Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/449

 COLONIES.

413

White

Coloured

Tree

Slaves

Total

323,032

2-19,900

42,642

292,542

The Philippine Islands contain an area of 52,647 English square miles, with a population, in 1864, of 2,679,500 souls, of whom about one-fourth slaves. The islands, more than 500 in number, are divided into 27 provinces, 13 of which are on the isle of Luzon, 4 on the isle of Negros, 3 on Panay, and 3 on the isle of Mindanao.

The estimated receipts and expenditure of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands for the year 1870 were stated as follows in the colonial budget laid before the Spanish Cortes in March 1870 : —

Cuba : — Receipts, 6,002,333/. ; expenditure, 5,203,557/. ; surplus, 798,776/.

Porto Rico : — Receipts, 667,824/. ; expenditure, 749,442/. ; deficit, 81,6 is/.

Philippine Islands: — Receipts, 2,451,918/.; expenditure, 2,475,009/.; deficit, 23,091/.

From Cuba Spain derives important commercial advantages, be- sides a direct revenue. The cultivated lands of Cuba under sugar," coffee, tobacco, and gardens, were estimated, in 1858, at 54,000 caballerias, or 1,728,000 acres. There were 1,238 sugar estates, employing 138,701 persons; 1,838 coffee plantations, with 114,760 persons; and 42,549 farms, with 393,993 persons, or a total, 647,454 agricultural labourers.

The following is a statement of the increase of production of Cuba within the fourteen years from 1846 to 1862 : — ■

Siigar

. arrobas

1846

1862

17,729,589

41,418,444

Coffee.

,,

1.17H.7.31

1.711,542

Tobacco.

. cargas

168,091

305,626

Indian corn

. fanegas

912,491

2,179,7-' I

Eice

. arrobas

929,858

1,747.171

Wax

• "

32,326

68,420

Cuba is divided into three provinces, the SE. and central being the richest and most populous, containing 22 cities and towns, and 204 villages and hamlets. The chief towns are Havana, Santiago, Matanzas, Santa Clara, Santa Maria, and Trinidad. The commercial prosperity of Cuba has been of late years rather on the decline, and an insurrection, which broke out September 1868, and was not subdued at the end of 1869, put an increased check upon industry.