PASSENGER WHEELBARROWS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue VIII, 14 August 1897, Page 250

PASSENGER WHEELBARROWS.

The wheelbarrow affords one of the chief means of travel and transport in China, (says Iron Age), especially in the northern part of the empire and throughout the Slab plain. The Chinese form is a decided provement on the types nsed in Western countries, for it is so constructed that the load, which sometimes is very great in bulk and weight, is carried over the wheel, and not between it and the man who propels it. The high cost of timber and the bad roads throughout the country necessitate the wheelbarrows being both rnde and strong, with axles and wheels able to bear the strains which they experience. The wheelbarrow is generally constructed of oak, ab a cost of about 16s. Its weight is about 120 pounds, extreme length 6 feet 6 inches (including shafts), extreme breadth 3 feet 2 inches, and height 3 feet 6 inches. The wheel is 3 feet in diameter and has an iron tyre 1J inches wide by i inch thick. To aid in steadying and propelling the vehicle the wheelbarrow man wears a strap across his shoulders which is attached to the shafts on each side. Boxes, bales of goods or whatever the loads may consist of are secured to the wheelbarrow by ropes. The charge for carrying an average load is about Is 5d per mile, but varies according to the load and the state of the road to be travelled over. The wheelbarrow has seating accommodations for four people, two on each side, and the fare for four people is 2|d per mile. Passenger fares are lower than those for merchandise, on account of the avoidance of labour in loading and unloading. A cushioned seat is provided for the passenger, who generally sits with one leg resting on the front of the barrow and the other hanging over the ride in a rope loop, which serves as a foot rest. Thns a native is wheeled for miles over the rongh roads of the conntry, with severe jolting accompanied by a peculiar squeak of the axle in the case of most barrows. Immediately behind the wheelbarrow, between the shafts, there is a long, oblong-shaped basket, in which the wheelbarrow man keeps his few belongings. On the great plain wheelbarrows are occasionally seen with a sail set, when a fair wind proves a great help to the trundling of the barrow over a level way. Since the institution of cotton mills at Shanghai (foreign settlements) the wheelbarrow has been extensively used as a passenger vehicle, especially for carrying workwomen to and from the mills. One man can wheel six women for a distance of about three miles, morning and evening, the charge being Is fid per month. The average earnings of a wheelbarrow man are about B|d per day. Abont 4,000 licenses are issued monthly for the same number of wheelbarrows plying for hire in the streets of the foreign settlements at Shanghai, where, being under municipal re gelations, they are perhaps the best in China. The fee for a license ia ll£d a month, and no wheelbarrow is allowed, according to the regulations, to carry more than six and one-half chests of tea or eight

and one-half boxes of kerosene oil or twenty and one-half boxes of soap (thirty pounds each) or ten boxes of soap (fiftytwo pounds each) or two bales of American piece goods. The width of the packages must not exeeed four feet—that is, two feet on each side of the barrow—and no wheelbarrow is allowed under any circum stances to carry more than 600 pounds of dead weight. These regulations are, however, not strictly adhered to. Sometimes in the streets of the foreign settlements at Shanghai about fifty wheelbarrows may be seen travelling one behind the other, each carrying two barrels of English Portland cement, and pushed by one man. Very freq uently, however, a load is carried on one ride of the barrow only, so that the edge of the 11-ineh tyre cuts into the macadam roadway like a knife. The bales sometimes project three feet on each ride, the man pushing the barrow being almost invisible from the front. The municipal roads are chiefly of macadam and the damage they sustain from this traffic is very great. It has been found, after repeated experiments, that granite broken to pass through a three-quarter-inch ring and rolled in the usual manner is the only kind of macadam roadway that will stand this severe traffic. It is extraordinary to see a Chinese skilfully balancing and propelling a heavy load on one ride of a barrow, and considering that there are abont 4,000 of these vehicles travelling through the streets of the settlements, in addition to a large traffic of other kinds, the upsets and accidents are remarkably few