cirubra tree, from the bark of which the cinchona febrifuge is manufactured, and the calisaya, which produces the sulphate of quinine; these and other varieties have found a most favorable climate in some of the mountain districts of Hindostan, on an elevation of 4,000 to 6,000 feet above the sea, under a mean temperature of about 70°, with a minimum of 40° and a maximum of 94°, and abundant moisture.

In the Government hospitals and dispensaries febrifuge has been largely substituted for quinine with very good success, and with a sav ing of money, which, together with the profits of exported cinchona products, has already reimbursed the Government for more than half the entire capital expended on the plantation.

THE NEWSPAPER PRESS.

The press of India consists of 103 newspapers, periodicals, and journals. Of these 60 are in the English language and the remainder in the different native languages spoken in the country, and printed in the Sanscrit, Arabic, Bengali, and other Asiatic characters. În the English papers, especially the dailies, an unusually large space is devoted to official notices, movements of military and civil-service officers, and laudatory articles concerning high officials, while the commercial and industrial interests of the country and the interests of private individuals receive but very slight attention. The price of newspapers is very high compared to the United States, and not within the reach of the poorer classes, but each copy of the paper is read and reread by a large number of individuals, and often goes in loan from house to house and village to village until it is entirely worn out.

H. MATTSON,
Consul-General.

CONSULATE-GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Calcutta, January 27, 1883.

CEYLON.

Report by Consul Morey on the commerce of Ceylon for the fiscal year 1883.

The close of the fiscal year to June 30, 1883, in Ceylon marks the retirement of Governor Longden after a six-years' régime distinguished by great success under serious embarrassment, caused by occurrences anterior to his time, which I have commented upon in previous reports. and therefore need not repeat here. Suffice it therefore to say that under his able and prudent management, the most has been made of a failing revenue in developing reproductive and highly necessary works: and the public credit has been so preserved that, notwithstanding the prevalence of a notorious depression in private finance, owing mostly to the partial collapse of the coffee industry, the island could probably now, if needful, obtain a large loan in Europe, and even locally on surprisingly easy terms. It is true his wise economy has afforded small satisfaction to those of his countrymen here whose habits and proclivities were unduly warped by the lavishness of other days; and unfortu nately there are too many of that ilk in the country; hence the adverse criticism of some newspaper men, who must, I presume, write to suit their customers, and who, perhaps, themselves have private resentments to gratify. However, the wild howl they set up when the good

man departed for England fell flat upon the ears of honest-minded men, and their verbose, blatant criticisms were properly regarded as would be the baying of little dogs at the moon, for no amount of baid assertion to the contrary can hide the fact that under the late gov ernor's carefully just administration all classes but one, viz, the estate coolies, have steadily improved, especially the rural Cingalese, whose comparatively comfortable circumstances in these so called hard times contrast very favorably with their starving condition between the years 1873 and 1876, when, notwithstanding the marvelous abundance of money in the hands of the favored classes, many of the Cingalese agriculturists, within thirty miles of Colombo even, were famishing.

The European element, too, though grumbling and sore-headed, have been steadily rectifying past mistakes, and by introducing a variety of new products and adopting better modes of cultivation have succeeded largely in laying the foundations for future prosperity.

FINANCE AND CREDIT.

Opinions differ as to which is the best state of finance, viz, that where much money is to be borrowed at a high discount on inflated security and large interest allowed on deposits, or where a lower rate of interest prevails and only reasonable loans are legitimately granted; and my sympathy being with the latter condition, I conclude that the island has improved financially during the year under report, and that money here for sound investment is plentiful enough. It is true, many coffee estates and lands held by Europeans for predial purposes, besides much city and some rural property belonging to the natives, are mortgaged beyond their value; nevertheless, the former are being rapidly improved by cultivation, and that renewed prosperity which will no doubt come with time may be expected to work a balance in favor of the latter.

AGRICULTURE.

The agricultural prospect is decidedly improving, and worn-out coffee, besides new, land is being rapidly converted into cinchona, tea, cocoa, cardamom, and pepper plantations. The quantity and value of coffee exported in 1882 was 464,703 cwts., worth $9,000,000, against 436,991 ewts. in 1881, worth $10,686,631; the apparent anomaly of the smaller. quantity in the previous year being worth more than the larger crop of 1882 being accounted for by the reduced market value abroad of coffee during the latter year. There was an appreciable increase in the quantities and value of other old staples, such as cinnamon, coir, and cocoanat oil, while the enhancement in the new products was very great indeed; and equivalent to, in cardamoms, 20 per cent.; cinchona, 300 per cent.; cocoa, 300 per cent.; tea, 200 per cent.

