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Rice is the mainstay of the people for food and it is an absurdity that with such admirable lands the islands should import sɔme six millions gold a year in Saigon rice. Even eggs are imported by the inactive Filipino. This money, sent out of the country, if kept | at home, would make a brighter industrial out- look. It should be understood that there is no
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
to work sugar in a large way. Hongkong gets | but the educational movement now! is considerable sugar from the Islands, although | for all the people. The people have no liter Java is its chief source. The processes in the | ature of their own as yet. There in Philippines are crude, only 50 per cent. of the Normal School in Manila of 700 pupils with 20 juice being expressed from the cans; centrifugal teachers, which is an inspiration for one to visit, plants at an enormous expense not yet being There are trade schools in Manils, and in the introduced. The soil is admirably adapted to four other cities of importance. So ne hundreds sugar, which can be produced at a very low figure of Filipino youth, chosen by examination, are and when the United States encourages the being sent to America and on their retura must industry by a lower tariff and restores certainty
serve the Government for as many years as among investors, the output will increase,
their education abroad continued, Filipino youth are also being trained in West Point. The matter of education of Asiatics in America and England is much debated here. Those who have read "The Broken Road," relating the career of an Indian prince, educated in England, who returned unit for life among his own people, recognise a study along this line, nevertheless many Chinese youth have had the advantage of foreign study and returned to do their own country good. The matter oalls for wisdom, bat generally speaking, these people should be educated among their own people 'where they are to do their work. An admixture of foreign study and observation is valuable for those who can stand it and at the right time. The American teacher anally comes dut on a two years' contract at $1,200 gold a year. Some are soon filled with discontent and the frequent change in this and other departments is uneconomic. The English and Dutch and other colonizers come to stay,-to make a life
poverty in these islands, as one knows poverty in China, There is no fuel bill to pay, and much food can be had for the picking all the year round. Rise yields in some cases one hundred fold, but the processes are very crude, The pestilence which swept off three-fourths of the Caribou greatly interfered with the rice output, but even now it is from twenty to thirty million dollars. In 1903, a very bad year, the importe in rice were twelve milion dollars gold. The government is demonstrating on experimental farms dry cultivation, planting the rice with drills and harvesting it with a self binder, the fields being flooded as needed, but, after all, the ~ Asistio must work it out his own way. A law compelling every Filipino to grow a certain amount of rice would seem a good one, bat compulsory labour is for theorists only in these latter days. The growing of copra, from the cocoanut plant, is universal. There is an increased demand for the oil obtained from this product. Cocoanut trees are ever in sight, especially near the sea. They come to searing in from seven to dve years and it is estimated that each tree averages $1.00 a year profit. The tobacco industry in the islands is in the hands of a few large companies, some of which sell to monopolies as Spain and Japan. There are very large factories in Manila,
Coffee, of which in 1883 7500 tons were Ao insect, exported, is very little grown now. preying on the stem, appeared in 1892, and while science is ready to grapple the pest, there is as yet no revival in this industry although Philippine coffee is said to be of veh iary quality. The islands car gold, which hig attracting much attention at the present. especially in Northern Luzon; the Iggoroties and others worked copper for centuries; coal and iron are also found. The pearl industry in the southern islands is very profitable to the few and there are many other resources which The in good time will come to their own. imports of the Philippines run from 35 to 40 millions gold B year. The exports are some thirty millions, of which hemp yields two thirds; oopra, sugar and tobacco are other items. While Porto Rico enjoys free trade with the United States, these islands have not yet been able to secure it, paying 75 per cent. of the Dingley Tariff imposed on others, Export Duties, forbidden in the United States, are charged on the principal products.
Immediately after the occupation, soldiers were assigned as school teachers and in 1901 543 teachers with degrees came on one steamer. There are now over 800 American teachers and 4,000 Filipino teachers, with 600,000 school children. The school is the principal activity of the towns and the cïtzens have entered heartily into the idea of uplifting a nation by this plan.
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osreer.
None of the American achievemen's excel the setting op of proper courts, There is a Supreme Court of seven, headed by a Filipino with three associates of his race- as able, dignified and blameless men as one can find in any nation. There is a series of four of whom are Americans, the rest natives. courts of the first instance of 14 julges, about These courts yield good results although it is significant that the Filipinos sometimes Ameriosa judge may be petition that an assigned them. I met the bar of sixteen Filipinos and one American at Tloilo, the former bright man, aducated at Manila and abroad. They are loyal to the Government and enthusiastic. American lawyers who have arlened Spanish (court proceedings are in both languages) have prospered in the islands.
In the 700 municipalities are justice courts, headed by a layman, a Filipino, where there is necessarily a good deal of blundering and worse. But it was a great thing when the Filipino was able to know the obarge against him, face his witnesses and harp a speedy trial on the
When one merits of the case.
sees these things, be concludes that the sati-imperialists of Boston are wrong. I bad the same feeling coasting about the islands st aight, wbere 120 lighthouses Are дом isshing safety as against 25 in the old days.
