175 



ffldibh' Products. 



out passing through the hands of any middleman. This condition of things is much 

 less prevalent in London, where cocoa i.s largely sold at public auctions, a method 

 which is rarely adopted at other centres with the exception of Amsterdam, where 

 about eight auctions of Java cocoa are held annually. 



The following table shows the quantity of cocoa remaining in stock in the 

 various countries at the end of each year :— 



Stocks of Cocoa on Hand at the end of bach Year. 



France ... 

 England ... 

 Germany... 

 United States 

 Other countries 



cj, , ( In ports of discharge 

 Stocks | Afl £ at 



Total Stocks 



1 



1900. 









ion j 





Tons. 



Tons. 



Tons. 



Tons. 



Tons. 





11,353 



9,432 



13,637 



15,935 



19,259 





7,770 



5,940 



4,822 



3,440 



6,060 





1,651 



1,075 



1,362 



1,538 



5,519 





1.205 



1,778 



1,234 



1,375 



1,819 





300 



275 



300 



400 



600 





22,288 



18,500 



21,355 



22,688 



33,257 





8,506 



8,818 



10,328 



10,566 



12,200 





30,794 



27,318 



31,683 



33,254 



45,457 



From the foregoing table it will be seen that the stocks at the end of 1904 in 

 the various ports of discharge amounted to 33,257 tons, namely, 10,000 tons more than 

 the stocks in hand at the same ports at the end of 1900. In spite of the stock in 

 qviestion appearing somewhat large it is in reality considered to be satisfactory, as 

 it is sufficient to insure the manufacturers against any sudden dearth, without being 

 large enough to cause producers to be afraid that their crops in future will be 

 unsaleable. — Translated from tlie German Cocoa Trade Journal " Gordian," front 

 Board of Trade Journal. 



SUGAR GROWING IN JAVA. 

 The following extract from a recent report of the Bureau of Labour of 

 the Department of Commerce and Labour will be read with interest, showing 

 as it does existing conditions on the island of Java, which has an area of about 49,000 

 square miles, and has a population of 29,000,000, of which 63,000* are Europeans. 

 It says :— 



Cane raising affords the most wage employment of any agricultural industry 

 in Java. Sugar cultivation was first initiated by the Government under the 

 system of forced culture, but has long since passed into private hands. Much 

 of the land occupied by the plantations is leased from natives, in accordance 

 with the regulations previously described. The plantations ai'e entirely in eastern 

 and middle Java, and in the former districts the workers are Madurese. They are 

 paid usually on a day-wage basis. But around Passoeroean, in the extreme 

 east, cultivation contracts are used to some extent, and two of the thirty-eight 

 mills in that vicinity depend upon cane bought from local planters who are 

 mostly natives. The custom of making a gang of men jointly responsible for 

 all advances paid to its members is common. To a certain extent cheapness of 

 labour is said to have discouraged introduction of machinery, especially for 

 loading cane. The proportion of Europeans to natives employed on the plant- 

 ations is very small. On one plantation visited near Surabaya, where in the 

 mill alone 120 men were employed, or 60 to the watch, there were only seven 



*A11 who have any European blood in them are counted as Europeans. — Ed. 



