132 



CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 



COLOMBIA. 



dates for the vacant trusteeships in the institution, 

 from whom the Board of Trustees should elect half 

 the number; the provision of a dormitory for girls 

 at the college: assistance in home mission work; 

 the foreign mission in Japan ; the publication of a 

 hymnary; thr establishment of an orphanage; aid 

 to the colored people; and the Young People's So- 

 ciety of Christian Endeavor as subjects inviting 

 action. An amendment to the articles of "Princi- 

 ples and Government " was adopted, to read : " The 

 Lord Jesus Christ is the, only Head of the Church, 

 and any other pretending to be the head thereof 

 should be regarded as that man of sin and son of 

 perdition who exalteth himself above all that is 

 called God." The establishment of an orphanage 

 wa* approved and a committee was appointed to 

 further it, with power to raise funds, purchase a 

 site, and do whatever else they may think advisable. 

 In connection with this subject the convention di- 

 rected that the funds already collected for the Chil- 

 dren's fund go to the education of young ministers 

 as hitherto ordered, but that whatever may be col- 

 lected hereafter shall go to the sustenance of the 

 orphanage after it is built. Should the orphanage 

 not be built, it was provided that the funds should 

 go to the biblical library at P^lon College. The 

 trustees of the college were asked to provide for 

 biblical instruction at as early a date as possible. 

 For the education of the colored people the conven- 

 tion decided to arrange for co-operation with the 

 brethren of the Christian Convention, North. The 

 North Carolina and Virginia Conference was granted 

 the privilege of co-operating with the Methodist 

 Protestant Church in works not in conflict with the 

 general work of the connection. An arrangement 

 with the Christian Convention, North, for the pub- 

 lication of a word edition of the Christian Hym- 

 nary was left in the hands of the Publication Com- 

 mittee. Ministers were advised to inform them- 

 selves respecting the work of the Christian Endeavor 

 Societies for the purpose of introducing them in 

 their churches. 



CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, SOCIETIES OF. 

 The whole number of societies is given in the report 

 made to the International Convention at Washing- 

 ton as 46,125, and the number of members as 2,750,- 

 000. Of these societies Canada has 3,292 ; the United 

 Kingdom, 3,000 ; Australia, more than 2,000 ; France, 

 66 ; the West Indies, 63 ; India, 128 ; Mexico, 62 ; 

 Turkey, 41 ; Africa, 38 ; China, 40 ; Germany, 18 ; 

 Japan, 66; Madagascar, 93; and all foreign and 

 mission lands, 6,399. 



Two new branches of the Christian Endeavor 

 work, the Mother's and the Senior, had been organ- 

 ized during the year covered by the report, the for- 

 mer with 50, and the latter with 20 societies. Eight 

 thousand societies had asked to be placed on the mis- 

 sionary roll of honor. They included 5,869 Young 

 People's Societies and 2,331 Junior Societies, and 

 had given $154,022 through their respective denom- 

 inational boards to the causes of home and foreign 

 missions, and $206,150 for religious work in other 

 ways. 



COLOMBIA, a republic in South America. The 

 Senate has 27 members, 3 for each department, 

 elected for six years by indirect suffrage. The 

 House of Representatives has 68 members. 1 to 

 every 50.000 of population, elected by direct suf- 

 frage for four years, every citizen having a vote 

 who can read and write or owns real estate or has 

 an income of 500 pesos. The President is elected 

 for six; years by an electoral college. Miguel A. 

 Caro, V; -i- ! 'resident, became President on Sept. 18, 

 1894, after the death of President Nunez, for the 

 remainder of the term ending July 20, 18!)6. The 

 following ministers were in office at the beginning 

 of 1896: Interior, C. D. Ospina; Foreign Affairs, 



M. F. Suarez ; Commerce and Communications, 

 Carlos Uribe ; War, Edmundo Cervantes ; Instruc- 

 tion, L. Zcrda ; Finance, M. Abadia Mendez. 



