sieves, spanners, squares, standards, staples, steel, harrow teeth, tongs, vises, wedges, and wire.

J. Robertson & Co., in awls, bells (electric), bolts and nuts, braces, brass, tube, brushes, cement, chisels, copper (sheet), drills, files, forges, harrows, hooks, iron (corrugated), junctions, knives, locks, French wire nails, needles, netting, lard oil, piping, planes, rakes, saws, screws, sieves, slashers, staples, whiting, and wire.

Geo. Findlay & Co., in axes, barrows, bars, braces, brads, brooms, buckets, cells, drills, filters, grindstones, guttering, hammers, handles, harrows, hinges, hooks, indicator, iron (rod), levels, locks, nails, packing, picks, pipes, piping, pitch, planes, plows, punches, pushes, rakes, saws, scales, screw-drivers, screws, shoes, shovels, spades, spanners, spikes, squares, stocks and dies, switches, tar, trowels, varnish, and wire.

A. Cameron & Co., in brushes, canvas, fenders, mops and handles, rope, and blocks.

J. Flower & Son, in bars, brushes, buckets, candles, driers, feeders, forges, guttering, hammers, heads, jacks, junk, lead (sheet), lines, nails, oakum, pipes, ridging, screws, spanners, steel, tallow, tanks, and tar.

CAPE COLONY'S IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

Consul-General Stowe sends the following, dated Cape Town, July 23, 1898:

For the twelve months ended June 30, Cape Colony imported goods to the value of £16,988,088 ($82,672,530), and exported goods to the value of £23,652,822 ($115,106,458). From the imports, there should be deducted the goods entered for consumption in the Orange Free State, the value of which is not given; and goods entered at the custom-house for removal to states outside the union, the value returned being £4,014,500 ($19,536,564). Even with these reductions, the total imports for Cape Colony are high, as compared with former years.

The exports of colonial produce proper were £4,092,335 ($19,915,348); of diamonds, £4,514,061 ($22,467,678); of gold (from the Transvaal), £13,306,179 ($64,754,520). This last represents more than half of the total exports. It is also stated that the Transvaal does not get the £13,000,000 back again in goods, the difference representing the remittances of gold dividends to stockholders outside the country.

Imports, as compared with the corresponding period last year, fell off £1,331,603 ($6,480,246). Exports increased for same period £4,384,647 ($21,337,885), the gain being in gold. Exports of strictly

colonial (Cape) produce increased £326,585 ($1,589,326). In the twelve months ended June 30, 1897, the export of specie was £1,057,306 ($5,145,380), and in the twelve months ended June 30, 1898, £1,461,803 ($7,113,864). This is looked upon as a drain of specie, and is considered a bad sign.

The goods in bond in Cape Colony on the 30th day of June, 1898, were as follows:

In answer to a New York correspondent,* Consul-General Stowe writes on August 10, 1898, that no roofing slates are imported into South Africa from the United States, although more than a million were imported last year from the United Kingdom, and thirty-two odd thousand from Belgium, the demand for them being on the increase. He gives it as his opinion that they are inferior in quality to many of those used in the United States.

TOBACCO.

In reply to a letter from a tobacco firm in Virginia, the ConsulGeneral, under date of August 13, 1898, writes:*

No record has been kept, since 1892, of the tobacco manufactured in South Africa. In that year, 677,222 pounds of smoking and chewing tobacco and snuff were manufactured, and 4,854,500 cigars.

In 1895-96, the Government of Cape Colony spent $7,610 to assist in the production of tobacco.

The total exports of tobacco for 1897 were valued at $37,540. Less than $200 worth was unmanufactured.

The tobacco raised in South Africa is not of such flavor as to please American and English and perhaps German smokers.

The total value of imports for 1897 were: Manufactured, $354,631.82; unmanufactured, $60,979.86. In addition to this, cigars

* Letter mailed to correspondent September 19, 1898.

and cigarettes were imported from all countries to the number of 106,824,556. The United States furnished 59,282,065, principally cigarettes. A large number of Mexican cigars is imported through English houses.

Large quantities of Transvaal and colonial grown tobacco are consumed yearly. The manufactured tobacco is protected by a duty of $1.46 per pound, to which is added the further duty of 9 per cent ad valorem on cigars and 97 cents per pound on cigarettes. The duty on raw material is:

Manufactured and cut....

Manufactured but uncut.........................

Not manufactured but stemmed....

Not manufactured and unstemmed leaf..........

Cents.

..per pound... 85 ..do...... 73

...do...... 60

...do...... 48

FREIGHT RATES.

Consul-General Stowe sends from Cape Town, July 22, the following recommendations made by the South African Merchants' Committee upon the subject of freight rates to South Africa:

(1) That in view of the severe competition owing to the reduction in rates of freight from America to South Africa, which of necessity should tend to a reduction in rates of freight from the United Kingdom to South Africa, the urgency of a supply of cargo steamers from the United Kingdom to South Africa of a much less expensive class than the present intermediate steamers, at lower rates for sea freight, is such that the committee press on the steam lines the necessity of some arrangement being immediately made with a view to supplying this urgent want.

(2a) That the steam lines having on April 14 advised the Merchants' Committee that arrangements had been made with the German-Australian line in respect of Cape Colony ports similar to that existing with the German-East African line with respect to the ports of Natal and Delagoa Bay, the committee assumes that shipments by the German-Australian line will not prejudice the claims of merchants to commission on their shipments made from the United Kingdom or the Continent; (26) that a quantity of cargo was booked and presumably carried in the Meissen, sailing from Hamburg on the 22d of January and from Antwerp on the 29th, at the low rate of 5s. per ton; (2) that contracts had been made by the German-Australian line extending over three years at the very least, one contract with the option of the same being prolonged for four years; (2d) that arrangements had subsequently been made between the steam lines and the German-Australian line; (2e) and that therefore, by virtue of the compact of March 9, 1893, the committee calls upon the steam lines to refund to those to whom the same may be due such differences in the rates of freight or such remuneration as may have been paid, in order to arrive at the same arrangement as that between the steam lines and the German-Australian lines.

(3) That the steam lines be asked whether an arrangement had been made with the French lines of steamers; and if so, whether the same is similar to that with the German-East African line and for the German-Australian line, in relation to shipments of goods by the French line of steamers both outward and homeward.

SHIPPING OF AMERICAN FREIGHT.

Under date of July 30, 1898, Consul-General Stowe, of Cape Town, says:

The following statement shows the number and tonnage of steam and sailing vessels, which freighted goods from the United States to ports in South Africa for the year ended December 31, 1897.

The tonnage shown is the "registered tonnage" and not the weight of the cargo, which far exceeds the registered tonnage, perhaps by as much as 50 per cent.

During the year 1897 American vessels entered the ports of South Africa as follows, some of which only touched at these ports for supplies:

Here again the "registered tonnage" and the weight of cargo must be taken into consideration.

From the Pacific ports of the United States alone, the following vessels entered the ports of South Africa, principally with cargoes

From the ports of the United States, wheat alone was imported into South African ports to the amount of 186,237,801 pounds, of which 126,948,995 pounds came from the Pacific ports and around. Cape Horn. I speak of this merely to show what the foreign market of this country-constantly increasing is worth to the farmers of the United States, and the value of a merchant marine to our manufacturers and producers. These figures show that nearly all the freight on this very large tonnage went into the pockets of owners of foreign. bottoms, and all collateral charges for collecting, exchange, etc., have gone to the credit of foreign bankers.

AGRICULTURE IN NATAL.

Consul-General Stowe writes from Cape Town, June 21, 1898: