Vol. VIII. No. 87. 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
[March, 1902.] 
// 
MONTHLY COMMERCIAL AND 
INDUSTRIAL SUMMARIES. 
GENERAL COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. 
UNITED KINGDOM. 
British Corn. — The following statement gives the average 
price of British Corn during the four weeks of February this 
year, as compared with February, 1901 : — 
Wheat. 
1901. 
Barley. 
Oats. 
Wheat. 
1902. 
Barley. 
Oats. 
26/7 
25/7 
t 7 /8 
27/4 
26/7 
20/2 
26/8 
2 5/7 
17/7 
27/2 
26/9 
20/3 
20/3 
26/4 
25/4 
17/7 
26/11 
27/5 
26/1 
25/- 
17/7 
Fisheries. — The total amount of Fish, excluding Shell-fish, 
landed on the English and Welsh coasts from the fishing 
grounds during January this year was 479,002 cwt., value 
^£519, 163, as against 483,296 cwt., value ,£474,808, during the 
same month last year. The value of Shell-fish was ,£24,391 
as against ,£26,582, 
COLONIES. 
British Guiana.— Gold-Mining, — Commenting on the 
decreased output, which may be due to some extent to extra atten- 
tion given to diamond-mining, the Demerara Daily Chronicle 
says that influences are now at work which promise to promote 
the development of the industry very materially in the near 
future, outside capitalists having been engaged in introducing 
for mining purposes machinery of the most advanced character, 
and it may reasonably be assumed that they are satisfied that 
the additional outlay will be justified by the results. Mechanical 
dredging is being tried on the Barima with satisfactory results. 
The advantages seem to be that a relatively small amount of 
capital is required for the starting of operations, and that, com- 
paratively speaking, only a few labourers are needed to keep 
the dredger running. On the authority of “a colonist 
interested in the gold industry” an expert who has prospected 
in the Barima river estimates that “ a 500-ton dredger working 
200 days at 24 hours per day will make a profit of ,£25,000 
sterling. The cost of a dredger would be about A 3 > 000 -” 
The experiment now in progress should determine the amount 
of reliance that can be placed on what is rightly described as a 
‘ ‘ remarkable anticipation. ” 1 ' One circumstance, ’ ' the Demerara 
Chronicle remarks, "must be borne in mind; dredging is not 
an undertaking for the local man with no experience of the 
system and with little or no capital. Men who mean business, with 
money to support them, should have the prior claim for con- 
cessions, and the indiscriminate granting of large areas to 
applicants who obtain them solely for the purpose of speculation 
ought carefully to be guarded against. This class of applicant 
is but a stumbling-block to progress.” The prospect of a 
considerable development of the gold-mining industry in British 
Guiana during the course of the present year, however, is not 
restricted, it appears, to the development of dredging. The 
** hydraulicking” system is also to be extended to the goldfields. 
Options have been secured with this object in the Potaro 
district, and the installation of an elaborate hydraulic plant at 
Omai is approaching completion. The hydraulic and the 
dredging processes arc the two methods most suitable to the 
conditions under which gold is found in British Guiana. 
Canadian Trade with the West Indies. — The Dominion 
Statistician, Mr. George Johnston, has gathered together an 
interesting collection of papers dealing with trade between 
Canada and the West Indies which will be forwarded to the 
Commission which is to investigate business openings in the 
West Indies on behalf of the Canadian Manufacturers’ Asso- 
ciation. The figures show that, in spite of the outlay of a large 
sum of money to promote trade between Canada and Jamaica, 
Trinidad, Barbadoes, and the rest of the islands, business has 
steadily declined. 
Cape Colony. — Trade in 1901.— The imports for 1901 
were ,£23,990,543, as compared with ,£19,678,336 in 1900 and 
,£19,207,549 in 1899. The specie imports were £2, 575,800, 
against ,£2,516, 520 in 1900 and ,£3.836, 100 in 1S99. Of course 
the expansion in imports is chiefly due to the presence of the 
troops and the expenditure on supplies. The exports are a 
better test of the reviving trade of the Colony. The total for 
1901 was ^£10,373,273, as compared with ,£8,147,670 in 1900 
and ,£23,247,258 in 1899. The principal items in the exports 
were colonial produce, diamonds and gold, all of which showed 
increases. How much South Africa depends on the Rand gold 
industry is shown by the fall in exports between 1899 and T900. 
