25 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



CUBAN COMMERCIAL MATTERS 



the criminal courts of Habana, as reported by 

 La Prensa of May 12, 1917. The defendant 

 had purchased on the installment plan fur- 

 niture to the value of $450, and before the 

 full purchase price had been paid sold it to 

 another dealer, who in turn resold it to a 

 third person. Under the circumstances, the 

 court held that the defendant was guilty of 

 fraud and sentenced her to imprisonment for 

 four months and ordered the restitution of the 

 furniture to the original owner. The case is 

 regarded as furnishing a valuable precedent 

 for future cases and as estabhshing conclu- 

 sively the legality and enforcibility of sales 

 on the installment plan (compra-ventas a 

 plazos). If this case is consistently followed 

 the usual American form of conditional sales 

 would doubtless be applicable, but for the 

 present it is advised that leases of the kind 

 described above be employed. 



For a firm wishing to sell goods by means of 

 leases with option of purchase it is desirable 

 to have a representative in Cuba provided 

 with a power of attorney in the proper form, 

 who can handle the goods and enter into con- 

 tracts for renting them to prospective pur- 

 chasers. — Vice Consul L. A. Christy, Hahana. 



CANADIAN LUMBER 



"Comparatively few persons in Canada rea- 

 lize what a valuable asset we have in our hard- 

 wood forests of Eastern Canada," say Mr. 

 J. C. Manzer, Acting Canadian Trade Com- 

 missioner in Cuba. "The quantities of hard- 

 wood burned every year in the process of 

 clearing up the land in Canada are enormous 

 and immense quantities of some of our most 

 valuable woods, such as bird's-eye maple 

 and curly birch, are being used year after 

 year for firewood for our houses. Cabinet- 

 makers here say that they would be glad to 

 buy our ash, birch and maple for the manufac- 



ture of furniture, and say also that these 

 woods when made up and polished make as 

 rich looking furniture as do the southern 

 woods. 



"The price of mahogany and Cuban cedar 

 is steadily advancing, and to-day mahogany 

 is being sold by wholesale dealers at from 

 $110 to $130 per thousand, and cedar at 

 from $120 to $140 per thousand. Some of our 

 hardwoods, such as curly birch and bird's-eye 

 maple, would bring as high a price in Cuba as 

 mahogany or cedar, and when a person uses 

 a log of bird's-eye maple or curly birch for fire 

 wood he is probably using for fuel wood that 

 is worth from $75 to $100 per thousand. In 

 cutting timber for fire wood, aU hardwood logs, 

 perfectly sound, free from knots, seams or 

 other blemishes, that are foiuid to have a par- 

 ticularly good grain, should be put to one side 

 to be sold for manufacturing purposes, and 

 logs substituted for fuel that are seamy, hol- 

 low, knotty, or have other defects that would 

 render them of no special value for manufac- 

 turing purposes. 



"Good sound ash, birch and maple lumber 

 is in demand here for making furniture, and 

 will sell at high prices. 



"This lumber should be shipped to this 

 country in the round log, as sawn hardwood 

 lumber is liable to warp and check when com- 

 ing into a hot country, which would detract 

 greatly from its value. This lumber could 

 be shipped in carlots to Boston or New York 

 and thence by steamer to Cuba. 



HONEY 



The British Minister at Havana reports, 

 under date 11th May, that it is roughly esti- 

 mated that exports of honey from Cuba in 

 the year ended 30th June, 1916, amounted to 

 4,000 tons, as compared with 2,200 tons in 

 1914-15, and 5,600 tons in 1913-14. 



IMPORTS AND EXPORTS 



Total value of merchandise imported from and exported to Cuba during August, 19l7i 

 and the 8 months ended August, 1917, compared with corresponding periods of the preceding 

 year, have been made pubUc by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce of the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce, as follows: 



Month of August 8 months ended August 



1917 1916 1917 1916 



Imports from Cuba $22,592,635 $17,738,141 $205,234,682 $193,652,650 



Exports to Cuba $17,930,403 $15,623,187 $113,806,297 $98,172,121 