Area and Population. The area of the repub- 

 lic is officially estimated at 513,938 square miles. 

 A more recent calculation makes it 464,400 square 

 miles. The population was estimated in 1881 at 

 3,878,600, including 220,000 uncivilized Indians. 

 Bogota, the capital, situated at an elevation of 

 9,000 feet above the sea, has 120,000 inhabitants. 

 Education is free, but not compulsory. There are 

 1,817 primary schools, with 89,000 pupils. The uni- 

 versities, technical institutes, and normal schools 

 have about 3,200 students in attendance. The Ro- 

 man Catholic is the state religion. Other forms are 

 tolerated so far as they are judged to be not contrary 

 to Christian morals nor the law. 



Finances. The revenue is mainly derived from 

 customs. For the biennial period 1895-'96 the reve- 

 nue was estimated at 26,226,300 pesos and expendi- 

 ture at 26,233,191 pesos. 



The internal debt on June 30, 1894, was stated to 

 be 9,413,060 pesos, of which 5,466,896 pesos repre- 

 sented the consolidated debt and 3.946,164 pesos 

 the floating debt, which latter should be paid off 

 by a sinking fund established in 1888, amounting 

 to 604,000 pesos per annum; but these funds have 

 not been so applied since the insurrection of 1895. 

 The interest on the consolidated debt is 262,196 

 pesos per annum. Besides these debts there is a 

 forced paper currency amounting to 26,135,060 

 pesos. The old Bolivian silver peso was of equal 

 value with the 5-franc piece, but the fineness was 

 reduced from - 835 to 0'500, and now these debased 

 coins have been driven out by paper money. A 

 law was passed in 1894 that provided for the re- 

 demption of the paper currency and the free coin- 

 age of gold, with subsidiary silver to be coined for 

 the Government in Europe. No gold, however, was 

 brought to be coined. Silver coins, 0'835 fine, were 

 minted in Birmingham to the amount of 8,251 

 pesos only. On the Isthmus of Panama Peruvian 

 silver circulates ; in other parts of the republic 

 the money is depreciated paper. A new law pro- 

 hibiting the importation of foreign silver was en- 

 acted by the Congress and went into effect in 

 July, 1896. The effect was a serious derangement 

 of the trade with neighboring countries. 



Commerce and Navigation. The chief imports 

 are articles of food and drink, textiles, and iron 

 and steel manufactures. The chief exports are 

 coffee, peanuts, silver ore, cacao, cotton, dyestuffs, 

 live stock, hides, tobacco, rubber, and woods. Some 

 of the minor exports to the United States are straw 

 hats, cocoamits, balsam copaiba, bananas, ivory 

 nuts, heron feathers, pearls, gold dust, manganese 

 ore, mother-of-pearl, and tortoise shell. The trans- 

 it trade across the Isthmus of Panama is more im- 

 portant than the direct commerce. The transit 

 traffic between San Francisco and Europe fell away 

 to almost nothing until, in 1895, it suddenly re- 

 vived and became important. The vessels of the 

 Pacific Mail and Panama Railroad companies (both 

 American), the Chilian South American Steamship 

 Company, and the English Pacific Steam Naviga- 

 tion Company call at Panama. Of 863 steamers 

 that were cleared during the four years ending 

 June 30, 1895, 356 were American, 384 English, 115 

 Chilian, and 8 were German tramp steamers. The 

 American steamers have steadily increased, and 

 they now carry twice as much freight as all the 

 rest. In all the ports of Colombia 1.510 vessels, of 

 806,397 tons, were entered, and 1,475, of 1,436,854 

 tons, cleared during 1893. Of the total tonnage, 55 

 per cent, was British, 19 per cent. French, and 10 

 per cent. German. The Colombian merchant fleet 

 consists of 2 steamers, of 341 tons, and 5 sailing 



