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the quarter ending December 31, 1897, there were exported to Great Britain and the United States 216,898 bales of hemp (280 pounds to the bale), of which 138,798 bales went to the United States and 78,106 bales to Great Britain. During this year the hemp trade increased as follows: To Continental Europe, 19,741 bales; to Australia, 2192 bales; to the United States, 133,896 bales. To Great Britain there was a decrease of 22,348 bales. Thus, it will be seen, in this increase the United States is 544 per cent greater than all other countries combined. Of the total export of hemp from these islands for the ten years ending with 1897, amounting to 6,528,965 bales, or 914,055 tons, 41 per cent, went to the United States. During this time sugar was exported from the islands amounting to 151,582,904 tons, of which 875,150 tons went to the United States, 666,391 tons to Great Britain and 41,362 tons to Continental Europe. By comparison, then, it will be seen that 55 per cent went to the United States. English reports estimate the imports into the islands, for the year 1896, at $10,631,250, and the exports at $20,175,000. The general imports being flour, rice, dress goods, wines, coal and petroleum.

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An important item is the vast area of primeval forest. There is not a timber growth essential in any wood work, that is not found here in the very highest stage of excellence. Those in most common use are found in abundance, and with them in like quantities, may be found ebony, cedar, spanwood, logwood, gumtrees, cocoa, nucifera, bamboo, arcea palm, and two woods, the bonava. and malavea, which resist the action of water for centuries. There are over two hundred varieties of wood, and some most excellent for shipbuilding. In the southern isles there are reported to be over fifty varieties of food producing trees. It must not be assumed that these forests are isolated, or inacces. sible; on the contrary, it would perhaps be difficult to find any considerable forest tract that is not easily approachable, either by stream, waterway or otherwise. What then, in the near future, may not be the status of the manufacture of lumber? And when the vast deposits of coal and iron are utilized, what will be the condition of shipbuilding, now in its infancy? In fact, any art in which wood and iron. form an essential part, should soon find rapid growth in the opportunities of the

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"GOOD THING; PUSH IT ALONG." This will only be appreciated by those who have been in Manila.

Philippines. Practically, the products include all citrus and many deciduous fruits, and much in plant life indigenous to the country, and not successfully grown elsewhere, such as Manila hemp. It is not to be said that all these varieties, which enter into our consumption are common to all localities, but that each finds localities suitable to its cultivation and growth. Mangoes, plantains, jack-fruits and all the Malayan fruits grow abundantly.

The hills or higher altitudes are well adapted to stock-raising. There are now in these regions, or rather were before the beginning of the insurrection, great herds of cattle, hogs, horses, buffalo, and many in a wild state. The buffalo, or "Karba," as called by the Malays, is the beast of common burden. In the wild

REV. PETER MAC QUFFN AND BODY-GUARD ON HIS WAY TO VISIT THE SULTAN OF SULU.

state he is intractable, but domesticated, suits the purpose of the natives well. Of a grayish or mouse color, and smaller than our native ox, he is strong and hardy as long as he has his fill of water, and the frequent indulgence of a mud bath. He has many peculiarities, one being the shape of the horns, which is much like a three-cornered file, being flat on top. The native horse is small and unseemly, but enduring and strong. Before the outbreak, the best ranged in price from $100 to $150, but the average per pair for ordinary draft purposes, was from $15 to $20. The husbandry, which obtains in the Philippines, is very crude. In

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the cultivation and manufacture of hemp, sugar and rice, and in all the affairs of agricultural life, the primitive ways of centuries past are still in vogue; the reason of this is due to Spanish design or inertia. When the re-habilitation takes place, and the industries there adopt the science and appliances of modern times, the awakening will be astonishing. Indeed, the business world is already turning its attention to these islands. The "march of empire" is rapidly in the westward trend, and in this we are ourselves active participants. We can easily recur to that time when the Mediterranean was appropriately styled "the mid-earth sea." The central carrying trade became shifted to the Atlantic Ocean; and now, there is every assurance that this is soon to shift to the Pacific.

With the decade ending in 1894, the shipping on the Atlantic decreased over 130,000 tons, while there was a corresponding increase on the Pacific. Now,

the commerce of the Pacific is rapidly increasing, and we can see that with the new era of commercial enterprise, it must soon be immeasurably expanded. The factors promotive of this may be stated in brief.

What pertains to ourselves may be considered known, but looking beyond this continent we see populations having the Pacific Ocean as a shore line, whose business interests will revolutionize the future. The carrying trade will have in view a desirable interchange of commodities, and in this, regard will be had to the vast populations bordering on the waters, and to economy in time and distance.

These populations may be set down as follows:

The Chinese Empire and Islands
British Indies and Dependencies
Japan and Formosa ...

Corea and Eastern Siberia

The Malay Peninsula and Siam.

.400,000,000

.290,000,000

45,000,000

21,000,000

9,000,000

The Philippines, Australasia, Dutch East Indies and the islands of Oceanica 52,000,000 The total Western Slope of America.... 40,000,000

It is readily seen, estimating the total population of the earth at 1,500,000,000, that more than one-half of it is included in the above enumeration.

