THE CHINESE RAILWAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 228, 20 January 1911, Page 2

THE CHINESE RAILWAYS.

AN UP-TO-DATE SERVICE. After a fortnight's enforced stay at the quarantine station on Quail Island, Mr. W. C. Dodds, of the Chinese Imperial railway service, accompanied by Mrs. Doilds, arrived in Christehurch on Saturday night. In an interview Mr. Dodds stated that he had been for the past five years in the service of the Imperial Pekin-Fungtien railways as a traflic inspector. The railway, which was controlled by the Chinese Government, was worked under the supervision of foreigners. "We are all foreigners in China, and we call ourselves foreigners," said Mr. Dodds by way of remark. The line had been largely built with British capital, and the cliief officials were Britishers. The traffic manager was a Qucenslander, and most of the traffic inspectors came from the railway service in that State. The railway was a most up-to-date one in every way, in one respect being ahead of the New Zealand service, for they had automatic couplings. The gunge was the 'standard one—4ft 8y 2 in—and while the locomotives were mostly of English and American manufacture, the rolling stock was built in their own works at Tangshan. The works mentioned were very large (says a Christehurch correspondent) and excellently equipped, although owing to the cheapness of labor there was no great need for labor-saving machines. SEW ZEALAND APPLES AND BUTTER.

Regarding food supplies, Mr. Dodds stated that it might surprise some people to know that New Zealand apples could bi* bought in Tientsin for about eight dollars (los) a case. The apples had been arriving in fair quantities, and they found a ready sale. New Zealand tinned butter also found its way up there, and was much appreciated. Australian meat was procurable at Shanghai.