124 Oeograpbical IRotes on /IDejico. 



President Diaz states in his same report that the total number of 

 pieces distributed by our mails in the year 1878 was 5,169,892, while 

 in the year 1896 the number increased to 24,000,000. 



For the purpose of communicating with foreign countries, especially 

 before railroads were finished, the Mexican government granted large 

 subsidies to steamship companies, running especially between Mexican 

 and United States ports, and their amount increased considerably the 

 expenses of our post-office department. 



In the statistical part of this paper I shall insert the statement of 

 the earnings and expenses of the postal service in Mexico, in the twenty- 

 seven years elapsed from July i, 1869, to June 30, 1896. 



PUBLIC LANDS. 



The Spanish government considered itself the owner of lands in 

 Mexico, and it granted them to private parties under certain very 

 liberal regulations. The Indians having been the original owners, and 

 needing the lands to raise their food, and textiles for their clothing, could 

 not be entirely deprived of them, and a large portion of the land was 

 left to each municipality to be held generally in common by the 

 inhabitants of the same. Large tracts of land remain, however, which 

 had not been granted either to the Indians nor to the Spanish settlers, 

 and these we called vacant lands Terrenes Baldios. The Mexican 

 government succeeded Spain in the ownership of public lands, and 

 with a view to make them available for colonization an easy system to 

 dispose of them at a comparatively low price was established. 



The greatest difficulty was to find the public lands, as they had never 

 before been surveyed, and a great many were occupied without title by 

 private parties. As such survey would be very expensive, the 

 Mexican government devised a plan of contracting that work with 

 private companies, paying them with one-third of the land measured,, 

 and in that way large portions of the public lands have been surveyed. 



It appears from President Diaz's report to his fellow-citizens, dated 

 November 30, 1896, that up to 1888 private companies had surveyed 

 33,811,524, hectares of public lands, for which they received in pay- 

 ment for their work one-third or 11,036,407 hectares. In the four years 

 from 1889 to 1892, 16,820,141 hectares of public lands were surveyed 

 by private companies, of which 11,213,427 hectares belonged to the 

 government, and in that way in less than ten years it was possible to 

 survey 50,631,665 hectares. Out of this amount the government sold 

 to private parties and to colonization companies 1,607,493 hectares, 

 and to private companies who were in possession of public lands held 

 by them without any title, which we call demacias, 4,222,991 hectares. 

 At the same time the government has been trying to divide the lands 

 held in common by the Indian towns between the inhabitants of the 