The enormous expenditures in the recent past, in railway and maritime construction; the vast outlays in developing natural resources, and other like sums given to commercial and manufacturing enterprises; all these tend towards making the Pacific the carrying center of the world's business and traffic. Russia is hastening the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and bending her commercial energies to share in this new field. England is directing her colonial enterprises to this end. Japan

has arisen from her lethargy of ages. Thirty-five years ago she had not an iron rail, a steamer, or manufactures; now her manufactures are in active competition with the best the world produces, and her foreign commerce, in 1897, amounted to quite $200,000,000. Certainly much must be expected of China, in this behalf. Her richest part is the valley of the Yang-tseKiang, covering over 600,000 square miles, through which the great river flows to the Pacific. Here we find Shangai, with already an annual foreign trade of $80,000,000. Corea is another instance of rapid growth. A few years ago she had comparitively no foreign trade, but in 1897, this amounted to $11,755,625. The Dutch Colonial Possessions are all in place, and ready to avail themselves of the new trade and traffic. It is easy to see, that soon much of our European traffic will be diverted into this new field, where the consumer is not likewise competitor.

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A YOUNG CHINESE MESTIZO.

Our relation to this situation, together with that of a home government to its colonies, may be briefly indicated by noting the following: In 1892 our export trade to China amounted, in round numbers, to $9,600,000, and in 1896 this had

CELEBRATING AGUINALDO'S ELECTION AT MALOLOS.

increased to $17,675,000. The English

say the Americans have an aptitude for manufacturing what the market demands, while they (the English) manufacture what they think the people ought to have. This seems to be supported by the facts.

Our exports have increased in the last six years from 15 to 20 per cent, which is not equaled in the English trade. Our total exports for 1898 were $1,277,000,000. Since 1888 and including 1897, Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain and the British colonies have lost in exports $1,518,127,850, and during this time the United States gained $270,000, 901.

England, it is estimated, controls practically 22 per cent of the entire area

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of the globe and 27 per cent of the population of the world, and has about 55 per cent of the carrying tonnage; still she lost in exports $566,000,000, or 71⁄2 per cent of her export trade; but in her exports to her colonies she lost 10 per cent of this trade, or $200,000,000.

Our exports to the Philippines for the past eighteen years average less than $130,000 yearly, this being from 1880 to and including 1897. For the last year, as shown by the Treasury Department Report, it was $127,804. Comparing this with our world's business, it is about 1-100 of 1 per cent.

MINING INDUSTRIES.

Much has been said of the mining interests in the islands, but at present these are almost unknown. However, there is sufficient information to justify exploration, when conditions will permit, although no one now seems to be possessed of absolute knowledge of the mines. Perhaps a reason may be found for this in the early accounts of De Morga. He says:

"All the islands are rich in gold washings, and in ore of this metal, which the natives extract and work; although, since the Spaniards are in the country, they proceed more slowly with this, contenting themselves with what they already have got in jewels, and from a far distant time, and inherited from their predecessors, which is a large quantity; for he must be a very poor and wretched person who does not possess any chains of gold, bracelets and earrings. In the province of Camarines, Paracali, they work some washings and mines where there is good gold upon copper, also in Ylocos, this merchandise is dealt in, because at the edge and back of the province, which is on the edge and coast of the sea, there are some

high and craggy mountain ranges, which run as far as Cagayan, on the slopes of which many islanders dwell. These are not yet subdued, nor has any entrance been made amongst them; they are named Ygorrotes. These possess rich mines, many of them gold upon silver. From these they only extract as much as they require for their wants, and they descend with this gold, without completing its refinement, or bringing it to perfection, to trade with the Ylocos in certain places, where they exchange the gold for rice, swine, buffalo, wraps and other things, in which they are deficient; and the Ylocos finish the refining of it and getting it ready, and by their means it is distributed over the whole country.

"And although steps have been taken with these Ygorrotes to discover their mines, and how they work them, and the method they possess for extracting the metal, there has been no means of knowing it, because they are apprehensive of the Spaniards who would go to look them up, for the sake of their gold, and they say they keep it better taken care of in the earth than in their houses.

"In the other islands there is the same plenty of mines and gold washings, especially in the Pintadoes River of Botuan in Mindanao, and in Sulu, where a mine is worked and good gold extracted, named Taribon, and if the industry and labor of the Spaniards were applied to working the gold mines, as much would be extracted from any of these isles as from the other provinces in the rest of the world, but attending to other gains more than to this, as will be said in its place, this was not attempted with design or purpose.'

Lieut. Wilkes, before quoted, having been in charge of government explorations for many years, is certainly an authority. He was in the islands nearly sixty years ago, in the same service, and says of the mines: "There are many valuable mines of gold, lead, copper and iron, besides coal; and the geological formation indicated a large area of these ores and deposits;" and concludes: "With such mineral resources, and a soil capable of producing the most varied vegetation of the tropics, a liberal policy is all the country lacks."

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