638 



PORTUGAL. 



PRECIOUS STONES. 



debt as far as possible, without imposing new 

 taxes, none at any rate that would fall on the 

 working classes. The Cortes adjourned till May 

 15 to give time to the ministers to frame a new 

 budget and the other promised measures after 

 sanctioning a general amnesty to press, election, 

 and political offenders, excepting some military 

 officers who issued a pronunciamiento at Oporto 

 on Jan. 31. Negotiations with the foreign cred- 

 itors, which Dias Perreira had broken off with 

 the intention of cutting down the interest pay- 

 ments to one third the legal amount when they 

 were willing to give up one half in view of the 

 financial straits of the Government, were re- 

 sumed by Hintze Ribeiro. The alcohol monop- 

 oly established by a decree of July 8, 1892, was 

 canceled on the ground that it was illegally 

 constituted and had withheld the royalties due 

 to the state. The new Finance Minister, who 

 was a Socialist, with a disposition to collect the 

 taxes more rigorously than his predecessors and 

 encash all arrears, and also prune down expens- 

 es, submitted a budget for 1894 which showed 

 a saving of 1,875 contos (1 conto of reis = 1,000 

 milreis) in the public services and a surplus of 

 800 contos in the ordinary budget, but a deficit 

 in the extraordinary budget. An arrangement 

 was made with the foreign bondholders whereby 

 they were guaranteed 33J per cent, of the regu- 

 lar interest in gold plus half any excess of reve- 

 nue above 11,400 contos from imports, excepting 

 tobacco and grain and exports, excepting port 

 wine, and half the benefit of any decrease in the 

 gold premium below 22 per cent. The holders 

 of the internal and external debts should have 

 exactly the same privileges. This arrangement 

 was approved by the Chamber on May 16. A 

 plan of increasing the paper currency proposed 

 by the preceding ministry was rejected by Fus- 

 chini, who fixed the limit of circulation at 52,- 

 000 contos. Among the new taxes was one of 

 12 per cent, on dividends or profits of foreign 

 banks doing business in Portugal. The others 

 were designed to affect principally the richer 

 classes. Increased taxes on real estate, certain 

 articles of consumption, and domestic alcohol 

 were expected to realize 1,700 contos. Special 

 taxes were imposed on foreign insurance and in- 

 dustrial companies, against which the British 

 Government protested. 



Colonial Possessions. The Portuguese pos- 

 sessions in Africa comprise the Cape Verde 

 Islands, Portuguese Guinea, St. Thomas and 

 Prince's Island, Angola, and the state of East 

 Africa, having an aggregate area of 840,000 

 square miles and a population estimated at 13.- 

 482,000. In Asia, Goa, including Damao and 

 Diu, Macao, and Timor have a combined area 

 of 76,700 square miles and 881,000 inhabitants. 

 The budgets of the colonies for 1891 make 

 3,784,809 milreis for receipts and 3,910,105 mil- 

 reis for ordinary and 785,080 milreis for extraor- 

 dinary expenses. The imports of East Africa 

 in 1891 were 215,655 sterling in Mozambique 

 and 497,533 in Delagoa Bay for imports, and 

 111,493 in Mozambique and 895 in Delagoa 

 Bay for exports. The imports of Angola were 

 valued at $5,477,629, and the exports at $4,129,- 

 000. The chief exports are coffee, gum, wax, 

 and ivory. There are 142 miles of railroad in 

 Angola built and 217 miles under construction. 



In East Africa the Delagoa Bay Railroad has a 

 length of 51 miles. The Zambesi and Beira 

 Railroad had been completed for a length of 75 

 miles at the end of 1893, and 35 miles more were 

 under construction. An English company was 

 authorized in May, 1893, to build a railroad from 

 Quilimane to the Shire river. The Portuguese 

 extended their posts in 1893 to the confluence 

 of the Limpopo and Elephant rivers, against 

 which the native chief Gungunhana, who has 

 previously given them much trouble, raised a 

 protest. A joint commission that was appointed 

 to delimit the boundary between Portuguese 

 East Africa and the territory of the British 

 South Africa Company could not conclude its 

 labor in the beginning of 1893, because in the 

 district between Massikesse and Chimanamane 

 Ennes, the Portuguese commissioner would not 

 concede to Great Britain the rich Mutare valley, 

 in which valuable gold veins had been discovered. 

 A new customs tariff for Portuguese East Africa 

 introduces differential rates of 40 or 50 percent., 

 or higher, in favor of certain Portuguese prod- 

 ucts, as 40 per cent, on alcoholic beverages. In 

 Goa there is a railroad, 50 miles in length, con- 

 necting with the British West of India Railroad. 

 The Portuguese Government used to hand over 

 to this British company, having guaranteed its 

 bonds, the subsidy of 400,000 rupees that it re- 

 ceived from the Indian Government under the 

 treaty of 1878. That treaty having been abro- 

 gated by Great Britain, the excise duties of Goa, 

 amounting to 600,000 rupees, have now been 

 abandoned to the company. 



PRECIOUS STONES. The growing taste 

 for art in the United States, shown in the im- 

 proved methods of book illustration, a fondness 

 for etchings, the production of new forms of 

 jewelry and the manufacture of unexcelled sil- 

 verware, is further manifested in a greater ap- 

 preciation of gems and the exercise of increased 

 judgment in their selection. During the past 

 decade new stones have come into favor, some 

 neglected ones have regained their popularity, 

 and others have been thrown out entirely. Ru- 

 bies were considered expensive ten years ago, 

 but at present they are still higher, an eight- 

 carat stone being quoted at $33,000 ; and cameos, 

 no matter how finely cut, could not now find 

 purchasers at one fifth their former value. A 

 syndicate of French capitalists has been organ- 

 ized to control the topaz mines of Spain, in the 

 expectation that after twenty years of disfavor 

 this gem will again find itself in fashion. 



South Africa. Originally the mines of Kim- 

 berley were worked as 3,238 separate claims, 

 each 31 feet square, with a 7^-foot roadway be- 

 tween every pair of claims; but since 1877 

 these have been gradually consolidated until 

 at present they are united into fewer than 40 

 companies. The primitive method of washing 

 by sieves has been replaced by the most ingen- 

 ious and powerful machinery, which, though it 

 be eyeless, allows fewer diamonds to escape than 

 would the keenest and best disciplined army of 

 washers. Originally miles of wire cable, to . 

 which were attached buckets for carrying the 

 refuse running from individual claims, were 

 stretched across the mine in all directions. 

 Some of these were almost level with the surface, 

 while others were cut down 200 feet, and still 



