Directory_and_Chronicle_1897 — Page 523

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

ILOILO

This port, which is the chief town of the populous province of the same name in the island of Panay, is situated in lat. 10 deg. 48 min. W., near the south-eastern extremity of the island, close to the sea, on the border of the narrow channel formed by the opposite island of Guimaras. The town is built principally on low marshy ground, partly fronting the sea and partly along the left bank of a creek, or inlet, which runs towards Jaro, and after describing a semicircle again meets the sea near Iloilo. Although the principal seaport and seat of the government of the province, Iloilo is much smaller than many towns in its vicinity. The harbour is well protected and the anchorage good, the island of Guimaras forming a sheltered passage. The depth of water on the bar at the entrance to the creek or river Iloilo is about five fathoms at low water, but at a short distance within it decreases to fifteen feet and then deepens again. At spring tides the whole town is covered with water, but notwithstanding this it is a very healthy place. The high ground of Guimaras forms a kind of funnel with the Panay shore, and the result is that a calm is of rare occurrence, there being almost always a breeze of some kind. The N. E. breeze blows very strongly. It is much cooler in Iloilo than in Manila. The better class of houses in Iloilo are built on strong wooden posts, two or three feet in diameter, that reach to the roof, stone walls to the first floor, with wooden windows above and an iron roof. The poorer class of dwellings are flimsy structures of nipa, built on four stout posts. The means of communication with the interior are still very inadequate, and retard the development of the port.

The principal manufacture in Iloilo for local consumption and export to Manila is that of pina, a cloth very finely made from the fibre of the pineapple leaf. Another cloth called jusi is woven from silk, and is made in white and colours. The country round Iloilo is very fertile and is extensively cultivated. The annual crop of sugar is estimated at about a million piculs. Tobacco is also largely cultivated. Rice is grown on a considerable scale, but locusts are very plentiful in the island and often do great damage to the cane and paddy. Typhoons frequently work great havoc. Earthquakes, however, seldom occur. Iloilo is about 250 miles distant from Manila.

Iloilo has greatly increased in importance of late years. The chief article of export is sugar, of which 92,920,375 kilograms, valued at $4,601,893, were shipped in 1894, and 140,687,421 kilograms in 1893. The total imports in 1894 were $2,225,690 compared with $3,008,252 in 1891, and the exports $4,624,290 in 1894 as against $4,036,966 in 1891. In 1894 Iloilo also exported 1,455,037 kilograms of valuable hard and dye woods. The prin- cipal traders are Chinese mestizos, who are very numerous in the port.

The island of Negros is extremely fertile and contributes three-fourths of the sugar shipped from Iloilo, the quality of which is excellent.

Directory_and_Chronicle_1897 — Page 523

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