Of this fall ,£13,478,888 was due to the cessation of mining. 
The trade of the Cape with the Transvaal amounted to 
£x, 162,000 last year, against ,£188,500 in 1900, and the trade 
with Rhodesia was ,£842,900, against ,£414,900. 
New South Wales. — The Sydney Harbour Collieries. 
— Mail advices report the striking of coal in the Birthday shaft 
of the Sydney Harbour collieries. The coal is said to be of 
excellent quality, so that in addition to the facilities offered by a 
splendid harbour, Sydney now possesses good coal. The ar- 
rangements are such that the coal can be delivered direct from 
the screens into the hold of the vessels waiting to receive it, and 
the work will be accomplished by powerful machinery with the 
greatest expedition. As there is a depth of 26 feet alongside the 
wharf at low water, and the length (580 feet) is adequate for all 
reasonable requirements, it would appear that very large vessels 
can coal there with great despatch and convenience. The ad- 
vantage that will be possessed by the Harbour collieries in this 
respect is obvious. 
Queensland. — Pearl Shell Industry. — In the annual 
report of the Marine Department, the Queensland Inspector of 
Fisheries (Mr. J. R. Tosh) states that the pearl shell industry of 
Torres Straits has reached a critical stage. From the time when 
the earliest shelters, each with a schooner and a few open boats, 
picked up shell at practically low-water mark, there has been a 
gradual evolution in skill, in appliances, and in organisation, to 
meet the increasing difficulty of obtaining shell. Year by year 
the shell-bearing area has been pushed further from the shore, 
and year by year the boats have ventured further afield. TV 
grounds will be more thoroughly worked than ever before, and 
this means that the depletion of the known areas will be 
materially hastened. Unfortunately, no one knows .how far the 
shell-bearing area extends, and in the circumstances it is difficult 
to say how we stand for a supply of shell for the coming years. 
Unless some precautions are taken, one can look forward to 
a time when all the shelling grounds within a distance to be 
reached from Thursday Island will have been worked down to a 
payable limit ; at that point the fleets will sell out or depart in 
search of pastures new, and the fishery will be practically closed 
down. There is no telling when the paying limit will be reached. 
INDIA. 
Afridi Wax-Cloth. — According to the Times of India , 
Mr. George Watt, the Reporter on Economic Products, has 
succeeded in inducing the Afridi wax-cloth workers to impart 
the secret of their craft, which has hitherto puzzled all enquirers 
into Indian industries. Afridi wax-cloth, a kind of raised colour 
painting on cotton fabrics, has been almost from time im- 
memorial, and is, a well-known product of certain workshops in 
Peshawar, Lahore, Calcutta and Bombay ; but until Mr. Watt 
set about his enquiries, complete ignorance prevailed, outside 
the circle of artisans, as to the constitution of the medium 
employed. With the assistance of Mr. Roe, the Secretary to the 
Peshawar Municipality, Mr. Watt was able to ascertain that the 
medium, known as roghan , is a peculiar product of the safflower 
seed. The method of preparation, which is carried on entirely 
at Peshawar, is to boil the oil — expressed from the seeds by cold 
pressure — for 12 hours, and then throw the heated fluid into 
shallow pans of cold water. Under this treatment it swells up 
into a thick, jelly-like substance, which is the roghan of commerce. 
Before being applied to the cloth, it is mixed with some mineral 
colour and drawn out into fine threads on a pointed style with 
which the pattern is traced. The operators, who are invariably 
Afridis, attain a very high degree of skill, and possess marked 
artistic abilities. The weight of Afridi wax-cloth — an Afridi 
woman’s costume would turn the scale at over 13 lb. — makes it 
unsuitable to articles of European dress ; but the ever-increasing 
demand for household drapings gave a ready outlet for the Afridi 
artisan's skill, to which he has readily adapted himself. Careful 
tests made in Calcutta also showed that as a waterproofing 
material, or as a material to be used in the manufacture of 
linoleum, roghan has a distinct claim to careful consideration, 
and is, in sowie respects, superior to linseed. 
The Mysore Sugar Industry.— In the course of an 
interesting note on the Mysore sugar industry, Dr. Lehmann 
said that notwithstanding the fact that iron mills had taken the 
place of the old wooden mills, and much better extraction of 
the juice obtained, yet, when viewed in the light of the progress 
made in other countries, the sugar industry was one of those 
decaying industries which it was in the interests of the State 
to revive. The native refining industry was practically already 
dead in Mysore, and the so-called native refined sugar which 
was sold to the bazaars was simply sugar refined in the large 
factories, imported into the Slate, and re-melted in the bazaars. 
