NEW TARIFF RATES IN SALVADOR.

Consul Jenkins sends from San Salvador, under date of August 11, 1898, copy of a decree of President Gutierrez, affecting duties on imports into Salvador. The principal articles are as follows:

ARTICLE I.

The duties upon imports shall be paid in the following manner:

Twenty per cent United States gold coin.

Twelve per cent United States gold coin for corporations.

Six per cent in silver in bonds of the French debt.

ARTICLE II.

The following articles shall continue paying duties as at present:

Artificial flowers in cotton or other matter not specified.

Baggage is free up to the weight of 100 kilograms per person, when the effects are for personal use; exceeding that weight without invoice shall pay $3 per kilo

gram.

Barrel staves, arches, and twigs for barrels.

Beers.

Bran (fine) and superfine flour.

Bricks of earth or other material.

Bronze and copper for steeples of churches.

Brooms and brushes of straw and hemp of all classes.

Essences.

Food, comfits, and pastes, chocolates and other sweets.

Food, fruits preserved in spirits.

Food, sugared, of all classes.

Food in vinegar, sago, tapioca, and other paste goods, cocoa, sirups without alcohol, and nuts.

Food of wheat, oats, barley, and all other cereals not specified.

Ginger ale.

Hats, esparto grass, for ladies and children, of whatever other class not specified. Hats of junco or jipijapa.

Iron cradles, beds, cots, camp stools, sofas, and other articles of furniture.

Leather, dressed sheepskins, hides with hair, and fur robes.

Leather shoes and overshoes of whatever class not specified.

Leather soles for shoes, cowhides, and other leather not specified.

Leather in suspenders.

Leather visors for caps and the like.

Matches of all classes.

Materials for shawls and rebozos, plain, worked, or embroidered.

Pork lard, food and sauces, herring, cod and other fish not further prepared than dried, salted, or smoked.

Pumps, carts, wheelbarrows, pipes, beehives, wood for matches, and wheels for wagons and wheelbarrows, of 100 kilograms.

Silks in shawls and rebozos, plain, worked, or embroidered.

Smelling waters of any kind containing alcohol, such as Florida water or cologne, divina, kanga, lavender, and others of the same class.

Soap (common) without perfume.

Soda or potassium, caustic, for industrial purposes.

Spirits, strong or sweet, as cognac, absinthe, rum, gin, cordials, whisky, rosoli, and others not specified, up to 22° Castier, 59° centigrades, in barrels or other vessel of more than I pint. Spirits in ordinary bottles or more or less than I pint.

- Stearin in mass.

Stearin manufactured in candles and other forms.

Sirups of all classes without alcohol.

Tin plates manufactured in parts, for domestic or other uses.

Tobacco, in leaf.

Tobacco, manufactured into cigars or cigarettes.

Tobacco, in whatever other form not specified.

White or yellow wax.

Wood, embroidery frames, lasts for shoemakers, blocks for hats and wig makers. Wood for furniture of all classes, with or without marble.

ARTICLE III.

The payment of the five issues of the 10 per cent bonds payable by customs duties is hereby suspended.

The

This decree, Mr. Jenkins adds, takes effect on all goods coming into the Republic on and after the 1st day of October, 1898. reduction amounts to 22 per cent on the present rates.

TRADE OF URUGUAY DURING 1897.

Consul Swalm, of Montevideo, under date of July 13, 1898, has sent the Department of State a copy of the annual report of the British consul at Montevideo, Mr. Greenfell. The following extracts are taken from his report:

The total official value of the foreign commerce of the Republic for 1897 amounts to $49,492,305, of which $20,049,980 are imports, showing a balance of trade in favor of Uruguay.

Customs receipts for 1897 have fallen off seriously, amounting to $8,175,442, or $2,424,558 less than those for 1896.

Great Britain has a monopoly of the importation of hams, tea, sacking, felt hats, sheepskins, hoes, rakes, thrashing machines, sewing thread, iron and lead piping, coal, galvanized-iron roof plates, tin plates, soda, jute, iron safes, and gunpowder; and stands first in imports of cotton articles, linen goods, mixed woolen goods, straw hats, linen socks, cotton handkerchiefs, mixed woolen and cotton blankets, windmill machinery, sulphate of copper, spades, carpenters' tools, twine, varnish, iron bands, iron bars and plates, paint, china and porcelain ware, saddlery and harness.

Germany has a monopoly of the importation of pianos, salt and dried codfish; and stands first in imports of refined sugar, flannels, ready-made clothes, cotton and linen shirtings, cuffs and collars, woolen singlets, cotton socks, pure and mixed woolen cloaks, cotton coverlets, towels, napkins, sewing machines, wire fencing, starch, bluing, printing paper, merceries, and house furniture.

France has a monoply in kid skins and tiles, and stands first in woolen goods,

pure and mixed silk stuffs, boots and shoes, cotton singlets, silk neckties, kid gloves, umbrellas, carriage springs, drugs, and perfumery.

Belgium has a monopoly in scythes, iron beams and pillars, zinc plates, and sporting guns; and stands first in mixed linen goods, blankets, plate and lookingglass, table glass, window glass, Roman cement, white paper, and candles.

