customs duties, revenue duties for consumption, and others, is equal to more than 800 francs ($154.40) per ton. Second class.-Manufactured products of value less than 800 francs a ton, building materials, agricultural products, raw metals, tarpaulins, grease and tallow, fancy crockery ware, shingles, marbles, bitumen, charcoal, hops, salt, mineral waters. Third class.-Rough building materials, combustibles, raw materials in general, and especially tiles and brick, lime, cement and plaster, paving stones, sand, raw wood, coal, coke, minerals, straws, hay, manure, wheat and cereals, maize and rice. For exports from Tamatave or from any other point, the classification is as follows: First class.-Cloth and textures of all kinds, in piece or made up; clothing and shoes, liquids, waters, iron and wooden furniture, arms and ammunition, etc. Second class.-Willow ware, haberdashery, all the products manufactured in the country, salt, raw alcohol, dry vegetables, raffia, etc. Third class.-Cottons; all agricultural products, including poultry, fresh and preserved fruits; tiles and brick, lime, cement, plaster, coal, coke, hay and straw, horsehair, etc. . STEAMSHIP COMMUNICATION WITH RIO DE JANEIRO. Consul-General Seeger sends from Rio de Janeiro, under date of September 16, 1898, the following list of steamship lines calling at Rio, together with port charges and regulations: The above companies, says Mr. Seeger, do not issue freight lists, owing to the continual changes in rates. He continues: The steamship lines from and to the United States have formed a combination and adopted a uniform schedule of freight for the transportation of coffee from Santos and Rio to the United States. Until recently, they charged 40 cents per bag of 60 kilograms (132 pounds); then they reduced the rate to 15 cents, and for the last two weeks the rate has been 10 cents. PORT CHARGES. Light dues, 100 milreis, or £11 5s. ($54.74) in gold; hospital dues, 1.920 milreis (26 cents) for each man of the crew, including officers, and also 18 milreis ($2.70) for each vessel; pass fees, 9.800 milreis ($1.39); stamp duty on freight (outwards), 4 per cent and 10 per cent. The charges, except light dues, are in paper currency. The paper milreis is now worth about 15 cents in United States currency. PORT REGULATIONS. A vessel entering has to wait at the free port for the visit of health and customs officials, who examine bills of health issued by the Brazilian consuls abroad and receive consular manifests and all other papers relating to the ship's cargo. When all is found in order, the captain is allowed to proceed to the final anchorage, where the discharge can begin as soon as all the custom-house papers are complete. Steamers belonging to regular lines and enjoying packet privileges can begin discharging and loading as soon as the inspectors have found the ship's papers in order, and need not wait until the customs papers are ready. In winter (from April to November), vessels are allowed to discharge and load alongside the wharves and warehouses. General cargo is almost always discharged into lighters and thence into the custom-house or warehouses, called "trapiches." Bulk articles are discharged on shore direct in winter. Coffee is received into lighters and transported to the vessels. STREET RAILWAYS IN GOTHENBURG. In March, 1897, the city council appointed a committee to collect information, etc., in the matter of the projected electric tramways in Gothenburg. The committee has now made a report recommending that the city should build an electric-power station and four electric tramway lines, overhead construction, the lines to be used by the present tramway company, on payment to the city of certain dues and a certain percentage of the profit; the company to provide the rolling material. The street railways will thus be used by the company for twenty years after they are finished, when the city will purchase the rolling stock and undertake the management of the tramways. The Gothenburg Tramways Company, which now uses horsepower, has been granted a concession up to 1917; hence the above proposition is intended to be a compromise between the city and the company. Two other persons have asked for concessions to build electric tramways here; but the city has refused, on the supposition that it can make a satisfactory contract with the Gothenburg Tramways Company. For several reasons, the committee has come to the conclusion that electricity is the best motive power for tramways, and that the overhead transmission system is the best. Siemens & Halske, of Berlin, have furnished the committee an estimate, from which it appears that the total cost of construction (value of sites for the buildings not counted and value of the old tramways deducted) will amount to about 1,870,000 kronor ($501,160), of which the city's share would be 1,278,000 kronor ($342,504). This last sum includes the cost of the power plant-360,000 kronor ($96,480)-with cost of