354 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1881 
Meantime we must look forward to Mr. Ward's 
Report in tlie hop" of further light being thrown on 
the nature and working of the Ceylon pest. Is there 
an alternating hostplant in the case of hemileia vast* 
atrix ? 
CHAMPION BLUB GUM. 
" I have a blue gum tree on the road through Carla- 
beck to Nuwara Eliya measuring at least 35 feet in 
height, and by measurement 60 inches in girth at 
the ground, and 45 at about 6 feet high. This can- 
not be more than 5£ years old from seed, though it 
may be less."— Cor. 
CEYLON LIB EM AN COFFEE IN AMERICA. 
Messrs'. Aitken, Spenee & Co. have received a tele- 
gram from New York Sept. 8th advising the sale of 
a small shipment of Liberian coffee from Kalutara 
at 18 cents per lb., equal to 84a per cwt. This was, we 
understand, valued at 93s before the fall in coffee 
took place. 
ABOLITION OF TOBACCO MONOPOLY AND 
FORCED LABOUR IN THE PHILIPPINES. 
The coBt of telegraphing to Manila the royal decree 
abolishing the tobacco monopoly is said to have 
amounted to 17,000 reals. Since its promulgation the 
Manila papers have published the preamble to the 
decree, — the statement of objects and reasons ap- 
pended to it as laid before the King of Spain by 
the Minister for the Colonies, in which the injustice 
of the monopoly aud benefits of its abolition are thus 
set forth : — 
"Sire. — Extreme necessity in a country without tax- 
able wealth, and without sufficient revenue to meet ex- 
penditure, obliged Don Jose de Basco F Tr argas, the then 
Governor of the Philippines, to establish in 1781 the Go- 
vernment tobacco monopoly in thoseislands, the resulting 
disturbances among the natives having had to be put 
down by force. Hence the present system has been 
in being for a century. Its results show that though 
necessary at first, it has now become indefensible 
from any stand-point. Economically the mouopoly 
has kept the productivenets of the Philippines within 
narrow limits, and politically, the means employed 
to maintain it ar ^ inadmissible. To exact labour from 
the native : to oblige hi m to grow a fixed number 
of plants; to compel him under penalties not to neg- 
lect for a moment careful attention in their cultivation, 
and, when the time comes for him to gather the 
product of his labour, to send Government officers 
down to reap the fruit of his toil by handing 
over, in payment or as the price, a sum which 
seldom readies 20 per cent of the reil value of the 
crop in the market — all this is injustice, which, 
thiugb it has bpen in being for a long time, cannot 
be continued without gn at risks. Even if there be 
no other reasons for it, these are sufficient to decree 
freedom to cultivate tobacco, and the abolition, of 
its monopoly, whatevtr might be the resulting deficit 
in the estimates. 
"There need be no fear that the mode of life 
hitherto followed by the native will foster in him 
habits of laziness on obtaining freedom to labour for 
himself. Setting aside the circumstance that the 
history of mankind in many proven instances, is 
against, such an apprehension, facts in the Philippines 
aie more telling th.n conjectures. Free cultivation, 
such as that of hemp, coffee and above all, that of 
sugar cane, the toilsome nature of which has become 
proverbial, is now in a surprisingly flourishing con- 
dition. As to tobacco cultivation, it has been noticed 
that in those provinces where the same is carried on 
with the fewest restrictions, both population and 
productiveness have increased visibly, but in Cagayan 
and Isabela for instance, more fertile and rich than 
the other provinces and completely under the mono- 
poly, not only does tobacco growing fall off but the 
country is becoming depopulated so that the authori- 
ties in the islands have had to device means and 
measures to re-people it. Hence in thus doing justice 
neither expediency is sacrified nor is the future 
imperilled. Morally, politically, and economically con- 
sidered, tobacco cultivation freed from monopoly 
may be left to develope and shape its course stimulated 
by anticipated gain and justifiable hopes from honest and 
well directed en'erpriee. Its consequences, sire, in 
the fruitful and thinly peopled islands of the Philip- 
pines cannot fail to be boih immediate and satisfactory. 
At least such has been the case with a similar 
measure in Cuba. Free labour, landowning without 
serfdom, industry without monopoly, and production 
without restrictions will exercise novel and decisive 
influence, and combined with patriotism they may lay 
the foundation fur our colonial regeneration. The 
current of colonisation and labour now throughout the 
world, and capital unemployed either from doubt or 
apprehensions will flow into the extensive and almost 
uncultivated countries situated between the Suez 
Canal and the future Panama Canal, and lying in the 
track inevitably to be followed in circumnavigating 
the world. There, whatever may be the future in 
store for our native land, a country aud a race of 
people discovered and civilised by us will always 
proclaim to the world that, in the beneficent reign of 
your Majesty, vigorous measures were spontaneously 
taken for their futu'-e prosperity aud welfare. Rely- 
ing on theee convictions and hopes, the Minister signing 
this, in agreement with the Council of Ministers, has 
the honour to submit for your Majesty's approval 
the subjoined draft decree. — Madrid, 25 June, 1881. 
(Sd.) Fernando de Leon y Castillo." 
There is every prospect of the intended Spanish 
Colonial Exhibition being held in Madrid in 1882. 
No less than six plans for the proposed Exhibition 
building have been sent into the Colonial office there. 
The Comercio in noticing the conveyance of emi- 
grants for the Colony in new Ireland by the Marquis 
de Campo's steamers from Barcelona to Singapore, 
states that probably a steamer was about to leave 
Manila for Port Breton with supplies. — Straits Times. 
■ The West Indies. — Jamaica advices are to the 9th 
July. Five men and three women had been struck by 
lightning in a pasture opposite Stanton Estate, in 
Morant Bay, of whom two men and a woman were killed, 
and tbree others, seriously injured, were taken to the 
hospital. The weather at Barbados continued favour- 
able for the growth of the young canes and other crops. 
The West Indian of the 8th July, fays :— "The change of 
weather has brought sickness with it, several cases of 
fever having occurred, which have created quite a yellow 
fever panic, although only a few of the cases were of that 
type, moit of them being attributable to the setting in 
of the rainy season, to exposure to wet or chills, bringing 
on colds accompanied with fever and dysentery." The 
weather at Demerara had been in every respect favour- 
able during the fortnight, and reports from al parts 
were most encouraging as to the crop now on the 
ground. Li' tie doubt was entertained that if seas no 
able showers coniinued until the 1st of August the 
crop from the 1st of July this year to the 30th of June, 
1882, would be the heaviest ever reaped. Produce 
wns in good demand at remunerative prices. A smart 
shock of earthquake was felt in Grenada onthe4th inst. — 
London Times. 
