CUBA. 



215 



gation was engaged in an examination of the 

 recent operations of the custom-house, and the 

 superior officers and many subordinates were 

 suspended. Meanwhile, all other operations 

 were paralyzed the wharves were covered 

 with goods, numbers of loaded lighters were 

 not permitted to discharge their cargoes, while 

 crowds of laborers were standing around idle. 

 Several committees of importing merchants 

 called upon the Captain-General, and, admitting 

 that they were more or less compromised in 

 the irregular way of doing custom-house busi- 

 ness, begged to be allowed to correct their en- 

 tries already made. But three days were al- 

 lowed them, and during that time the ordinary 

 receipts from customs duties were more than 

 trebled. The Government at Madrid approved 

 the acts of the Captain- General. The resigna- 

 tion of the Intendant-General of Finance was 

 also accepted, and Don Anibal Arieste was put 

 in charge of the custom-house as special dele- 

 gate of the Captain-General. 



Reforms. The excise duty on fresh meat was 

 reduced July 1 from 30 cents to 25 cents on each 

 eight kilogrammes, and the collection was com- 

 mitted to the Spanish Bank according to an 

 agreement made in Madrid between the gov- 

 ernor of the bank and the Home Government. 

 The amount to be collected is $1,000,000. Ci- 

 gars manufactured for local consumption, and 

 not packed in boxes, but simply wrapped in pa- 

 par, it was decided by the Intendant General, 

 are henceforth not to be subjected to the stamp 

 duty. The following Spanish-colonial products 

 are to be admitted duty free into Spain and the 

 B.ilearic Isles, provided they are shipped thither 

 direct under the Spanish flag: Sugar, molasses, 

 rum, coffee, chocolate, and cocoa. Those shipped 

 under a foreign flag are to be subject to the du- 

 ties established by the law of June 30, 1882, 

 which duties arc- gradually being reduced till 

 the year 1890, with the difference that products 

 tinder a foreign fl ig coming from the Philippine 

 Islands are only to pay one fifth of the duty 

 that Cuban products are subject to. 



Emancipation. A royal decree dated Oct. 7, 

 1886, abolished the " patronato " or semi-slav- 

 ery in Cuba, which was a transitory form of 

 servitude created by the Abolition Law of Fob. 

 13, 1880, thus doing away with the last ves- 

 tige of slavery. 



Immigration. At the instigation of the Cre"- 

 dito Territorial Hipotecario de la Isla de Cuba, 

 arrangements were made in March to set on 

 foot a current of Italian immigrants of the 

 laboring-class, sugar-planters being anxious to 

 procure field-hands and other operatives from 

 Southern Europe, such operatives to receive 

 $15 a month the first half of the year, and $9 

 the latter half, together with board and lodg- 

 ing, if between the ages of eighteen and fifty. 



Modus Vivendi Treaty. On Sept. 21, 1887, the 

 Department of State at Washington published 

 the ensuing memorandum of an agreement be- 

 tween the Government of the United States 

 and the Government of Spain for the reciprocal 



and complete suspension of all discriminating 

 duties of tonnage or imposts in the United 

 States and the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico 

 and all other countries belonging to the Crown 

 of Spain, upon vessels of the respective coun- 

 tries and their cargoes: 



1. It is positively agreed that from this date an ab- 

 solute equalization of tonnage dues and imposts shall 

 at once be applied to the production of or articles pro- 

 ceeding from the United States or any other foreign 

 country, when carried in vessels belonging to citizens 

 of the United States and under the American flag, to 

 the islands of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, 

 and also to all other countries belonging to the Crown 

 of Spain, and that no higher or other tonnage dues or 

 imposts shall be levied upon said vessels and the goods 

 carried in them, as aforesaid, than are paid by Spanish 

 vessels and their cargoes under similar circumstances. 



2. On the above conditions the President of the 

 United States shall at once issue a proclamation de- 

 claring that these discriminating tonnage dues and im- 

 posts in the United States are suspended and discon- 

 tinued as regards Spanish vessels and produce, manu- 

 factures or merchandise imported into the United 

 States proceeding from Spain, and from the aforesaid 

 possessions and trom the Philippine Islands, and also 

 from all other countries belonging to the Crown of 

 Spain, or from any foreign country. 



This protocol of an agreement is offered by the 

 Government of Spain and accepted by that of the 

 United States as a full and satisiactory notification of 

 the facts above recited. 



3. The United States Minister at Madrid will be 

 authorized to negotiate with the Minister for Foreign 

 Affairs, either by an agreement or treaty, so as to 

 place the commercial relations between the United 

 States and Spain on a permanent footing advantageous 

 to both countries. 



Americans In Cuba. About the middle of Octo- 

 ber the Government published at Havana some 

 new regulations, according to which American 

 citizens are now allowed to land at or depart 

 from Cuban ports without being obliged to pre- 

 sent a passport or other document signed by a 

 Spanish consul. A simple certificate from the 

 American consul at the port of entry hence- 

 forth suffices for the identification of any citizen 

 of the United States, and enables him to travel 

 all over Cuba, to remain on the island as long 

 he pleases, and to leave whenever he wishes. 



Railroads. A concession was granted to Don 

 Marcos Fial y Cabrizas to build in the province 

 of Santiago de Cuba a railroad between Palma, 

 Soriano and San Luis. A branch line has been 

 built connecting Remedios with Rojas and the 

 Zaza Railway. In February work was begun 

 to extend the Western Railroad from Consola- 

 cion del sur to Pinar del Rio. A French com- 

 pany has taken the necessary steps to build a 

 railroad from Ilolguin toNipe. TheMatanzas 

 Railroad reduced, early in the year, the freight 

 on new machinery 50 per cent., and on old ma- 

 chinery 65 percent., coal to pay 70 cents a ton, 

 and only 63 cents on quantities of 1,000 tons 

 and upward. Application was made early in 

 the year for a concession to construct a railway 

 to connect Sagua la Grande with Manicaragua, 

 where, next to that of the Vuelta Abajo, thebest 

 tobacco is grown in Cuba. The government of 

 the island has resolved that a branch railway be 

 built from Jucaro to Punta de Burro, in order to 



