372 



MEXICO. 



MISSIONS, FOREIGN, SOCIETIES OF. 



quantity of gold brought to the assay-offices dur- 

 ing the financial year 1898 was 5,712 kilograms, 

 valued at $3,858,209; of silver, 1,4915,909 kilograms, 

 valued at $01,100,772. These figures do not in- 

 clude the precious metals intended for export, con- 

 sisting of 5,041 kilograms of gold, value $3,404,728, 

 and 930,158 kilograms of silver, value $41,707,035. 

 There are 8 assay-offices and 3 mints, at which 

 gold will be coined for anybody with a deduction 

 of 4.02 per cent, and silver with a deduction of 

 4.41 per cent. There were 1,972 distilleries in 1898, 

 producing 720.135 gallons of spirits. There were 

 118 cotton-mills, with 13,994 looms and 408,54< 

 spindles, consuming 57.201,573 pounds of raw cot- 

 ton, and producing 3.795,440 pounds of yarn and 

 9.875,704 pieces of cloth. The number of tobacco 

 factories was 721, consuming 0,148,302 pounds of 

 tobacco, and turning out 102,089,004 packets of 

 cigarettes, 22,970,415 cigars, and 32,032,073 che- 

 roots. 



The total value of imports in the year ending 

 .June 30, 1900, was $01,304,914 in gold. The ex- 

 ports were $150,050,300 in silver, merchandise 

 being valued at $79,031,330 and precious metals 

 at $71,025,024. The exports of silver bullion were 

 $39,422,839; of silver coin, $11,404,450; of silver 

 ore, $12,093,445; of gold, $0,720,880; of coffee, $10,- 

 898,078; of henequen, $20,099,388; of woods, $2,- 

 423,515; of hides and skins, $4,142,308; of cattle, 

 $5,732,004; of tobacco, $1,045,570; of ixtle, $1,- 

 053,080; of zacaton root, $994,238; of vanilla, $1,- 

 281,436; of beans, $580,655. 



The commerce, inclusive of precious metals, was 

 divided among the principal foreign countries in 

 1900 as follows, the value of imports being given 

 in gold and of exports in silver: 



Navigation. The number of vessels in the for- 

 eign trade entered at Mexican ports during the 

 year ending June 30, .1899, was 1,502, of 1,838,189 

 tons; cleared, 1,401, of 1,754,197 tons. The mer- 

 chant navy in 1898 consisted of 51 sailing vessels, 

 of 9,317 tons, and 17 steamers, of 4,081 tons. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 length of railroads in operation in 1900 was 9,027 

 miles. The traffic in 1898 was 9,061,646 pas- 

 sengers and 5,964,183 tons of freight; gross re- 

 ceipts, $37,800,596. 



The post-office in 1899 transmitted 122,620,216 

 letters and postal cards; receipts, $1,595,818; ex- 

 penses, $1,991,921. 



The telegraphs had a total length in 1899 of 

 42,000 miles, of which 28,560 miles belonged to 

 the Federal Government and the rest to state gov- 

 ernments and telegraph and railroad companies. 

 The number of despatches in 1898 was 2,288,946. 

 There were 17,078 miles to telephones in 1899. 



The Maya Rebellion. The Mexican Govern- 

 ment has made great efforts to bring into sub- 

 jection the Mayas of Yucatan, a state only lately 

 redeemed from the wild condition, but now un- 

 dergoing a rapid development owing to the culti- 

 vation of henequen. The agave fiber goes to the 

 United States, and the price has steadily risen. 

 The plant covers 350 square miles, and the exports 

 in 1900 were nearly 500,000 bales. The English 

 machinery formerly used in separating the fiber 

 is superseded by American automatic machines, 

 the imports of which, and of portable rails and 



general supplies, were large in 1900. From Yuca- 

 tan are exported also logwood to Europe, and 

 deerskins, hides, and chewing-gum to the United 

 States. The interminable warfare against the 

 independent Mayas in the southeastern part of 

 the state was alternated in the early part of 1901 

 with efforts to secure their submission by pacific 

 means. These were not successful, and later there 

 w r as a fresh and more formidable development of 

 military force. 



MICHIGAN". (See under UNITED STATES.) 

 MINNESOTA. (See under UNITED STATES.) 

 MISSIONS, FOREIGN, SOCIETIES OF. 

 The eighth' annual Conference of Officers and Rep- 

 resentatives of Boards and Societies of Foreign 

 Missions in the United States and Canada was held 

 in the city of New York, Jan. 16-18. The first 

 of these conferences was held in 1893, by invita- 

 tion of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis- 

 sions, and a conference of similar character fol- 

 lowed in every year thereafter except 1900, when 

 its place was taken by the Oecumenical Confer- 

 ence of Foreign Missions. Much is claimed to 

 have been done by these conferences to promote 

 mutual understanding among missionary boards 

 and societies, the growth of comity and coopera- 

 tion on the mission field, and self-support by the 

 native churches. Between 30 and. 40 mission 

 boards were represented at the present meet- 

 ing, and important papers on a variety of topics 

 were presented and discussed. A minute was 

 adopted in reply to a recent appeal by 5 Buddhist 

 sects in Japan " to ecclesiastics throughout the 

 world " concerning missions in China. A com- 

 mittee was appointed to prepare a plan for a cen- 

 tral bureau of missionary information and sub- 

 mit it to the boards represented in the confer- 

 ence. The plan is to be carried into effect w r hen 

 it has received the approval of three-fourths of 

 these boards. 



The American Board is accustomed to issue 

 every year a summary of the general statistics of 

 all Protestant foreign missions, as compiled by 

 its statistical secretary, the Rev. Dr. E. E. Strong. 

 The summary for 1901 (December) shows that 

 these missions, representing the Protestant 

 churches in the United States, Canada, Great 

 Britain and Ireland, Europe, Asia, Africa, and 

 Oceanica, include 6,229 stations, 23,188 out-sta- 

 tions, 12,412 missionaries, 70,218 native laborers, 

 13,526 churches, 1,285,227 communicants, and total 

 receipts of $18,121,120. The total income for the 

 year of British foreign missionary and kindred so- 

 cieties was $8,575,306. The summaries of 33 prin- 

 cipal foreign mission societies in the United 

 States show number of principal stations, 829; 

 of out-stations, 6,035; of American missionaries, 

 3,635; of native laborers, 17,427; of churches, 

 3,981; of communicants, 405,653; of members 

 added during the year, 32,251; of persons under 

 instruction, 208,502; amount of native contribu- 

 tions, $619,834; amount contributed in America 

 for the support of the missions, $5,636,758. More* 

 than 30 foreign missionary societies were labor- 

 ing in Japan, where 157 stations and 734 out- 

 stations were occupied. 



MISSISSIPPI. (See under UNITED STATES.) 



MISSOURI. (See under UNITED STATES.) 



MONTANA. (See under UNITED STATES.) 



MORAVIANS. The official statistics of the 



American Moravian Church, Dec. 31, 1900, give it 



in the two districts, Northern and Southern, 15,- 



225 communicants, 1,630 non-communicants, and 



6,612 children, making a total of 23,467 members; 



13,743 pupils and 1,510 officers and teachers in 



Sunday-schools. The contributions of the 



churches of the Northern district (18,195 mem- 



