Evening star., 1909-03-13

road clear through the western part of
the island. running north and south from
one end of it to the other. That was COM
pleted last year. With it's branches ii
has about two hundred and eighty miles
Of track, and it goes right through the
most thickly populated part of the coun-
try. 1t is now run by steam; but the
water supply is such that l believe we
shall be able at some time to move all
the cars by electricity I made study
of that problem while | was civil gov
ernor of FOrmosa and | find that we can
put dams here and there in the noun
tains and make reservoirs which will give
us constant fall all the year round ,Suf-
f1cent to general electricity for the road
and at the same time not affect the ir-
rigation of the country below
Tell me something about the railroads,
your eXcellenCy.
When we took possession of the is
land we found little road siXtytwo
miles long running from kclung to Shin
chku. 1t was in bad condition and the
route selected was so inconvenient that
We planned out this line running from
one end of the island to the other We
began work at both ends and pushed for
ward night and day i'm order TO complete
it at the earliest possible time. In places
We Employed light railways temporarily.
using Chinese coolies to push the cars
Some parts of the road were very difficult
to construct. We had to carry the track
across valleys on bridges. and 10 make
some very long tunnels, but we kept at
It and the road is now complete. 1t was
our original intention to take ten years
to build the road. but it has been done in
much less than that
What did the road COST?
In the neighborhood of fourteen or
fifteen million dollars. We shall build
branch roads here and there and shall
open up the whole of the settled part OF
the island through railways"
What other improvements have you
made
"A great many. We are practically
making a new island of Taiwan,' said
DR. GotO. And what is more we are
now making the island pay its own eX-
penses. and it will in time pay for all it's
Improvements. We are putting roads
everywhere. We have introduced post
offices into all the towns. In 1896 there
were only forty-ive places where post
age stamps could be bought There arc
now six or seven hundred. About thir-
teen million letters and post cards and
about five million other postal packages
go through the mails every Year We
have money order offices and postal say
ings banks with tens of thousands OF de
postors. We have something like two
thousand miles of telegraph wire and
about half million mes sages are sent
over them every year. Our telegraph re
ceipts are more than a million yen per
annum. and-tbey yield a profit to the
government. We have a good telephone
system established. There are several
hundred miles of lines and the telephone
calls run up into the millions year.
We are using wireless telegraphy in
some districts into which, the ordinary
lines have not been extended"
How about Your connections with
Japan and China?''
''They are very good. The Osaka Sho-
sen kaisha has three or four steamers
a month via Moji The passage takes
about four days There is a regular
service of steamers around the coast of
the island and regular connections with
Fuchan. Annoy, SWatow and HongkOng.
AS result of the good steamship COM
and our improvements in the
island the commerce with Japan is
steadily increasing and a large proper
ton of the foreign goods comes from
here. The imports of the island row
amount to in the neighborhood of thirty
million yen and the exports are con-
one-haf of the imports come from
Japan and more than half of the ex-
ports go there
''Is Fornosa a. rich islando''
Yes" replied Baron Goto 1T has much
excellent soil and it produces large crops
of tea. rice, sugar and hemp. Almost
anything that will grow in the Philippine
Islands will grow there Sugar is PROV
ing especially valuable. Some time ago
the government imported seven Ameri-
can mills to crush the cane and num-
Der of new manufacturing firms have
been established. Sugar has been raised
there for hundreds of years and it Is
still the chief crop. The yield is now
from twenty to forty thousand pounds
per acre.
LAS to rice. we are trying to improve
the product in quantity and quality. The
people are now raising two crops a year