Chihli for nearly eight years. From Kiangsu he had gone to Hukuang, "the land of the broad lakes," comprising the Yangtze provinces of Hunan and Hupeh in Central China. Transferred thence, after a short term, to the great northern Vice-royalty, he rapidly established himself as the foremost man in China, a position he maintained, at least in foreign estimation, for close on thirty years.

The name of Tong King Sing, on the other hand, has probably not penetrated far beyond China. Notwithstanding the fact that he visited England in 1882 in connection with mining matters, but little is generally known of him, and full justice to his achievements still remains to be done. He was certainly a remarkable man. By birth a Cantonese, bred in the perfervid atmosphere

of anti-foreign Canton, he was the product of what from the Western standpoint was a particularly narrow and unprogressive age; yet he himself was a man of progressive spirit and large mind. Though a poor business man, in the sense that he possessed no great aptitude for detail, he was nevertheless an honest administrator; and combined with his other attributes was a courageous tenacity of purpose and a fine spirit of patriotism.

During the period now under consideration, Tong King Sing occupied the position of Director General of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, in the formation of which a few years previously he had played a prominent part. The company, which was a joint-stock enterprise, the shares being held exclusively by Chinese merchants, had since its formation added largely to its fleet. Its demand for coal had therefore become considerable. But at this time Japanese coal was practically the only coal in the Far-Eastern market. China herself, though rich in the mineral, produced none for other than quite local needs, such mines as were opened being mostly in the interior and worked by Chinese methods.

Such a state of affairs was very distasteful to the mind of Tong King Sing, who was anxious to see the progressive move made in the direction of steam navigation followed by a complementary development of the mineral resources of his country. He therefore proposed that collieries should be opened in the Kaiping district of Chihli, which was near the sea, and known to contain valuable coal deposits. Li Hung Chang gave his support to the scheme, and very shortly, through the exertions of Mr. Tong and his friends, assisted by the Viceroy's influence, the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company was formed, and permission obtained from the Throne to commence mining operations.

The Kaiping coal-field lies in the coastal plain about midway between Shanhaikwan, where the Great Wall meets the sea, and Taku at the mouth of the Pei Ho. The first shaft was sunk at Tongshan in 1878 at the eastern end of the field, under the direction. of the late Mr. R. R. Burnett, who had been appointed Chief Engineer. The nearest point, however, at which the coal' could be made available for shipping purposes was Pehtang,' at the. mouth of the Pehtang Ho, some twenty-nine miles away.

1 It is of interest to note that it was at this point that Lord Elgin landed in the operations of 1860. For position of this and other places, see map facing page 37.