THE CUBA REVIEW 



Heavy rains early in 



To August at Roque, Matan- 



End zas Province, mundated 



Inundations some lands, and brought all 

 the lakes and streams to 

 the south and southwest to the point of 

 overflowing. 



Farmers in this section took precautions 

 against the annual inundation and put their 

 boats, part of the usual farm equipment in 

 this section, in order. 



The Roque floods, as they are called, 

 bring havoc to an area in Matanzas Prov- 

 ince, covering over 57,000 acres of land be- 

 longing to about 140 different owners, and 

 interrupts the traffic over the trunk line 

 of the United Railways to Santo Domingo. 

 There is not a continuous river to lead the 

 waters to Cardenas Bay. 



The subsoil of this watershed is of por- 

 ous limestone, and in normal seasons this 

 underlying, honeycombed rock rapidly ab- 

 sorbs the rainfall. But in times of con- 

 tinuous rains the ground becomes saturated, 

 its absorbent power diminishes, and the 

 surplus waters flood the land, causing 

 enormous damage. 



Congress approved an expenditure of 

 $r;00,000 }early, up to $1,571,000, for the 

 construction of an adequate drainage canal, 

 and President Gomez signed the bill. The 

 drain or channel will extend 50 kilo- 

 meters, and subsidiary channels will be 

 made by improving and deepening the 

 Cochino and Bermejo rivers. The plan of 

 Aniceto G. Menocal, U. S. N., who made a 

 thorough examination of the territory in 

 1907, will be followed. 



Among no class of people, 

 Evils perhaps, is the government 



of the more generally unpopular 

 Lottery as among the country's 

 business men, whose busi- 

 nesses have been all but ruined by the lot- 

 tery, which has deprived their customers of 

 the power to pay their bills. 



Many engaged in disposing of the tickets 

 have been dismissed on account of a 

 marked falling off in the demand. 



"Because of the lottery,"' says the Ha- 

 vana Telegraph, "there are all over the 

 island of Cuba at the present moment thou- 

 sands of idle men and ill-nourished women 

 and children, because since the first of last 

 September some sixteen milhons of dollars 

 have been sucked from the Cuban body 

 politic by this national leech. 



"All over the island there are men who 

 ought to be contributing to the country's 

 productiveness by working in the fields, 

 who are instead eking out a profitless ex- 

 istence by the sale of the lottery tickets. 

 For each of these vile drones there are 

 hundreds of victims, the purchasers of lot- 

 tery tickets, upon whom they prey." 



According to official statis- 



Imuii- tics for the fiscal year 1909- 



gration 1910, the immigrants arriv- 



Movement ing in the Republic of Cuba 



numbered 32,606, of which 



26,699, or nearly 82 per cent, were males, 



and 5,907 were females. 



Spain contributed the largest number of 

 immigrants, that country furnishing 21,722 

 of the male immigrants and 4,225 females, 

 or a total of 25,947, or nearly 80 per cent. 

 Other countries furnished male and fe- 

 male immigrants in the order named : The 

 United States, 1,668 ; neighboring West 

 India Islands, 1,233 ; British Empire, 1,172 ; 

 Porto Rico, 658 ; Turkey, 616 ; France, 235 ; 

 Mexico, 189 ; South America, 156, and 

 Germany, 112. 



The commercial classes in 

 Impressive Havana are opposed to the 

 Opposi- proposed leasing of the 

 tion city's water works to a pri- 



vate company. An ex- 

 traordinary demonstration on August 27th 

 against the change included a mass meeting 

 and the closing between 2 and 4 p. m. of 

 all business places, including the cafes, all 

 bearing the sign reading "closed as a pro- 

 test against leasing the aqueduct." A no- 

 table feature was that of Vice-President 

 Zayas putting himself on record against a 

 scheme that President Gomez favors. 



Never before in Cuba it is said, has there 

 ever been so impressive a demonstration 

 of popular displeasure. 



D'i. Emil[o del Junco y Pujadas 



Secretario de Justicia de la Republica de Cuba 



Abogado de nombradia, literato y periodista, ca- 



tedratico del Institute de Segunda Ensenanza de 



la Habana y autqr de varias obras de caracter 



juridico-social 



(From Cuba in Europe) 



