Ja".. 1926 
Thr Queensland Naturalist. 
55 
stores and mort^ajres on the native property are held 
by Chinamen, mainly from Canton and Amoy. Periodi- 
cal massacres testify to their popularity. 
Tn the eif?hteentli century Britain captured Manila 
and held the islands for some years. When they were 
handed back to Spain, many of the British Indian troops 
were demobilised and settled on the Island of Luzon. 
Their descendants form a lar^e and distinct unit of the 
]>opulation. 
Tlie Spanish occupation has had a ju'ofound effect 
on the Filipino peo])le. One of the cliief policies of 
Spanisli colonial administration is the vesting of local 
authority in a ‘ ‘mestizo’' or half-caste class. Constant 
inter-marriage dnring the last three hundred years has 
produced an aristocracy with a large admixture of 
Spanish blood and with strong Spanisli sympathies. 
The houses of tlie wealthier classes are built in the 
Spanish style, and the old walled city of INIanila is a 
transplanted piece of old Spain with its immense stone 
churches, narrow streets and stone houses. The native 
houses are of a similar type to those of other Malayan 
countries. Tliey aie usually built with a bamboo frame- 
work; the roof is a tliateh of the leaves of the nipa palm 
(Xipa fruticans): tlie walls may be composed of either 
nipa leaves or of wOAcn bamboo, and the floor is of 
strips of split bamboo laid side by side. Tlie house so 
constructed is very cool and airy, and very pretentious 
buildings are often built in the same style as that of the 
native hiits. With the increase in the price of labour, 
however, it has become cheaper to use wood and gal- 
vanised iron, but the resultant structure, though more 
durable, is not nearly so comfortable. It has the im- 
portant advantage of not harbouring so many cock- 
roaches as the original type does. 
The whole of the Archipelago lies well within the 
tropics, and, except in the colder mountainous regions, 
tlie agricultural crops are tropical. Rice is the staple 
food, and great stretches of the lowlands are laid 
out in paddies. Rice is raised in seed-beds and the 
seedlings transplanted by hand into the fields. A dis- 
tinct race, the upland rice, is grown on hillsides in 
forest clearings. Fnlike lowland rice, tliis does not need 
submersion in water for its growth, and is very useful to 
the poorer people who own no rice land. The trees are 
