642 



SAMOA. 



Charity and Public Instruction, Dr. J. Triqueroa: 

 Minister of Finance, Public Credit, and Public 

 Works, Dr. F. A. Nova. 



Area and Population. The area of Salvador 

 is 7,225 square miles. The population in 1894 was 

 803,534. The capital, San Salvador, has about 

 50,000 inhabitants, including most of the natives 

 of pure Spanish descent and the Europeans. Edu- 

 cation is gratuitous and compulsory. There are 

 2 normal, 3 technical, and 13 other higher schools, 

 besides the national university, and 585 elemen- 

 tal y schools attended by 29,427 children. In the 

 university are 180 students. 



Finances. The revenue for 1900 was esti- 

 mated at $4,992,520, of which $3,004,420 came 

 from customs and $1,988,100 from excise duties, 

 stamps, a tax on gunpowder, a road tax, and 

 registration fees. The expenditures estimated for 

 1900 were $31,515 for the Legislature 1 , $32,800 for 

 the presidency, $751,392 for the Ministry of the 

 Interior, $380,640 for the Ministry of Fomento, 

 $338,852 for public instruction, $256,980 for pub- 

 lic- charity, $294,838 for justice, $366,969 for 

 finance, $1,639,800 for the public debt, $76,080 for 

 foreign relations, and $1,031,860 for the army and 

 navy; total, $5,201,720. 



The foreign debt in 1899 amounted to 726,420 

 sterling. The Salvador Railway Company, an 

 English corporation, undertook to defray the ex- 

 penses of the debt and with the aid of a subsidy 

 from the Government to complete before June 30, 

 1900, the railroad from Sitio del Nino to San Sal- 

 vador. This company succeeded to the railroads 

 and concessions formerly held by the Central 

 American Public Works Company of London. 

 There is an internal debt of about $8,000,000. The 

 gold standard was proclaimed by the Government 

 in August, 1897, and the ''mportation of debased 

 silver coin was prohibited. The mint, which was 

 formerly a private enterprise, was transferred to 

 the Government in October, 1899. Gold is at a 

 premium of 15 or 16 per cent. 



The Army. The number of active troops is 

 about 3,000 men, varying greatly at different 

 times. The number in the militia approaches 18,- 

 000. In case of war every able-bodied Salvado- 

 rian is liable to service up to the age of fifty. 



Commerce and Production. Coffee is the 

 chief product, and after it come sugar, indigo, 

 rubber, balsam, and tobacco. Silver is mined, 

 and some copper, gold, and mercury. The exports 

 ot coffee in 1898 were 38,626,479 pounds; of sugar, 

 I.!) ( .t(;,408 kilogrammes. The chief imports are 

 cotton goods, liquors, iron manufactures, flour, 

 silks, and yarn. The United States have the 

 largest share of the import and export trade, but 

 Great Britain is not far behind, and Germany and 

 France have also important shares. 



Bailroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. A rail- 

 road runs from the port of Acajutla to Santa 

 Anna and Tecla, having a length of 72 miles. 

 Other railroads are building. 



The postal traffic in 1897 amounted to 1,600,000 

 I. -1 tors. The tele-graphs in 1899 had 1,850 miles 

 of wire, and there were 750 miles of telephone 

 wire. 



SAMOA, a group of islands in the Pacific, a 

 part of them belonging to Germany and a part 

 to the United States. At a conference held in 

 Berlin in 1889 representatives of Germany, the 

 United States, and England signed an act guar- 

 anteeing the neutrality of the islands and their 

 independence under their native kings. Interna- 

 tional complications and native disturbances fol- 

 lowing upon the death of King Malietoa in 1898, 

 a joint commission was appointed which recom- 

 mended the abolition of the kingship and the ter- 



mination of the joint protectorate. Germany and 

 England made an agreement on Nov. 14, 1899, by 

 which England renounced in favor of Germany all 

 rights over the islands of Upolu and Savaii, and 

 in favor of the United States all rights over Tu- 

 tuila and minor islands. In January, 1900, this 

 arrangement was accepted by the United States, 

 which in return for the sole dominion in Tutuila 

 and dependencies resigned to Germany all rights 

 over the other islands. 



The German Islands. Savaii is the largest 

 island of the group, 47 miles long and 28 miles 

 wide. Upolu, of about the same length but nar- 

 rower, contains the seaport of Apia and the prin- 

 cipal cocoanut and cacao plantations. The na- 

 tives of the islands are Polynesians, Christian- 

 ized, but still superstitious and warlike. The 

 trade is carried on by a German company, which 

 exchanges trade goods for copra, and by private 

 merchants, most of them citizens of New Zealand 

 or of the United States. The imports in 1897 

 were valued at 65,926, and exports at 47,839. 

 Clothing, provisions, and kerosene are the chief 

 imports. The number of vessels that visited Apia 

 during 1897 was 77, of 81,736 tons. Dr. Solf, 

 president of the municipal council of Apia, was 

 appointed Governor of German Samoa. For the 

 settlement of claims of Americans, Germans, 

 and British arising out of the acts of the three 

 protecting powers during their joint control of 

 Samoa it was arranged to refer them to a court 

 of arbitration. King Oscar of Sweden and Nor- 

 way, on Aug. 22, 1900, accepted the post of arbi- 

 trator. Governor Solf established a local native 

 magistracy, at the head of which he placed Ma- 

 taafa, the late claimant for the throne. The 

 Samoans have preserved their native manner of 

 life and the natural vigor and fecundity of the 

 Polynesian race, and still number 35,000, while 

 the Hawaiians have shrunk to less than tha 

 number, and in Tahiti and Tonga the race 

 disappearing, as in Tasmania and other islanc 

 it has disappeared. A few German planters 

 met with moderate success, although it is in 

 possible to train the Samoans to steady labor fc 

 hire and imported laborers come too dear. Tl 

 plantations of cotton, tea, cinchona, sugar, cinna- 

 mon, and vanilla that were started in the earlier 

 days of German enterprise have proved unreinu- 

 nerative. Cacao and coffee have been plants " 

 more recently, and promise success. Many fruit 

 such as pineapples, bananas, papaya, oranges 

 lemons, mangoes, guavas, and alligator pear 

 now growing wild, would repay cultivation. Tl 

 staple product is copra, the kernel of the coc 

 nut, from which oil is extracted in Germany. 



Tutuila. The island of Tutuila, which will 

 many small islands came into American posses 

 sion in January, 1900, contains the harbor 

 Pango Pango, which the King of Samoa ceded tr 

 the United States for a coaling and naval statin; 

 in 1872. The line separating the German islands 

 from the American is the meridian 171 east of 

 Greenwich. The islands east of this line belong 

 to the United States, Tutuila has an area ot 

 about 54 square miles and 3.800 inhabitants. 

 area of Manna and other small islands is about 

 25 square miles. Tutuila, like the Gorman island- 

 is mountainous and has a fertile volcanic soil. 

 It is covered with the finest woods, and in cli 

 mate and natural beauty is the most attractive 

 island of the group. The United States occupied 

 and began the improvement of Pan go Pango bar 

 bor in 1898, before the division of the islands wa- 

 sottled. The harbor is completely landlocked, and 

 is the only safe one in Samoa. It is very deep and 

 roomy, and is entered through a passage cut in 



