Miscellaneous, 



854 



[October, 1911. 



manager of Macleod and Company, 

 which contained some interesting figures, 

 among which was a comparative state- 

 ment of the trade of the islands, which 

 is an advance statement furnished by 

 the Collector of Customs, and which 

 appears in connection with this article. 



Mr. Macleod's address was considered 

 among the foremost of the evening, and 

 is here given in part, Mr. Macleod after 

 making a few introductory remarks 

 said : — 



When Congress couferred the great 

 boon of reciprocity upon the islands, all 

 of us looked for a prompt response, and 

 we were not disappointed. Congress, 

 naturally, could only give advantages to 

 those articles of export on which a tariff 

 was levied in the United States ; and of 

 the four great articles of export from 

 this country, sugar and tobacco were the 

 two so favoured. Within the first year 

 after the passing of the Payne Bill, the 

 increase in the value of the export of 

 these two articles was over four and 

 one-half million dollars. It is probable, 

 indeed certain, that both of these 

 articles will develop within a very few 

 years into greater sources of wealth 

 than they are even now, especially with 

 the improved methods now being put 

 into use with sugar, and with the prob- 

 able improvement in the culture of 

 tobacco. 



In speaking about exports, we are 

 practically confined to the agricultural 

 resources of the islands. As we all 

 know, this country depends upon its 

 soil. Manufactures and minerals may, 

 in time, become considerable items in 

 our sources of wealth, and we all hope 

 and expect that they will, but at the 

 present moment we exporters have to 

 confine our main attention to handling 

 the farm products of the Philippines. 

 Our monopoly, hemp, has for many 

 years held premier place ; but a compara- 

 tively new article, copra, is beginning 

 to challenge it. It is not yet well known 

 that these islands are now the largest 

 producers of copra in the world. Twenty 

 years ago, copra, as an article of export 

 was unknown, and it was only made 

 here in order to be expressed into coco- 

 nut oil for local use. At that time ifc 

 was a usual thing to see large rafts of 

 coconuts being floated down the river to 

 be loaded into small Hongkong steamers 

 at Fort Santiago, and carried by them 

 to China for sale as fruit. What oil was 

 made locally was used for lighting, for 

 lubricating of practically all the small 

 machinery in use, for cooking, and for 

 other household purposes. 



The increase in the production and 

 export of copra is one of the romances 



of trade. In less than twenty years our 

 copra export has advanced from nothing 

 to over 100,000 weight tons, worth over 

 nine million dollars. The Philippines 

 seem to be in a peculiarly favourable 

 geographical situation for the growth of 

 coconuts, and with the extension of 

 means of ccmmunication, there is no 

 reason why copra should not double its 

 production within the next ten years. 

 One reason why it should do so is that 

 copra-making is liked by the natives, and 

 it probably gives better return fcr the 

 land and labour used than any other 

 crop we produce. 



Hemp continues to hold its place as 

 the first of our exports, although, as I 

 have said other articles may go ahead of 

 it in time. A great part of the late dis- 

 cussion on the subject has been devoted 

 to what is called the low price obtained 

 for the article. Now, the terms "low" 

 and "high" are only comparative. I 

 am afraid that our hemp producers were 

 spoiled somewhat by the high prices 

 obtained for the small quantity pro- 

 duced during the war times and just 

 after the drought of 1904. 



Mr. Macleod then referred to the poor 

 quality of hemp that has been turned 

 out and placed on the market, and 

 referred to the present market open to 

 Philippine copra and turned his atten- 

 tion to sugar. He said : " Sugar, I 

 think, suffers from the same fault. Up 

 to the time that high polarization 

 sugars began to be produced from beet, 

 the islands found little difficulty in find- 

 ing sale tor all the cane sugar produced. 

 The years 1892 and 1893 were the high 

 water mark, with a production of 

 about 250,000 tons each year, of a value 

 of between seven and ten millions 

 gold, and during several years this crop 

 exceeded the hemp crop in value. 



Under the Payne Bill stimulus, it can- 

 not be many years before the 300,000 ton 

 average is reached, and if Congress does 

 not make further concession, we may 

 have to compete with other countries; 

 and we can only do so if the quality of 

 what we produce is as good as theirs. 



Tobacco was lightly touched upon, and 

 then Mr. Macleod continued as follows : 

 The largest year before the war showed 

 a total export value of about 30,000,000 

 dollars, but during the poor years be- 

 tween 1893 and 1898, there must have 

 been times when the annual value was 

 under 20,000,000 dollars- In 1902 our total 

 wa« 24,500,000 dollars. 1902 to 1909 aver- 

 aged just over 32,000,000, and the yearly 

 variation was small. The fiscal year 1910 

 showed about 40,000,000, which was eight 

 millions more than 1909. The Payne Bill 