Formerly, Europeans considered that they could not grow anything profitably in Ceylon except coffee; but now they are attending to, not only new introductions, but to indigenous products, such as pepper and nutmegs; and the natives, mostly Cingalese, are taking enough interest in improved modes and varieties of cultivation to prompt the organization of an agricultural society composed of strictly the native element, which, when it has passed the mutual admiration phase of existence, will doubtless do much towards promoting agricultural interests, especially, it is to be hoped, in the direction of effecting more economical sales abroad; as, apparently, the handling of eastern products in the western markets, at present, is far from satisfactory, since by a

system of multitudinous charges, mostly excessive, every intermediate handler of the goods gets more profit out of them than the actual producer.

It is gratifying to observe, too, that the quality of Ceylon products is being preserved and improved, so that their quoted value abroad generally, nearly or quite, tops the market reports. This has long been the case with coffee Arabica, and now the newly cultivated Liberian berry finds so much favor in the United States that we hear of sales being effected at 184 cents per pound, wholesale, in New York, where I suspect most of that variety grown here will be sent hereafter.

MANUFACTURES.

There is no advance in manufactures, even the weaving of a few cotton fabrics, such as towels, table-cloths, counterpanes, and handker chiefs formerly carried on at Jaffna and Batticaloa to some extent, having now almost entirely ceased. Some jewelry is made, and the specialties in that line, though few, are noticeable, such as the gold and silver filigree work of Jaffna, and the Ratnapura solid silver work, intricately carved by hand. The tortoise-shell ornaments are also very beautiful, likewise the hand-carved ornamentation in ivory and ebony and other hard woods. Some rough pottery is made for domestic use, but the quality is very poor indeed, and the value marvelously small; a little lace is made by hand in the villages, and hawked about the streets of the towns, among tourist visitors; likewise some very substantial palm-leaf hats, well suited to the wants of rural Americans. Household furniture, good, bad, and indifferent, some positively elegant, is produced in quantities so far exceeding the demand as to render it al ways cheap and abundant.

Formerly a few tools were made from the excellent iron ore in the interior, smelted by charcoal; but we seldom see such articles now, those implements having been supplanted and rendered cheap by over-abun dant supplies from Birmingham of a quality "almost too poor for any thing."

Carriage-building is largely practiced, mostly by Portuguese creoles and the Cingalese, some of the vehicles being very good and not easily distinguishable, except by adepts, from those occasionally imported from England. In most cases, however, they are "fearfully and wonderfully made," and of such excessive weight and on such small octagonal wheels as renders them so cruelly burdensome to the horses that those poor creatures seldom outlast three or four years' service, notwithstanding the level character and excellent smooth condition of the roads. Harness is also made by the same class of people who build carriages. As a rule, however, the work is poorly conceived and badly done. Accordingly, much of that article is imported from England, some especially on private account, and very good, the balance mere rubbish.

Much coopering of a coarse, strong character is done, both for domes tic use and in making packages to contain the coffee, oil, arrack, plumbago, &c., forming the bulk of exports, and as about 90,000 tons of those articles alone are shipped annually, some idea of the magnitude of the cooperage industry is from that fact deducible.

MINES.

The iron mines are now almost completely neglected; but plumbago continues to be dug up in slightly increasing quantities, and the quality

is fully maintained. The total output of the mines in 1882 was 13,200 tons, worth in currency here $1,302,330, or gold, $1,041,000; 6,000 tons, valued at $318,385, gold, went to the United States, and the moiety of the balance to Great Britain. The quantity sent to America in 1881 was 8,013 tons, valued in United States gold at $641,000, an indication, on comparison with the figures of 1882, of failing consumption in that direction and a demand for inferior qualities, which is quite a new phase with respect to our consumption of this article.

I estimate the value of precious stones obtained in 1882 at $1,500,000, against nearly $3,000,000 in the previous year, a falling off of about one-half in value, owing, I think, to deficiency in quality and want of sufficient capital among the gemming community for the carrying on of their operations so largely as formerly.

It appears also that some of the gems sent abroad in 1881 were considerably overrated, and that many of them, being found unsalable in Europe at their locally appraised worth, were either parted with at reduced prices or returned to the exporters. Accordingly there was in 1882 a considerable quantity of returned stones (not of the best quality) in the Ceylon market, the real value of which was so much locked-up capital to the owners, whose greed for high prices resulted in greatly diminished sales and a consequent scarcity of ready money in the in dustry.

