SANTO DOMINGO. 



731 



and all Government officials to enjoy a 30 per 

 cent, reduction on their passage. 



Canal Contract. The Minister of Public Works, 

 toward the close of the year, made a contract 

 with Messrs. J. L. Jimenez & Co., of Monte- 

 Christi, for the digging of a canal leading to 

 within twelve miles from the coast the water 

 of Yaque river, at a point where it joins the 

 hed of the ancient canal; the new canal to 

 measure three miles in length, to have a width 

 of forty feet at the surface and twenty at the 

 bottom, with an average depth often feet, the 

 compensation to be 10 per cent, of the duties 

 the Government will collect at the port of 

 Monte-Ohristi during ten years after the canal 

 shall be ready for navigation, less 2 per cent. 

 set aside to extinguish the foreign debt, and 

 1 per cent, accruing to the benefit of the Pro- 

 fessional Institute. 



National Exhibition. The " Sociedad de Ami- 

 gosdelPais" has resolved that the proposed 

 National Exhibition shall open on Aug. 16, 1885, 

 at the capital. 



Military Academy. A decree has been issued 

 ordering the establishment, at the capital, of a 

 military academy for the army and navy. 



Treaties. On June 17 the minister from the 

 Dominican Republic at Washington submitted 

 to Secretary of State Frelinghuysen the fol- 

 lowing list of articles he asked to be admitted 

 free : 



Palm-oil, cocoa, indigo, asphalt; sugar, not above 

 sixteen Dutch standard ; cocoa in grain (chocolate), 

 coffee, mahogany ; espinel and all woods for balusters, 

 etc. ; beef, barley, goat-skins, green : hides, green, 

 salted, dried ; also fractional parts of hides ; hides of 

 horses, asses, caoutchouc (or rubber-gum elastic), 

 hemp and grasses for manufacture'of paper-pulp, fruits ; 

 fresh lemons, oranges, pineapples, limes, bananas, 

 mangoes etc. ; lignum-vitae, nenequen and textile 

 vegetables ; cocoanuts, molasses, logwood, mora-nuts 

 for dyeing purposes, tobacco in leaf. 



In return his Government was ready to throw 

 open the Dominican ports to the articles enu- 

 merated below : 



Barrows and hand-trucks, one or two wheels ; beef 

 and pork, salted ; bricks, refractory and all other 

 kinds of brick ; books, printed, unbound or bound in 

 whole or part with paper or cloth ; coal of all kinds : 

 corn-flour; cars and carts with springs ; crucibles and 

 melting-pots of all materials and sizes ; canes ; knives ; 

 clocks, mantel or wall ; diligences and road-carriages 

 of all kinds and dimensions ; dynamite ; fire-pumps, 

 engines and ordinary pumps, for irrigation and other 

 purposes ; fruits, fresh, dry, or preserved ; fish, fresh ; 

 also mackerel and herrings ; faucets ; feed, dry, and 

 straw ; guano and all phosphates for agriculture ; 

 houses of wood or iron complete ; bags for nenequen ; 

 ice ; iron and steel in rails, bars, beams, dormants, 

 anvibj and mauls ; instruments, scientific ; ink, print- 

 ing ; lime ; hydraulic locomotives ; coaches and cars 

 for railways ; lithographic stones ; masts and anchors 

 for vessels, large or small ; marble, in blocks and flags 

 for pavements; tombs of ornamental construction; 

 machines, apparatus and instruments of all kinds for 

 industrial, agricultural, and mining purposes, sciences, 

 arts, and professions, and any separate extra part or 

 piece pertaining thereto ; metals, precious, in bullion 

 or in powder ; money, legal, of silver or gold, United 

 States coins ; molds and patterns for the arts ; naph- 

 tha ; oats, in grain or straw ; oars for small vessels ; 



j^uc, w. auf metal not silver or gold ; plants and seeds 

 ol all kinds ; petroleum, crude or in coal-oil, and 

 other products for illuminating purposes; powder, 

 blasting, common; quicksilver; rails or grates ot 

 iron, steel, or any other metal, with accessories for 

 houses and fences ; roof-tiles of clay or other material ; 

 sulphur ; stoves, iron for cooking and other purposes ; 

 staves and headings for barrels; soda, hypopnt>s- 

 phate; steam-engines; sewing-machines; slates for 

 roofs and pavements ; teasels of wire for all destina- 

 tions ; types, coats of arms, spaces, rules, vignettes 

 and accessories for printing of all kinds : vegetables, 

 fresh ; water-pipes of all classes, materials, and di- 

 mensions j wires for telegraph ; wheat-flour ; window- 

 blinds, painted or not painted ; zinc, sheet, asbestos 

 and tar-paper for roofing. 



The following articles from the United States 

 to Santo Domingo to be reduced 25 per cent, 

 on former rates of taxes : 



Tables, sofas, rocking-chairs, chairs, desks, bureaus 

 and dressing-cases, and articles of household furni- 

 ture ; pianos and other musical instruments ; tanned 

 hides and all articles in which leather is the principal 

 component. 



Prior to terminating its legislative labors on 

 October 29, the Dominican Congress ratified 

 the treaty of amity and commerce and consu- 

 lar convention negotiated at Lisbon on May 1, 

 1883, between Portugal and Santo Domingo. 



A Free Port. On April 16 the Dominican 

 Congress passed a bill declaring San Lorenzo a 

 free port and port of refuge ; the transit dues 

 to be one half of one per cent, after the goods 

 have been thirty days in port, but coal to be 

 exempt even from this tax. 



Commerce. There entered the port of Santo 

 Domingo City, from Jan. 1 to Sept. 1, 1883, 

 143 vessels, with an aggregate amount of mer- 

 chandise on board invoiced at $1,223,322; the 

 import duty collected thereon being $355,783. 

 These paid bar duty to the amount of $2,172; 

 wharf and warehouse dues, $3,256; foreign 

 debt tax, $16,327; harbor dues, $20,561 ; and 

 the public instruction tax, $368. 



The total import into the republic by sea 

 from Jan. 1 to June 1, 1884, was $1,422,603, 

 distributed as follows: Santo Domingo City, 

 $611,504; Puerto Plata, $438,784; Samana, 

 $91,869; Monte-Christi, $61,360; San Pedro 

 Macoris, $199,044 ; and Azua, $20,042. 



Export from Santo Domingo City in January, 

 February, and March, 1884: Sugar, 91,020 

 quintals; molasses, 111,599 gallons; honey, 

 23,762 gallons; cocoa, 16,043 pounds; coffee, 

 27,418 pounds; wax, 36,815 pounds; mahog- 

 any, 605,000 feet; lignura-vitsB and dyewoods, 

 636 tons ; Iignum-vita3 rosin, 525 pounds ; tor- 

 toise-shell, 95 pounds; hides, 1,173, and goat- 

 skins, 240. In April, May, and June : Sugar, 

 118,166 quintals; molasses, 115,455 gallons; 

 honey, 12,645 pounds; cocoa, 51,405 pounds; 

 coffee, 230 pounds; wax, 18,610 pounds; ma- 

 hogany, 98,000 feet; lignum-vitee and dye woods, 

 375 tons; lignum-vitse rosin, 750 pounds; tor- 

 toise-shell, 15 pounds; hides, 4,965, goat-skins, 

 412. 



American Trade. The imports and exports to 

 and from the United States have been : 