The United States has a monopoly in plows, pitchforks, and tar; and stands first in timber, reaping machines, binding twine, and axes; second in house furniture, third in sewing machines and sulphate of copper, and fifth in drugs and printing paper.

Mr. Swalm adds:

The trade of Germany, France, and the United States with Uruguay has greatly increased during the past year, largely at the expense of England. The cotton goods imported from the lastnamed country, especially, show a marked decrease in 1898. Germany has beaten her competitors in cotton and linen shirtings, putting a cheap article on the market. The sewing machines sent by Germany are imitations of American makes.

A copy of the same report has been received by the Department from Minister Finch, under date of Montevideo, June 30, 1898.

INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS IN HAITI.

The successful prosecution and final results of the late war with Spain have made a profound impression upon the more thoughtful element of the Haitian people. Europeans residing here have been endeavoring to persuade them to seek closer affiliations with the United States. But this advice, coming from quarters whose interest in Haiti is simply what they can get out of the country, does not appeal to the natives as strongly as it otherwise might, although the majority of the Haitians are intense partisans of the United States.

The industrial depression of Haiti has reached such a critical point that the country must soon become a prey to internal disruptions, or to the European government which may have the greatest claim upon it. The currency has become so depreciated as to be well-nigh worthless, and its daily fluctuations seem the result of caprice. Almost all business enterprises are either bankrupt or on the verge of bankruptcy. Business is at a stand-still, and no one, either native or foreigner, is able to see any way out of the difficulty. Such is the condition of a country with a soil the fertility of which probably surpasses that of any other in the world. Everything grows without effort. There are dyewoods and cabinet woods in abundance-even virgin forests of mahogany and other hard woodsand the mineral wealth, though unexplored, is said to be considerable.

I believe a tour of the island, with a view of making a thorough inquiry into its industrial condition, embracing the principal settlements of the interior as well as the cities along the coast, would reveal a field ripe for the investment of American capital. My suggestion would be to visit all the important coast towns, examine into business methods and conditions, and make inquiries of native and foreign business men and neighboring planters, both as to present conditions and future possibilities. I am told that the people of the interior are a simple and industrious peasantry, but are making no headway, owing to the absence of modern improved methods and implements.

I feel sure that such an investigation, if acted on in good faith, would result in immense good to the Island of Haiti, besides securing a field for American capital and commerce.

CAPE HAITIEN, August 20, 1898.

LEMUEL W. LIVINGSTON,

Consul.

As an indication of the trend of popular opinion, Mr. Livingston has inclosed a copy of Le Matin of August 11, a newspaper published at Port au Prince. The following extracts are translated from it:

To-day the United States is, in fact, the sovereign of the American continent, and its will has the force of law in matters wherein it judges it opportune to intervene.

We shall not further enlarge upon the inevitable lot of the neighboring islands and of all European possessions on the American continent. What will become of Haiti? The hour is decisive.

It is necessary for the Haitian people to say whether they are not ashamed of their deserted fields and of their cities infested with an undisciplined army, of an always increasing misery, and of civic effeminacy.

The interest of the United States is to prove that all the peoples of America can govern themselves, enrich themselves, perfect themselves, without the concurrence of Europe. Her interest is to see all the nations of the New World prosper around her-under her protecting wing, by the power of her capital, and under the inspiration of the new civilization which she is inaugurating. The American spirit will make of the coming generation a people of practical men, intelligent workers, citizens. This American spirit, practical and productive, will revolutionize all the branches of our administration

INDUSTRIAL AND

COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES

IN BRITISH COLUMBIA.

TELEGRAPH LINES.

One of the most important improvements in Victoria during the present year has been the extension of the wires of the Western Union Telegraph Company to this point. This line has been in operation since June 9, and has had the effect of cheapening rates and of securing prompt and satisfactory communication with the United States at all times. The Western Union Telegraph Company, being incorporated under the laws of the United States, has no right to operate in Canada, and consequently the line connecting with Port Angeles, Wash., is operated by a company known as the Great Northwestern Telegraph Company, connecting with the Western Union Telegraph Company.

The new line has a cable across Puget Sound, from Seattle to Port Townsend, thence by land to Port Angeles, thence a cable across the straits of Juan de Fuca to Albert Head, and thence by land to Victoria. The result has been of great advantage in communicating with the United States, especially to the great American. newspapers, which generally get the first news from the north and from the Orient at this point. Since this line was built, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company has also laid a cable from Victoria to Port Angeles direct, so that now Victoria has two telegraph lines direct to the United States. Each company has duplex machines, by which two messages can be sent and received on the same wire at the same time.

COAL INDUSTRY.

Work in the vast coal fields of Vancouver Island has progressed so rapidly during the past year, that an extension of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway has been necessitated to Oyster Bay, a point II miles distant from Nanaimo, on the eastern coast of the island. Extensive wharves are now being constructed there, to enable vessels to load with facility. A regular train averaging twelve cars, filled with coal, is loaded at Comox, shipped on a large ferryboat and transported to Vancouver daily. The shipments of coal during August from this island amounted to 75,700 tons, the largest quantity ever mined in the same time.

AGRICULTURE.

In general, the meetings recently held throughout British Columbia to establish a system of farmer's institutes were sparsely attended,