As mentioned in my previous reports, almost none of these stones appear in the list of exports, consequent to their being sent through the parcel-post, and none of them go to America, owing to the import duty there, which must always largely militate against their introduction. Besides, there is no parcel-post direct from Ceylon to America, and the Postal Union rules disallow the transmission of dutiable articles through ordinary mails.

FISHERIES.

There has been no improvement in the value and importance of the fisheries, and the pearling monopoly, owing to the immature age of the oysters, yielded nothing to the Government.

COMMERCE.

The commerce, as tabulated in accompanying forms shows both a slight increase in the total tonnage arriving and departing and in the amount of goods carried by them, the figures being tonnage of shipping inward, 1,693,393 tons, with cargo aggregating 378,535 tons, and outward shipping, 1,588,925 tons, with cargo aggregating 105,714 tons. The wide difference between the tonnage of craft and cargo being, as I have remarked in a previous report, owing to most of the shipping being steamers en route to and from other ports, and merely calling at Ceylon for passengers or coal, or to land and ship portions of their cargoes.

As will be seen by the table aforesaid, the flags of about all the western nations were represented in this commerce, that of Great Britain and her colonies largely preponderating. The United States contributed four sailing vessels, aggregating 3,249 tons, three of which, aggregating 2,000, loaded for New York, a most unprecedented occurrence in our commercial annals.

TRADE WITH THE UNITED STATES.

There were no imports direct from America in the calendar year 1882, accordingly none appear in the tabulated reports herewith, which are

necessarily made out for that period. During the fiscal year to June 30, 1883, however, now under report, the bark Chattanooga arrived from New York direct with 12,000 cases of kerosene oil for Colombo, and the balance of her cargo for the Malabar coast, which event marks another new departure in our commercial routine, and as the venture of an enter prising American, as well as from ordinary considerations, will, it is to be hoped, prove sufficiently remunerative to encourage more extended efforts in this direction.

Though there were no recorded imports from our country in 1882, at least $125,000 worth of sundry products are traceable to the United States; and the amount is probably fully $150,000. Even the latter sum, however, is considerably less than in 1881, when the influx of American goods here was exceptionally large.

The principal item of these imports is kerosene, $57,300, and the next. largest tobacco, $39,600, the balance consisting of naval stores, salt beef and pork, clocks, cotton drills, plated ware, canned meats and fruits, the latter especially having found sufficient favor here to nearly supersede the importation of British pie fruits in bottles.

The exports to America were of the declared value of $767,821, gold, being a trifle less than in 1881. They are fully set forth in the inclosed form No. 130, and plumbago and cocoanut oil are the principal items.

A novel feature in this trade is the increased shipments from Galle, which, from an insignificant amount in former years, now reach the sum of $65,643, and are increasing monthly, a circumstance owing mostly, I think, to the fact that Galle, having lost most of its coaling and transit trade through Colombo having become the mail port, the people there possessing large establishments have been forced to resort to aud culti vate a more legitimate local commerce to keep up their revenues.

AGGREGATE TRADE.

The total of imports and exports from and to all countries is fully set forth in inclosed forms Nos. 127 and 128; it amounts in value to inward $23,311,815, and outward to $18,192,718,* and Tables A and B, also inclosed, show the quantities and values from and to different countries.

REVENUE AND DEBT.

The revenue was 12,161,570 rupees, and the expenditure 12,494,664 rupees. The total public debt is about $10,875,000, half of which is substantially on account of railroad extensions, which I fear cannot pay more than a moderate rate of interest upon so large a sum, the repayment or recouping of the cost of construction being therefore a problem, the solving of which may perplex future administrators.

POPULATION AND LABOR.

The population, according to an estimate of the registrar general, to the 30th June, 1883, was 2,768,154; of whom 3,259, say 2,180 males and 1,071 females, exclusive of the military, are Europeans. This is a proportion, to my mind, considerably beyond the real capacity of the

*As a matter of fact, however, the exports nearly equal the imports, as though $1,749,753 for coals and coke are recorded as imported, no account is taken in the list of exports of at least $1,000,000 worth of same which is sold and delivered on board steamers. About $2,000,000 in specie is also taken privately to India by native dealers, and there will be another $1,000,000 for precious stones, in all $4,000,000 to be added to the $18,192,718 appearing in the customs accounts; total, $22,192,178.