GUATEMALA. 



345 



The value of the exports for 1873 will be 

 found to be far in advance of any year pre- 

 ceding, the single article of coffee standing, it 

 is said, for $2,500,000 ; the crop of this article 

 and of sugar yielded a profit of 300 per cent. 



As a result of this prosperous state of 

 things, agriculture is becoming the object of 

 much care, and an unprecedented augmenta- 

 tion of cultivated lands has already been ob- 

 served ; insomuch that Guatemala will proba- 

 bly next year ship more coffee than all the 

 rest of Central America. 



Here follows a statement of the finances of 

 the republic for the year 1872 : 



BEVESCE. 



Balance from 1871 $26.300 



Import duties 836.200 



Elliott and stamp duties, post-office, etc 283,703 



Snfrit-tax 880,600 



Mint 100,000 



Sundries g5,500 



Loan 85,700 



Total $1,798,000 



MPEXDITtJRK. 



Army, etc $771,000 



Salaries 273,400 



Public works 14,200 



Legations 15,000 



Sundry expenses 137.000 



Pu bile schools 21,600 



Roads, hospital, etc 16!!.f>00 



Drawback on exports 21,000 



Mint 183,500 



Amortization of debts 141,400 



Interest on loans 64,500 



Interest on British loan 88,600 



Surplus balance at the end of 1872 13,000 



Total $1,798,000 



The public debt was as follows at the begin- 

 ning of 1873 : 



Floating debt, Treasury bonds $293.005 



Arrears of salaries 183.000 



Unpaid premium on merchandise exported. . . . 79,000 



Voluntary loan of Guatemala 490,000 



Itecoznlzed old debt 808,000 



Foreign debt of 1888 400,000 



British debtof!869 2,600,000 



Total $4,320,000 



Reinittances were constantly made to the 

 London bankers on account of the loan of 

 1869 ; and the Federal English debt was also 

 provided for punctually; while the converted 

 home debt was paid off rapidly, and the paper 

 taken freely as an investment. 



The port movements at San Jos6, in the 

 year 1871, were: 



iro. 



TOM. 



9 German 2.855 



8 British 8.086 



4 United States 516 



2 French 630 



Danish 480 



7,587 



11 

 7 

 5 

 8 

 I 



FUg. 



Tons. 



German 3.419 



British 2,693 



United States 706 



French 1,000 



Danish I 480 



18,298 



Guatemala, in common with other Spanish- 

 American countries, suffers incalculably from 

 the want of suitable roads and means of trans- 

 porting its natural productions from the culti- 

 vated districts to the coast. There are no 

 railways, so far, in the country; but the Gov- 



ernment has begun to bestow a considerable 

 share of attention to the making of new roads, 

 aud the improvement of such as already exist. 



Telegraphic communication was established, 

 in 1873, between the capital and the port of 

 San Jose, on the Pacific. 



It will be remembered that, in 1872, a con- 

 tract had been made with a Mr. Kelly for a 

 railway from San Jose to Guatemala la Nue- 

 va ; but no steps have since been taken tow- 

 ard the realization of the project. 



The Government, however, after adopting 

 several energetic measures for securing peace, 

 began seriously to consider what might be 

 done to most advantage for the development 

 of the natural resources of the country, and 

 called for proposals for the construction of 

 four different lines of railway : one from the 

 capital to the Pacific ; another from the same 

 point to the Atlantic ; the two others to con- 

 nect the republic with Mexico, and establish 

 communication with the new Pacific port of 

 Champerico. 



Guatemala has a larger number of schools, 

 and a more effective system of teaching, than 

 any of the other republics of Central America, 

 many of the wealthy families of which send 

 their children there to be educated. Exten- 

 sive appropriations were made in 1873 for the 

 development of the school system throughout 

 the republic; and the Government agents in 

 the United States, France, England, and Ger- 

 many, were instructed to select and send to 

 the Department of Public Instruction samples 

 of the best and most popular text-books used 

 in these countries. 



The municipality of Chiqnimnla returned 

 a vote of thanks to the President for several 

 useful measures he had adopted for that city, 

 prominent among which was the establish- 

 ment of a colleze, in which the higher branches 

 of learning will be taught. 



The school for the instruction, at the ex- 

 pense of the Government, of telegraphic op- 

 erators for the public lines, was opened accord- 

 ing to the terms of the contract of the year be- 

 fore with Mr. McNidel, who constructed most 

 of the telegraph-lines in Central America. 



Don Manual Garcia Granados, charge d'af- 

 faires of Guatemala in Mexico, was instructed 

 to negotiate for a postal and an extradition 

 treaty between the two republics. 



In its session of December 6, 1872, the Con- 

 stituent Assembly passed the following bills : 

 One relating to the national boundaries ; a 

 second, to the effect that the republic was sov- 

 ereign, free, and independent ; a third, decree- 

 ing that the sovereignty resides exclusively in 

 the people ; and a fourth, that the Roman 

 Catholic is the religion of the country, and 

 that it should be sustained and supported by 

 the Government. 



On the following day it was resolved that all 

 persons born in the territory of the republic, 

 and those born in foreign countries, but of 

 Guatemalese parents, or one of whose parents 