The Spanish built 120 miles of railroad on Luzon. Already this system has been extended and railroads are being built on three of the Visayan Islands. The effects are already tremendous in civilizing these thickly-populated districts, in bringing crops once sold for what they would bring, to a competitive market. The Government is back of thess railroads to the extent of 4 per cent on the bonds. I travelled on all of them. There are neat stations every three or four miles. The verdure is constant and rice fields forever in sight. The natives live in nipa hats, which can be put up for ten or twenty dollars, raised on poles to escape the malaria.
[October: 81,-1908:
men are buried in forestry and farming operations. If this can be done with white men, the absurdity of shutting up our fellows. so little different from ourselves on the outside must be abated.
Manila barbour has been improved at a cost of millions; 230 acres of made land increăses the water front; the telegraph has been stretched over the islands. The Bureau of Science has thirty six men doing the most advanced work, Cholers, small pox and other diseases no longer run unrestricted in this part of Asia. There is cholera in Manila to-day, but you note that is is brought swiftly under control,
Civil service is the rule. The tendency is to insert Filipinos in all the departments as fast as they are ready for it. The aim of a Filipinoe boy is to pass examinations and get a Govern. ment position, whereas it would be better for him to become a planter. However, this tendon^y is not unknown in the home land. Whereas the
printing office once had 75 Americans, now there are but twenty. The city of Manila is ander sharp sivil service regulations and an official told me that one of Governor Taft's greatest services was to organise the police force, which carries 200 Americans, on civil service rules, with the result that the police force is more blameless than most cities at home.
FAR EASTERN TELEGRAMS.
DEATH OF A JAPANESE STATESMAN,
Tokyo, October 27th. Admiral Viscount Enomoto died to-day. The Japan Year Book says of the decsumed statesman that he was a pioneer naval officer sent for study to Holland by the Tokugawa Government; returned home la 1866 on board the corvette "Kanyo Maru" built at Amsterdam to the order of that Government. In the civil war of the Restoration he, at the head of that vessel and others fled to Hakodate where for several months he with Otori (now Baron) successfully withstood the attack of the Imperial army; surrendered at the sɩrnest remon- the leader of the Imperial Army sad
released after Impri- sonment of a year or two, to be at once appointed to an important Government post in Hokkaido. Dispa ohed in 1874, to St. Petersburg to conclude the treaty of «cobang-- ing Sagbalien with the Kariles: was Minister almost every at Peking 1882, and sat in Ministerial obair with the exception of that of Army, Finance and Justics.j
strance
of
Was
COLLISION AT SHANGHAI.
The steam ST
Messrs. W. 8. wtih H.M.8 anchor.
Shanghai, October 28th. Hanping," which was built by Bailey and Company, collided "Flors," which 'was riding at
The " Hanping" grounded, but was floated later into deep water.
She is now submerged.
THE SU TAN OF PERAK'S STATE JEWELS STOLEN.
Bingapore, October 28th. The State Jewels belonging to the Sultan of Perak have been stolen by barglars at Kuala Kangmar island.
The articles are of great value. No trace of the (thieves has been discovered and a reward of $1,000 has been issued.
Science is busy in many departments, Manila is completing a five million collar bower system Education, like Christianity is dynamic; it and Commissioner Worcester oldims that the means unrest and ambition; by its nature it death rate in that city has been duced two- wars on absolutism and error. Education and thirds. The native local health authorities are Christianity alike make for individuality, the brought to Manila to be educated in their On Oct. 26 the new steamer “Haiyang,” re- development of individuals. Consequently they line. The Agricultural Bureau has experts cently built at Greenock to the order of the are dangerous propoganda for those who would dealing with the different сгора with Douglas Steamboat Company arrived hers on obscure those movements. All instruction in stook farms, eto, The ten thousand lepers her maiden voyage. The "Haiyang,” which the Philippine schools is in the English lan- of the archipelago have been in part will be placed on the consting trade, is admirably guage and now as many children speak English| segregated on a remote island, the exequipped for passengers and cargo. Her longth as ever spoke Spanish. The schools have done separated and but-door life the rule. I visited between perpendiculars is 810 ft 6, breadth 38 more than anything else to instill modern a penal colony in Palawan where 500 men from fast, depth to spar dook 25 feet, gross tonnage idea. When they begun, children of good Bilibid, the largest prison in the world, in about 2300 tans. Her rig is that of sɛ two families came with servants bearing their Manile, live and work outdoo: Guards are masted fore and aft schooner and her propelling books. There is a university in Manila the trusty prisoners armed with nothing but mashinery consists of one set of triple expansion older than Harvard and from it select youth bolos, and one army officer with an "assistant engines. The steamer pressats a very hand- häve gradusted.. to reflect great credit; 'controls them all with no show of foros. The 'some appearanos.
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