Part 8 (1/2)

Very little is known concerning the mineral wealth of the islands. It is stated that there are deposits of coal, petroleum, iron, lead, sulphur, copper and gold in the various islands, but little or nothing has been done to develop them. A few concessions have been granted for working mines, but the output is not large. The gold is reported on Luzon, coal and petroleum on Cebu and Iloilo, and sulphur on Leyte. The imports of coal in 1894 (the latest year for which the statistics have been printed) were 91,511 tons, and it came princ.i.p.ally from Australia and j.a.pan. In the same year the imports of iron of all kinds were 9,632 tons.

If the Cebu coal proves to be good quality there is a large market for it in compet.i.tion with the coal from j.a.pan and Australia.

Agriculture.

Although agriculture is the chief occupation of the Philippines, yet only one-ninth of the surface is under cultivation. The soil is very fertile, and even after deducting the mountainous areas, it is probable that the area of cultivation can be very largely extended, and that the islands can support a population equal to that of j.a.pan (42,000,000).

The chief products are rice, corn, hemp, sugar, tobacco, cocoanuts and cacao. Coffee and cotton were formerly produced in large quant.i.ties--the former for export and the latter for home consumption; but the coffee plant has been almost exterminated by insects, and the home made cotton clothes have been driven out by the compet.i.tion of those imported from England. The rice and corn are princ.i.p.ally produced in Luzon and Mindoro, and are consumed in the islands; the rice crop is about 765,000 tons; it is insufficient for the demand and 45,000 tons of rice were imported in 1894, the greater portion from Saigon, and the rest from Hongkong and Singapore; also 8,669 tons (say 60,000 barrels) of flour, of which more than two-thirds came from China and less than one-third from the United States.

The cacao is raised in the southern islands, the best quality of it in Mindanao. The production amounts to only 150 tons, and it is all made into chocolate and consumed in the islands.

The sugar cane is raised in the Visayas. The crop yielded, in 1894, about 235,000 tons of raw sugar, of which one-tenth was consumed in the islands and the balance, or 210,000 tons, valued at $11,000,000, was exported, the greater part to China, Great Britain and Australia.

The hemp is produced in southern Luzon, Mindoro, the Visayas and Mindanao. It is nearly all exported in bales. In the year 1894 the amount was 96,000 tons, valued at $12,000,000.

Tobacco is raised in all the islands, but the best quality and the greatest amount in Luzon. A large amount is consumed in the islands, smoking being universal among the women as well as the men, but the best quality is exported. The amount, in 1894, was 7,000 tons of leaf tobacco, valued at $1,400,000, and 1,400 tons of manufactured tobacco, valued at $1,750,000. Spain takes 30 per cent, and Egypt 10 per cent of the leaf tobacco. Of the manufactured tobacco, 70 per cent, goes to China and Singapore, 10 per cent. to England, and 5 per cent. to Spain.

Cocoanuts are grown in southern Luzon and are used in various ways. The products are largely used in the islands, but the exports, in 1894, were valued at $2,400,000.

Cattle, goats and sheep have been introduced from Spain, but they are not numerous. Domestic pigs and chickens are seen around every hut in the farming districts.

The princ.i.p.al beast of burden is the carabac or water buffalo, which is used for ploughing rice fields, as well as drawing heavy loads on sledges or on carts.

Large horses are almost unknown, but there are great numbers of native ponies, from nine to twelve hands high, but possessing strength and endurance far beyond their size.

Commerce and Transportation.

The internal commerce between Manila and the different islands is quite large, but I was unable to find any official records giving exact figures concerning it. It is carried on almost entirely by water, in steamers of 500 to 1,000 tons. There are regular mail steamers, once in two weeks, on four routes, viz.; Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao; also a steamer every two months to the Carolines and Ladrones, and daily steamers on Manila Bay. These lines are all subsidized. To facilitate this navigation extensive harbor works have been in progress at Manila for several years, and a plan for lighting the coasts has been made, calling for forty-three princ.i.p.al lights, of which seventeen have already been constructed in the most substantial manner, besides sixteen lights of secondary importance.

There is only one line of railway, built by English capital, running from Manila north to Dagupan, a distance of about 120 miles. The roads in the immediate vicinity of Manila are macadamized and in fairly good order; elsewhere they are narrow paths of soft, black soil, which becomes almost impa.s.sable in the rainy season. Transportation is then effected by sledges, drawn through the mud by carabacs. There are telegraph lines connecting most of the provinces of Luzon with Manila, and cables to the Visayas and southern islands, and thence to Borneo and Singapore, as well as a direct cable from Manila to Hongkong. The land telegraph lines are owned by the Government, and the cables all belong to an English company, which receives a large subsidy. In Manila there is a narrow gauge street railway, operated by horse-power, about eleven miles in total length; also a telephone system, and electric lights.

Communications with Europe are maintained by the Spanish Trans-Atlantic Company (subsidized), which sends a steamer every four weeks from Manila and Barcelona, making the trip in about twenty-seven days. The same company also sends an intermediate steamer from Manila to Singapore, meeting the French Messagoric each way. There is also a non-subsidized line running from Manila to Hongkong every two weeks, and connecting there with the English, French and German mails for Europe, and with the Pacific mail and Canadian Pacific steamers for j.a.pan and America.

There has been no considerable development of manufacturing industries in the Philippines. The only factories are those connected with the preparation of rice, tobacco and sugar. Of the manufactures and arts, in which j.a.pan so excels, there is no evidence.

The foreign commerce amounted, in 1894, to $28,558,552 in imports, and $33,149,984 in exports, 80 per cent, of which goes through Manila. About 60 per cent. of the trade is carried in British vessels, 20 per cent. in Spanish and 10 per cent. in German.

The value of the commerce with other countries in 1894 was as follows:

In Millions of Dollars (Silver).

Imports. Exports.