CENTRAL AMKRiCA: GUATEMALA. 343 



If the long-hoped-for railroad is ever begun and completed, with the 

 result of opening up the 7,500 square miles of country, the increase 

 in population and the demand for more articles in all lines will nat- 

 urally increase the consumption of paper in its various forms and 

 uses. 



W. L. AVERY, 

 BELIZE, December 20, 1898. Consul. 



GUATEMALA. 



POPULATION. 



The census taken on the 26th of February, 1893, gave 1,364,678 

 inhabitants as the total population of the Republic, and the present 

 population will probably approximate 1,500,000. Of the census pop- 

 ulation, probably 900,000 are Indians, of whom not many more 

 than one in a thousand can read or write. This makes the percent- 

 age of illiterates very high; it is probably between 80 and 90 per 

 cent of the whole population. Unquestionably, the people of the 

 cities would with proper opportunities and encouragement become 

 producers of paper. 



CONSUMPTION. 



The uses of paper have always been, and will continue to be, very 

 limited, its main use at present being for printing purposes. The 

 waste in printing offices, as a rule, is sold to dealers in all commer- 

 cial branches and used as wrapping paper; manila and straw paper 

 of all kinds, known as wrapping papers, being considered almost a 

 luxury, the high cost, after paying duties and transportation, pre- 

 venting general use. In many instances, plain banana leaves are 

 employed instead. There are no industries peculiar to the country 

 requiring paper. The kinds of paper used are principally news 

 (print), book, and cigarette paper. 



The printers being few and, as a rule, inexperienced, they buy 

 whatever they can find in the market, regardless of quality, weight, 

 and size, and adapt it to their uses as circumstances require. They 

 import occasionally; for instance, when good terms are offered by 

 any traveling salesman, the printer selecting from the samples shown 

 him such qualities as he thinks he can use in his business. 



As to the market prices, printers here hardly ever pay the same 

 price twice for their stock. There are several reasons for this. In the 

 first place, the stationer from whom the printer generally buys his 

 paper rarely duplicates imports of the same quality, weights, and sizes, 

 and changes prices very frequently. Almost constant fluctuation in 

 exchange and alterations in customs duties are the principal causes of 

 the unsteadiness of prices, not only of paper, but in everything else. 