wire and tracks. It is estimated that the yearly running expenses will be 296,000 kronor ($79,328), whereof the city's share will be 89,000 kronor ($23,852). The yearly expenses to be paid by the city on account of the electric tramways will be: Sinking fund, interest, and installments on the loan, 64,000 kronor ($17,152); running expenses, as above stated, 89, 000 kronor; or altogether 153,000 kronor ($41.004). According to the proposed contract, the company will pay yearly to the city 8 per cent of the cost of construction of the roads (the power plant excluded), or 72,000 kronor ($19,296); and certain dues. per kilowatts, amounting per year to 86,010 kronor ($23,051); or altogether 158,010 kronor ($42,347). If the gross receipts of the company any one year exceed 400,000 kronor ($107,200), the company must pay the city 12 per cent of the excess. The city has reserved rights to arrange cheap trips for working people before 8 o'clock in the morning and has stipulated that passengers who have paid regular fare on one tramway line may continue on another by paying half fare in addition to the sum first paid. The work shall begin in May, 1899, and two of the lines must be finished before November, 1899, and the rest ready for traffic by September, 1900. The cost of construction of the railways, with a length of 12,205 meters (13,347 yards), of which 11,925 meters (13,041 yards) is in double tracks, is calculated as follows: 98,000 $23,324 5,735 Residence for managers, etc...... Well and pipes for water supply and store- Boilers and machinery (3 tubular boilers of 204 ......... with 16 seats and room for 14 standing passengers, and with 2 motors of 20 horsepower; 21 trail cars, whereof 10 closed and 11 open, each with room for 30 to 32 passengers)........ Tracks (24,130 meters of tracks, with rails weighing 92.51 kilograms-201.74 pounds-per meter, and stone pavement in the neighborhood of the Special arrangements: Movable crane and working machinery in the repair shop..... The total is 2,077,707 marks ($494,494), value of the sites for the buildings not counted. ROBERT S. S. BERGH, GOTHENBURG, September 26, 1898. Consul. IRON MINING AND WAGES IN SWEDEN. The first work which enables the Swedes to produce a bar of steel from what was originally a piece of gritty black mineral is that of boring suitable holes (usually 22 millimeters* wide) for the reception of the dynamite charge, generally exploded by means of a slow *0.86 inch. burning fuse. In special cases, where the ground does not permit of sufficiently rapid escape from danger, electricity is employed. The place where the holes are to be bored is marked by the "Skoutare," whose duty it also is to light or direct the lighting of the fuses, and who is paid so many "öre" for every ton of mineral raised to the surface from his particular mine. In addition, he earns a fixed wage, equivalent to about $390 per annum; though many earn more than this. It is impossible to state the exact earnings of the ordinary miner, as the amount is dependent on the capacity, strength, and power of endurance of each individual, and is also modified by a number of minor matters. On an average, however, the Swedish miner gets about $200 per annum. At the principal mines, all the boring is at present carried on by hand, with steel rods of varying lengths, which are pounded on top with a steel-headed hammer. The men earn from 3 öre (0.8 cent) per ton upwards, or are paid per meter bored. In special cases, where the "bore hole" is over 2 meters in depth, two men are employed at a time. Where boring has to be carried on sideways (bröstbor), as, for instance, in a tunnel which runs horizontally or on a slope, the remuneration is half as much again. This increase in pay is due to the more fatiguing position and to the fact that no water can be used to facilitate the work, as is the case with direct vertical boring. Where boring has to be made upwards, the ordinary wage is doubled. An interesting detail may here be mentioned, viz, that the smiths who have to daily sharpen the boring tools (the miners' private property) are paid, not by the number of tools sharpened, but by the number of meters bored by the miners whose implements they have sharpened during the month. The inducement to the smith to do his best is obvious, for the sharper the tools, the better the work done by the man and the higher the smith's pay. The amount of mixed ore and rock loosened by each kilogram (2.2046 pounds) of dynamite used averages 12 tons, each ton representing an average of 3.74 meters (say, 12.3 feet) bored. The detached pieces are reduced by hammers to sizes that will admit of their being readily handled. MINERS' LIFE AND DWELLINGS. The miners generally live in the small villages that are in the neighborhood of the mines. They go home at the end of every week. Saturday's work is shortened by two hours and Sunday is a day of rest. The average working time is eleven hours and thirty minutes per diem. |