The fate which had overtaken the native refining industry was 
sure to overtake the jaggery-boiling industry sooner or later, 
and in fact the sooner jaggery-boiling was abolished the sooner 
the sugar industry would regain some of its former splendour. 
The methods of cultivating the cane would also have to be 
improved. The same quantity of sugar-cane which produced 
100 lb. of jaggery, from which 50 lb. to 62 lb. of refined 
sugar could be obtained, would give, if manufactured directly 
into refined sugar by improved machinery, about 70 lb. to 
75 lb. of refined sugar. Such a loss evidently made all the 
difference between a flourishing and a crippled industry. Waste 
of fuel and other losses and drawbacks in jaggery-boiling had 
lo be added, but could not well be taken into account, as they 
were to some extent off-set by drawbacks in whatever other 
system might be introduced. Still, the loss of 151 lb. on every 
75 lb. of refinable sugar justified almost any effort to save it, 
and although the loss might be to some extent overcome — to 
what extent Dr. Lehmann was not prepared to say, but soon 
hoped to make experiments in that direction— by improving the 
system of jaggery-boiling, still, so long as jaggery-boiling was 
continued, the loss must go on to a very large extent, as was 
proved by all the leading sugar-producing countries having long 
ago abandoned all systems which were in any way similar to 
that in vogue in India. 
FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
Exports to Guatemala. — The Consul-General of Guate- 
mala calls the attention of shippers and merchants trading with 
that Republic to the regulations that all consular invoices, no 
matter from what port the goods are shipped, must be legalised 
solely by the Consul of Guatemala (where any) resident in the 
city in which the exporter's firm is domiciled ; and that consular 
invoices must be dated at the place in which the exporter’s firm 
is domiciled, and both the invoices and the sworn declarations 
must be signed by an authorised member of the exporter’s firm, 
Germany. — Trade Returns. — The Imperial Statistical 
Office has reported the preliminary figures regarding Germany’s 
foreign trade in 1901, showing that the total imports amounted 
to 44,304,857 tons, compared with 44,652,288 tons in 1900. 
There was a decrease of more than a million tons in the coal 
imports, and more than 500,000 tons in the iron and timber 
imports. The total exports amounted to 32,363,395 tons, com- 
pared with 32,681,747 in 1900. The increase in iron exports 
was nearly 800,000 tons, while exports of iron ore and of coal 
fell off heavily. The value of the imports for the last calendar 
year was estimated at 5,967,000,000 marks, as compared with 
8,043,000,000 marks in 1900. Exports last year were valued 
at 4,759,000,000 marks, as against 4,753,000,000 marks 
in the previous year. The returns indicate very clearly the 
extent to which export prices have fallen, the substitution of 
800,000 tons of manufactures of iron and steel, most of which 
were quite highly manufactured, for exports of iron ore and coal, 
failing to increase the value of the total exports appreciably. 
United States. — Production of Pig-Iron in 1901. — 
According to the American Iron and Steel Association, the pro- 
duction of all kinds of pig-iron in the United States in 1901, 
was 15,878,354 gross tons, against 13,789,242 gross tons in 1900 
and 11,773,934 in 1898, the total increase in 1901 over 1900 
being a larger one than the "boom” year 1899 showed over 
1898. The whole number of furnaces in blast on December 31, 
190X, was 266, against 232 on December 31, 1900. 
The States supplying the principal production are shown in 
the following table : — 
Pennsylvania 
Ohio . 
Illinois 
Alabama . 
Virginia 
Tennessee . 
Maryland . 
Gross tons 01 
2,240 lb. (includes 
spiegeleisen). 
1901. 
7 . 343.257 
3 . 326 , 4 2 5 
1,596,850 
1,225,212 
448,662 
337,139 
303,186 
Production according to fuel was as follows : — 
Bituminous 
Anthracite 
Charcoal . 
Charcoal and Coke 
Gross Tons. 
13,782,386 
1 , 7 * 2,527 
360, 147 
23,294 
LABOUR MARKET. 
