estimates, the trade of India would be more than double the values above given.

COMMERCE OF THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

The figures for the trade with the Philippines, also taken from the Statistical Abstract, include other Spanish possessions in Oceanica:

According to the New South Wales Statistical Register for 1897, the trade for the last five years has been as follows:

In the exports for 1897, domestic produce and manufactures figured for $175,272; foreign produce, for $1,586.

COMMERCE OF VICTORIA.

The Statistical Abstract for the Colonies has the following:

COMMERCE OF UNITED STATES.

The following figures are taken from the Monthly Summary of Finance and Commerce, April, 1898, Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department:

The trade of the United States with Spanish Oceanica, given in

COMMERCE VIA HONGKONG.

Besides the direct trade with the Philippine Islands, a large number of articles passes via Hongkong and is credited to that port. Hongkong being a free port, no special statistics as to the extent or value of its trade are compiled. The official returns of the countries

named show imports and exports in 1897 as follows:

The German, French, and Spanish statistics do not mention Hongkong; but it will be seen that the trade of the other countries is very considerable, and, as the local consumption of the port is comparatively small, almost all the merchandise is transshipped. In Commercial Relations, 1894-95 (Vol. I, p. 90), an estimate of the total trade of Hongkong for the year 1893-94 is made, which covers all the countries above mentioned with the exception of New South Wales and Victoria, and which approximates the trade of "all other countries" at $30,000,000 in imports from Hongkong and at $25,000,ooo in exports to Hongkong. The Statesman's Year Book, 1898, says that of the total imports into the Philippines, about 21 per cent comes from Hongkong and Amoy. Assuming that the trade of Hongkong with "all other countries" had the same value in 1897 as in the fiscal year 1893-94 (it is probable that it increased), the importance of this addition to the trade of the Philippines is obvious.

IMPORTS OF SHOES INTO THE PHILIPPINES.

The latest customs statistics of the Philippines show that the imports of foot wear for the year 1894 amounted to 183,475 piasters* ($94,306).

* Mexican currency being used in the Philippines, the "piaster" in this report probably means the Mexican dollar. The reductions have been made on this basis, the average value for 1894, according to Treasury estimates, being 51.4 cents.

The following table shows the different kinds and value of such imports; also the participation of the several countries in the trade:

From the above table it will be seen that the United States does not figure in the boot and shoe trade of the Philippine Islands. Spain, protected by laws that discriminate against all foreign products, has furnished nearly all the boots and shoes disposed of in the archipelago. The United States being the largest manufacturer of boots and shoes, our manufacturers should prepare for trade with the Philippines.

LIEGE, July 5, 1898.

HENRY W. GILBERT,

Consul.

THE CAROLINE ISLANDS.

Consul Doty, of Tahiti, under date of July 8, 1898, sends a communication from Mr. F. W. Christian, of the Polynesian Society of Wellington, New Zealand, a well-known explorer in the central Pacific. The letter contains an interesting description of the Caroline Archipelago and is given as follows:

Spanish Micronesia, according to the treaty made with Germany in 1885, lies between the equatorial line to the south and the eleventh northern parallel and the meridians 139° 12′ 24′′ and 170° 12′ 24′′ eastern longitude. Six hundred and fiftytwo islands lie scattered over this wide stretch of sea. The Spanish do not place the Mariannes (Ladrone Islands) in Micronesia; the large southernmost island, Guam or Guajan, lies some 550 miles to the north of Lamotrek. The Caroline Archipelago consists of thirty-six minor groups, of which the nine following are the principal: The Palaos or Pelews, Yap, Uluthi, Uleai, Namonuito, Hogolen or Ruk, the East and West Mortlocks, Bonabe or Ponapé, and Kusaie, otherwise called Ualan or Strong's Island. We will take them one by one, following the order from west to east.

more.

The Pelew group contains some two hundred islands and islets. The principal island is Bab-el-Thaob, which in area is equal to all the rest put together. The most important of the rest are Korror, Uruk-Tapel, Malk, Peleleu, and Angaur. The population of the Pelews is estimated at some 3,000, but is probably much The language is a very peculiar and bizarre Malayan dialect, somewhat akin to that of the Sulu Archipelago. The principal products are turtle-shell, copra, and bèche de mer (Holothuria), which in the Chinese markets brings as much as $400 gold per ton. There is always civil war going on in the group between the various tribes, and a firm hand is needed to keep things in order here. Captain Butran, of the Velasco (lately sunk at Manila), who visited the group in 1885, gives these natives a good name. Captain O'Keefe, however, a wealthy trader of Yap, gives them a doubtful reputation, putting them down as a folk of piratical and turbulent character. The enormous quartz wheels, the famous and curious stone money of Yap in this group, were quarried in the Island of Kokial. In olden time there was great commercial activity here, and the Yap and Pelew folk went on extended voyages of trading and conquest. Bab-el-Thaob is rich in good timber. Great quantities of yams, breadfruit, and cocoanuts are grown. Alligators are found in some of the creeks, and a peculiar kind of horned frog. There are two kinds of snakes, which the natives call Bersoiok and Nguus, both somewhat venomous. There is abundance of good pasture for horses and cattle. Goats are plentiful, probably introduced by the early Malayan settlers. The Spanish have done next to nothing to show their occupation, and everything goes on much as before. There is no Spanish garrison. The country is well worth opening up to honest and energetic trade. All that is needed here is a little firmness with the petty local rajahs, as with their cousins of British North Borneo and the Dyaks, whom they much resemble. A fringing reef 53 miles long from north to south surrounds the Pelews—a menace to navigators which has destroyed many a Macao-bound vessel. Some 300 miles northeast of Pelews are Yap and the other islets of the group, of which Ramung to the north (resident trader, Captain Brugmann), and Tarrang to the south (resident trader, Captain O'Keefe), and Engnoch (resident trader, E. Oppenheim-Girard, of the Jaluit Gesellschaft) are the principal. Yap is surrounded by a coral reef 35 miles long by 5 broad. There are hardly any rivulets,