136 USEFUL PLANTS OP GUAM. 



the past year, in consequence of the poor financial condition of the 

 natives, half of this has been remitted. The proceeds of this tax go 

 for the benefit of the schools and roads of the island, and the natives 

 do not complain of the taxation. 



Present conditions. — From a letter recently received from one 

 of the most intelligent and enterprising of the residents of the island 

 the information in the following three paragraphs is taken: 



Government employees receive salaries twenty times greater than 

 under the administration of the Spaniards. Simple laborers receive 

 more than a dollar a day (sUver) and carpenters and masons $3 a day. 

 Servants will not work for less wages than 20 pesos (silver) a month. 

 Notwithstanding these high rates money is bj' no means plentiful in 

 the island. Employees of the island government are paid from the 

 island funds. In cases where work is performed for the naval author- 

 ities they are paid from federal funds, but these cases are rare. The 

 only money coming to the people from the outside, in addition to that 

 paid in wages to servants and laundresses, is what they receive 

 from visiting ships and officers stationed on the island for fruit, 

 eggs, and fowls. No other money is brought to the island; for 

 copra, the only article of export, is paid for in clothing, sugar, flour, 

 rice, candles, and kerosene. On the other hand, the Japanese and 

 American trading companies collect all the money of the island and 

 send it home. 



In March, 1904, rice was $25 per sack; flour, 113 per barrel of 100 

 pounds; corn, 37i cents a ganta;" chickens, fl.25 apiece; eggs, 6i 

 cents each; meat, 25 cents a pound. The result is that the natives are 

 compelled to depend more and more upon the island products for their 

 subsistence. 



In the civil hospital the sick are cared for by medical officers of the 

 Navy, and medicines are dispensed free of charge to all those need- 

 ing them. A number of marriages have taken place between Ameri- 

 cans employed by the government and native women. Most of these 

 marriages have proved happy, but there are several cases in which 

 American marines have abandoned their native wives and left the 

 island at the expiration of the term of their enlistment. The natives 

 are very anxious for the establishment of a civil government on the 

 island, citizenship for themselves, and public schools for their chil- 

 dren. A supply of pure drinking water is sorely needed in Agaiia, 

 where all the wells are polluted, and a system of sewers is necessary 

 for the health of natives and officials. 



STATISTICS OF COMMEKCE, POPULATION, ETC. 



Foreign commerce. — From the report published by the United 

 States Treasury Department for the year ending June 30, 1903, the 

 following information is taken: 



