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export, copra. During 1892 many acres were planted with cacao, with a view to export, and the prices obtained in 1898 were good. In 1897, 77 vessels of 81,736 tons (41,527 tons British, 31,729 tons American, and 1,266 tons German), excluding men-of-war and coasting vessels, entered the port of Apia. The mail steamers between Sydney, Auckland, and San Francisco call at Apia each way every four weeks, and the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand send two steamers monthly, one from Sydney and one from Auckland. New Zealand is reached in five days, Sydney in eight.

The Berlin Treaty made the American coinage the standard of exchange in Samoa, but English gold and silver are almost exclusively in circulation at the rate of 4.s'. to the dollar.

Consul and Deputy Commissioner. — P]rnest G. B. Maxse.

Books of Reference.

Blue Book for Samoa, 1895.

Foreign Office Annual Series. Report on the Trade of Samoa, lSft7.

Papers on Samoa, published by the United States Foreign Office.

Report of the Berlin Conference relating to Samoa. London, 1890.

Bastian (Adolf), Einiges aus Samoa und andern Inseln der Slidsee. 8. Berlin, 1889.

Churchward {\N. B.), My Consulate in Samoa. 8. London, 1887.

Finlaij's South Pacilic Dictionary.

Stair (J. B.), Old Samoa. London, 1897.

Stevenson (R. L.), A Footnote to History : Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa. 8. London, 1892. Vailima Letters. London, 1895.

Turner (Rev. G.), Nineteen Years in Polynesia. London, 1884. Samoa a Hundred Years Ago and Long Before. 8. London, 1894.

Wallace (A. R.), Australasia.

Williams (Rev. J.), Missionary Enterprise in the South Sea Islands.

SANTO DOMINGO.

(Republica Dominicana.) Constitution and Government.

The Republic of Santo Domingo, founded in 1844, is governed under a Con- stitution bearing date November 18, 1844, re-proclaimed, with changes, November 14, 1865 (after a revolution which expelled the troops of Spain, who held possession of the country for the two previous years), and again in 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1887. By the terms of the Constitution the legislative power of the Republic is vested in a National Congress of 22 deputies. The members are chosen by direct popular vote, with restricted suffrage, in the ratio of two for each province and two for each district, for the term of two years. But the powers of the National Congress only embrace the general affairs of the Republic.

The executive of the Republic is vested in a President chosen by an electoral college for the term of four years. During the past few years, according to the British Consular Reports, the country has been going on prosperously, and become comparatively quiet.

President of the Republic. — General Ulisses Heureaux, 1897-1900.

The administrative affairs of the Republic are in charge of a ministry appointed by the President. The Ministry is composed of the heads of the