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COSTA RICA. 



Costa-Rican Consul-General at New York is 

 Don Jose M. Mufioz; at San Francisco, Don 

 Teodoro Lemmen Meyer. The American Con- 

 sul at San Jose is J. Richard Wiugfield. 



Army. The strength of the permanent army 

 has been reduced to 1,000 men for 1888, to be 

 increased to 5,000 in the event of civil disturb- 

 ances, and, in case of war, it is to be raised 

 numerically according to the exigencies of the 

 case. The citizens capable of bearing arms 

 are 23,838 between the ages of eighteen and 

 thirty-five ; 7,986 between thirty-six and fifty ; 

 and 8,414 over fifty, constituting a reserve of 

 40,238 men. 



Finances. The Government during the fiscal 

 year 1887-'88 succeeded in paying off the en- 

 tire consolidated home debt of $3,000,000, 

 while punctually paying the interest on the 

 floating debt, and withdrawing and destroying 

 $25,000 of paper money quarterly. The budg- 

 et for 1888-'89 estimates the outlay at $3,480,- 

 922, and the income at $3,494,743, the actual 

 revenue collected in 1887-'88 having been 

 $3,447,380. The public indebtedness will 

 stand on March 31, 1889, as follows: Five-per- 

 cent, sterling debt, 2,000,000 ; paper money 

 in circulation, $844,943 ; due Union Bank, 

 $300,000 : Consolidated Church and University 

 funds, $346,124. The payment of interest on 

 these amounts will involve an outlay of $758,- 

 150, and $100,000 will be applied to the can- 

 celing of paper money. The latter will all be 

 withdrawn and destroyed in eight years and a 

 half. Toward the eventual paying off of the 

 sterling debt the Government will use the 

 60,000 ordinary shares that will be turned over 

 to it in conformity with the agreement relat- 

 ing to the construction of the railroad and 

 conversion of the debt ; furthermore, the pro- 

 ceeds of one third of 800,000 acres of land 

 recently pledged to the River Plate Trust Com- 

 pany of London will be used for the same pur- 

 pose. Meanwhile, the Union Bank has been 

 authorized to issue bank-notes to the extent 

 of four times its cash capital, under the pro- 

 viso of maintaining a metallic reserve of one 

 quarter of its note circulation. 



Education. In the normnl section of the 

 Superior Young Ladies' College at San Jose 

 there were granted in 1888 forty scholarships, 

 20 of these being awarded, beside gratuitous 

 instruction, a pension of $15 a month and 20 

 instruction without pension. Congress, dur- 

 ing the summer of 1888, voted $300,000 for 

 the building of public school-houses and the 

 further development of gratuitous instruction. 



Commerce. The imports into Costa Rica in 

 1887 reached a total of $5,601,225, England 

 contributing $1,771,466; Germany, $815,729 ; 

 France, $612,076; Spain, $32,750; Italy, 

 $4,608; Belgium, $997; the United States, 

 $1,440,729 ; Colombia, $798,665 ($798,665 of 

 the latter amount being coin) ; Ecuador, 

 $21,741 ; and Central America, $101,644. On 

 the other hand, the exports amounted to 

 $6,236,563, of which $5,235,865 represented 



coffee; $669,544, bananas; $75,113, hides; 

 $30,728, India-rubber ; $20,032, mother-of- 

 pearl ; $68,972, sundry merchandise ; and 

 $68,972, coin. The increase in exports over 

 those of 1886 was $3,010,756, chiefly due to 

 the rise in coffee which brought as much as 

 $20 per quintal free on board. Of bananas 

 the amount shipped exceeded that of the pre- 

 vious year by $172,789. 

 The American trade was as follows : 



Coffee-Planting. The coffee of Costa Rica is 

 highly appreciated both in the United States 

 and in Europe, on account of its fine qualities 

 and exquisite aroma; consequently, it com- 

 mands a high price. Intending settlers on the 

 coffee-lands of Costa Rica are warned not to 

 buy the land necessary for a plantation wholly 

 with borrowed capital, the interest rate on the 

 spot being too high. They ought to possess 

 money enough to pay cash for at least two thirds 

 of the land. The net returns from a well-man- 

 aged coffee-estate average about twelve per 

 cent, per annum. The cost of a coffee-planta- 

 tion depends in the first place on the quality 

 of the soil, and next on whether it is situated 

 in the vicinity of a large town. Cultivated 

 coffee-land is worth from $110 to $335 an 

 acre. The crops are very irregular ; an abun- 

 dant yield is the next year usually followed 

 by a poor one; the third year it will prove 

 tolerably good, and the fourth again an ample 

 one. The newly planted shrubs will be in 

 bearing at the end of four years. When the 

 coffee-bean begins to form, plenty of rain is 

 welcome, and but moderate sunshine. If 

 blossoming be not soon succeeded by rains, 

 the young berry will shrivel under a tropical 

 sun. The annual coffee-product of Costa 

 Rica varies between 10,000 and 15,000 tons. 



Telegraphs. The Government resolved in 

 August to construct lines of telegraph to con- 

 nect Liberia, Mcoya, and Santa Cruz with the 

 system now in operation. 



Railroads. On October 16, the shareholders 

 of Costa Rican, railroads met in London. The 

 lines acquired by purchase from the conces- 

 sionnaire, Mr. Keith, are the one from Puerto 

 Limon to Carillo, 71 miles, and one from Car- 

 tago to Alaguela, via San Jos6. Work is pro- 

 ceeding rapidly on the line that is to connect 

 Cartage with Reventazon, 8,400 workmen being 

 employed. The Costa Rican system now in 

 course of completion is all the more important 

 as it will form another link of communication 

 between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The 

 company received a subsidy in the form of 

 300,000 acres of Government lands. The Gov- 

 ernment has ordered the building of a national 

 w agon-road between Esparta and Bagaces. 



