The morning call., 1891-04-30
THE EMPRESS OF INDIA.

The Empress of India has reached
Victoria, and Canada is wildly excited
over the Inauguration of regular intercourse
between the Dominion and the continent of
Asia. The vessels of which the Empress of
India is the pioneer are not leyiathans.
Their tonnage is only 5000 tons, but they
can steam at a pretty fast rate and they
have the advantage over the San Francisco
lines of about 400 miles in the trip from
Yokohama to the Pacific coast of this con-
lnent 1t appears to be taken for granted
in Canada that they will capture the lions
share of the trans-Pacitic traffic.
1t is well not to be too sure of anything.
There is rot a very diversified trade be-
tween this continent and the continent of
Asia. China and Japan take from North
America a considerable quantity of -four,
kerosene-oil, ginseng and dry goods, and
they send to North America in exchange
tea and silk. All the exports to China and
Japan are produced in the United States.
Some excellent -four is made in Manitoba,
but the cost Of carrying flour to Vancouver
by rails nearly as much as the f1OnriS worth.
If, therefore. the Canadian steamers are to
go out loaded they must load up with
American produce In fact they are now
contracting to carry Oregon flour to Hong
Kong at SIS ton, at which rate they will
not be embarrassed by superfiuity of
profits. Canada cannot supply them with
kerosene or dry goods or ginseng. As to the
other side of the case. portion OF the tea
and silk which come from China and Japan
may take the Canadian steamers. On the
silk there is profit, but there is very little
Of it. Tea is being carried, in consequence
of the competition OF the Suez Canal, at u
VII
The more of this kind of freight they take
the less money the Expresses will make.
Our steamers and railroads manage to
handle it at about the cost Of transportation,
but line like the Canadian Pacific with no
local business could hardly accomplish the
feat
1t is expected that the new line will carry
more than its natural share of passengers.
This hope rests on the fact that the bulk of
the Christians who are settled at the ports
of China and Japan are subjects of the
Queen, while the Americans constitute a
small minority. 1t is assumed that English
men will patronize an English line in pref
erence TO line running to American
port. There is some basis for this expecta-
ton. 1t seems odd that a traveller should
prefer to give San Francisco the go-by in
order TO land at Vancouver, and should deny
himself the pleasure and instruction he
might derive from transcontinental trip
through the growing States of the center of
the continent for the sake of crossing the
| uninhabited wastes between Manitoba and
the Pacific The trouble with this calculation
about passengers is, however, that the whole
business is not worth fighting for. There
is very little travel between the west coast
of America and the east coast of Asia,
Christians residing at Yokohama, Nagasaki,
Shanghai, TiensLin, Annoy or Hong-Kong
generally go home by the way of the Suez
Canal, though it is trihe longer than by
the American route. the trip via Suez in
PRODUCES them to more interesting sights
than those which the American trip offers
The Peninsular and Oriental and Messagerie
steamers are finer and more c0mmodious,
and the society on board is more varied.
Hence the crack ships of the Pacific Mail
and the Occidental and Oriental vessels
think themselves fortunate when they carry
fifty cabin passengers, and those consist
! largely OF missionaries and their families.
The trans-Pacific trade is in its infancy,
and has got to be developed with time and
enterprise. Some day it may reach such
proportions as to exhaust the carrying ca
pacity of the steamers of all the lines. Com
mercial exchanges with Japan alone are pos
sible to a very large mount 1t was almost
by accident that the Chinese market for
California -four was discovered. Some day
we shall find that our neghbors across the
seas can consume other articles ofwhieh we
have surplus, and pay for them in mer-
chandise which we need. Thus far our
exports to japan have consisted OF a few