Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/905

 TON KING 549

one deputy. The total population in 1S97 was estimated at 2,034,453 con- sisting chielly of Annaniites, but including Cambodians, Chinese (89,000), Malays, and Malaharians. The French population is 4,335 ; Asiatic immigrants in 1894, 15,645; departures, 11,958. There were 232 schools, with 115 European and 1,183 native teachers, and 28,000 puitils. The Catholic l)opulation numbered 73,234 and the Buddhists, 1,688,270. There were 1,217 French troops, and about 2,400 Annamite soldiers. Of the total area ai)out one-sixth (or 1,396,583 hectares) is cultivated. The chief crop is rice — 8,281,300 piculs in 1896, exjiorted mostly to Cliina, Java, and Europe. Cotton, silk, hides, fish, pepper, coi)ra arc also articles of expoil. Imports of merchandise in 1896, 2,233, 130/., chioily tissues, metals, metal imj)lements. wines, &c. Exports in 1896, 3,644,700/. ; in 1897, 3,900,050/. The chief cxjiorts are rice (1897), 10,086,700 ])iculs, or 593,000 tons, valued at 2,701,840/. ; fish, 377,650/. ; salt, 250,000/. ; cotton, 170,000/. ; silk, 97,760/. ; hides, isinglass, pepper, cardamoms. At Saigon in 1897, 323 vessels of 414,190 tons cleared, or, including the Messagerie vessels, 497 of of 660,920 tons. Of the total, 124 of 185,568 tons were British. There arc in the colony 51 miles of railway (Saigon to Mytho), and 2,276 miles of telegraph line with 3,840 miles of wire and 85 telegraph oflices. Telegrams (1896) 321,536. There are 79 post offices. At Saigon there are 5 banks or bank-agencies. In the local budget of 1898 the annual revenue and ex- penditure balanced at 13,940,000 piastres. Expenditure of France (budget 1899) 33,505 francs.

TONKING.

This territoiy, annexed to France in 1884, has an area of 34,740 sfjuare miles, and is divided into fourteen provinces, with 8,000 villages and a })opu- lation estimated at 9,000,000. There are 400,000 Roman Catholics. The King of Annam was formerly represented in Tonking by a viceroy, but, in July, 1897, he consented to the suppression of the viceroyalty and the creation of a French residency in its place. Chief town Hanoi, an agglom- eration of many villages, with a population of 150,000. Including the Laos region formerly claimed by Siam, but annexed by France in 1893, the total area is about 135,000 square miles, and the population is estimated at 12,000,000. There were 18, 555 troops in 1892, including 6,500 native soldiers. The chief crop is rice, exported mostly to IIong-Kong. Other products are sugar-cane, silk tree, cotton, various fruit trees, and tol)acco. There are cop]>er and iron mines of good quality. French companies work coal mines at llongay, near Haiphong, and at Kebao. The chief industries are silk, cotton, sugar, pepper, and oils. Chief imports are metals and metal tools and machinery, yarn and tissues, beverages ; chief exports rice and animal ]iroducts. The transit trade to and from Yunnan amounts to about 5,000,000 and 3,200,000 francs respectively. In 1896 there entered 1,407 vessels of 461,454 tons. The IMiulang-Tliuong-Langson railway is 64 miles long ; it is proposed to extend it to Nac-ham on the Chinese frontier. In AniKini and Tonking in 1896 there were 79 post o dices.

The Laos territory, under French protectorate since 1893, is estimated to contain from 90,000 to 110,000 square miles, and about 270,000 inhabitants. The soil is fertile, j)rodu<'ing rice, cotton, tobacco and fruits, and bearing teak forests. Gold, tin, lead ancl precious stones are found, and concessions have l)een granted to several French mining companies. But for commercial jturposes the country is almost inaccessible. It can be entered onl}' by tlie Me-kong, which is barred at Rhone by rapids. A railway, four miles in length, has been constructed across that i.sland, and by means of it several steam launches have been transported to the up[ier waters, where they now ply.