Reference to previous Report, Annual Series No. 4220.

Report on the Trade of Nagasaki for the Year 1909

By MR. CONSUL A. M. CHALMERS.

Value of foreign trade in 1909.-The total value of the foreign trade of Nagasaki in the year 1909 amounted to 1,316,300l., of which 950,6707. represents imports and 365,6307. exports.

These figures show a decrease of 557,0317. as compared with 1908, 543,1747. in imports and 13,8577. in exports.

The large decrease in the import trade is due to the general dépression in the money market and in the shipbuilding trade. Few new companies were formed and there was little development in existing companies.

Another cause for the apparent decrease is that many post bellum orders sent abroad in 1907 were executed in 1908. The falling-off was principally in iron and steel plates and sheets, bar and rod, &c., also in iron and steel manufactures, machinery, teak wood and other timbers, and kerosene.

There is a small increase in the exports of the Consular district, as will appear from the following table.

The port of Miike was opened to foreign trade in 1908 under the administration of the Nagasaki customs, and its development is referred to later under the head of "Coal."

TOTAL Trade of Consular District during the Years 1908-09.

Thus the export trade for the district shows an increase of 52,8017. Kuchinotsu shows a decrease in exports of 151,3937., while Miike shows an increase of 235,850. Almost the whole of the exports in question are coals from the Mijke mines.

Distribution of trade.-All countries except China have fared badly in 1909 so far as concerns the imports into Nagasaki. The imports from the United Kingdom have dropped from 558,720l. to 212,478, a decrease of nearly 350,000l. The articles principally involved, most of which come from the United Kingdom, are machinery, in which there is a decrease of over 70,000l., and metals, in the import of which there is a decrease of some 335,000l., notably in iron and steel plates and sheets, which show a decrease of 130,000l.

Exports to the United Kingdom are unimportant and little has been done with British colonies except Hong-Kong, to which place exports show an increase of 28,4431.

Shipping.-Japanese shipping at Nagasaki shows an increase of 61 vessels and 119,602 tons (excluding small sailing craft) as compared with 1908, whereas British shipping shows a decrease of 113 vessels and 206,217 tons. German shipping shows an increase of 33 vessels and 26,425 tons, but this was in a great degree due to the fact that German charters were put on the run connecting Shanghai with the Siberian railway at Vladivostock, which have since been replaced by two steamers of the Russian Volunteer Fleet, the "Poltava" and "Orel," each of 1,987 tons. Both these vessels pass through Nagasaki twice a week, and Russian shipping, which in 1909 was only 59 vessels with 145,394 tons against 110 vessels 226,866 tons in 1908, will show an improvement in 1910.

Japanese shipping at the two coaling ports of Kuchinotsu and Karatsu shows a falling-off, whereas foreign shipping shows an increase, British totals being 187 vessels and 635,630 tons in 1909 against 168 vessels and 507,669 tons in 1908. Thus the total decrease in British shipping for the three ports as compared with 1908 is 94 vessels and 78,256 tons. The following is a table of British shipping entered at Nagasaki in 1908-09 classified according to

Transhipment trade.-The total value of the transhipment trade, which is facilitated by the existence of a free zone at Nagasaki, was 343,1357. in 1909, 100,000l. less than in the previous year. About 58,0001. represents the imports from the United Kingdom, consisting of cotton tissues destined for Corea and Asiatic Russia. About 170,000l. were imports from China, principally for Corea, and various provisions were transhipped to Corea and Vladivostock to the value of about 50,000l.

Coal. The export of coal from this Consular district during the last three years was as follows:

These figures do not include 38,256 tons exported from Suminoye in the Goto Islands, nor 104,271 tons exported from Tsushima, nor, of course, do they include bunker coals supplied to vessels in port, which in 1909 reached a value in Nagasaki of 393,2497. (about 740,000 tons), in Kuchinotsu 150,000l., and in Karatsu 50,000l.

The port of Miike (Omuta) was opened to foreign trade in 1908, but the new harbour there was not formally opened till April, 1909. It has been constructed at the expense of the Mitsui firm, who have the exclusive use of a wet dock situated in the inner harbour, where there is a quay wall 1,380 feet in length, which can accommodate three large vessels of under 10,000 tons. A vessel moored to it can load 5,000 tons of coal in 24 hours. One effect of the opening of Miike to foreign trade will probably be the effacement of Kuchinotsu as a shipping port. Kuchinotsu is distant 38 miles from the mines, and the coal has to be conveyed there in lighters, whereas Miike, furnished with a good loading dock and with a most up-to-date loading plant, has obvious advantages. It is, moreover, expected that much of the Moji shipping will be diverted to Miike.

The Miike mines were bought from the Government by the Mitsui firm 23 years ago for 300,000l., and now produce 2,500,000 tons of coal annually.

The total coal productions of the Island of Kiushiu in 1909 is estimated at 9,900,000, of which the Takashima mines near Nagasaki produced 347,875 tons as compared with 269,796 tons in 1908.

Other minerals.-The Kagoshima mines produced 36,289 ozs. of gold in 1909 and 84,059 ozs. of silver, also 14 tons of tin, while 1,377 tons of copper were produced in Miyazaki Prefecture.

Shipbuilding. The Mitsu Bishi Dockyard and Engine Works. This concern has suffered in common with all other shipbuilding yards from the general depression of trade, but employment was found for about 9,000 workpeople up to the end of 1908. The number was, however, reduced in 1909 to 7,300.

The shipbuilding yard at Tategami has seven building berths ranging from 185 to 700 feet in length and has an output capacity

of 30,000 tons of shipping per annum. Workshops of every description are furnished with plants of the latest and most approved types. At the engine works at Akunoura the 100-ton tripod shearlegs has been replaced by a 150-ton electrical hammer headed crane.

There are three dry docks and one patent slip, the dimensions of the three docks being:

The patent slip is capable of lifting vessels up to 1,000 tons, the length of rail being 750 feet, the width 30 feet.

The company also owns a salvage steamer of 716 tons and 12 knots speed, which is always ready at short notice, with experienced divers and workmen.

The following particulars of work during 1909, and also of work on hand, have been supplied by the courtesy of the General Manager of the Company.

The three warships on hand will have turbine engines. The first four vessels now on hand were on order in 1907. One of them, the