General Statistics. — The Labour Gazelle reports that 
employment improved during January, but it is not so good as 
a year ago. In the 151 trade unions, with an aggregate mem- 
bership of 553,218, making returns, 24,470 (or 4-4 per cent.) 
were reported as unemployed at the end of January, compared 
with 4 '6 per cent, in the 144 unions, with a membership of 
545,539, from which returns were received for January, 1901, 
Trade Disputes 
to the number of 33 began in January, 1902, involving 
23,558 workpeople, of whom 6,898 were directly and 16,660 
indirectly affected. The corresponding number of disputes in 
January, 1901, was 29, involving 17,754 workpeople. Of the 
33 fresh disputes in January, 1902, 11 occurred in the mining and 
quarrying industries, 13 in textile trades, 4 in metal, engineering 
and shipbuilding trades, and 5 in other industries. Of the 33 
new and old disputes of which the termination is reported, 
6 were decided in favour of the workpeople ; 13 in favour of 
the employers ; and 14 resulted in a compromise. Changes 
in the 
Rates of Wages 
of about 156,678 workpeople were reported during January, or 
which number 2,783 received advances, and 153,895 sustained 
decreases, the net effect being a decrease averaging 5#d. weekly 
per head. The principal decrease was that sustained by 135,000 
coal miners in South Wales. Changes affecting no less than 
135,000 workpeople took effect under sliding scales. 
COLONIES. 
The monthly report, compiled by the Emigrants' Informa- 
tion Office, is as follows : — Canada,— The report of the 
Dominion Labour Department for January states “ Employment 
is general, except in those branches of particular trades which 
are affected by the winter season, as outdoor construction works 
and the like; and in some parts the demand considerably 
exceeds the supply. The coal-mining industry on Vancouver 
Island (British Columbia) is, however, to be further excepted. 
Owing to recent fires in some of the mines, a temporary closing, 
and a part reduction of the working force for other reasons in 
others, a number of miners and their helpers have been unem- 
ployed.” During 1901 the building, metal, engineering and 
shipbuilding trades were very busy, and the printing and many 
other trades were also well employed. There is a fair demand 
at the Rossland mines in British Columbia for miners and 
mine labourers, and a good demand for carpenters, painters, 
paper-hangers, and female servants, the latter receiving 20 dols. 
to 30 dols. a month, vrith board and lodging ; a blacksmith, 
who can also do wheelwrights’ work, can always get good wages 
in British Columbia. Australasia (New South Wales). — 
Reports from Yerildcrie and Hillston state that the only demand 
is for a few carpenters. At Orange the only demand is for 
female servants and a few farm labourers. At the Broken Hill 
silver, mines work is very dull, owing to low prices, and many 
men are out of employment. (Victoria), — The supply of labour 
is, for the most part, sufficient. The minimum wages for 
labourers in the pottery trade have been fixed at 36s. to 40s. pet- 
week of 48 hours, and for females over 18 years of age, employed 
in the making of general pottery, at 20s. ; for compositors, letter- 
press machinists, and stereotypers in the printing trade, at 50s. 
to 52s. per week of 48 hours ; for linotype or monoline work, at 
63s. per week of 48 hours ; for lithographers and bookbinders, at 
52s. per week of 48 hours ; and for general butchers, at 45s. per 
week of 52 hours. (South Australia.) — A report from South 
Australia states that there is a fair demand through the summer 
months for farm and general labourers at 15s. to 25s. a week, with 
board and lodging ; that there is a good demand for female 
servants, but that there is no demand for miners, station hands or 
mechanics. (Queensland). — A report from Brisbane states that 
there is practically no demand for more labour, except in the ease 
of female servants. At Rockhampton the only demand is for 
female servants and a few farm or general labourers. (Western 
Australia). — The dispute in the building trade at Perth and 
Fremantle has been settled ; the week's work is fixed at 48 
hours, and the rate of is. 4^d. an hour remains unaltered ; piece 
work is abolished. (New Zealand). — A report from Invercargill 
states that there is a good demand for farm and general 
labourers, shepherds and female servants, but not for mechanics, 
except for those competent to engage in gold dredging, which 
is an increasing industry. At Auckland, farm and general 
labourers, station hands, female servants and carpenters are 
wanted, but not miners. At Wellington, miners, female 
servants, engineers and blacksmiths are in demand. In most 
parts of the colony there is a demand for competent farm 
labourers and lads for milking. 
South Africa (Cape Colony). — Noone is now allowed to land 
in South Africa without a permit. This must be applied for at 
the Permit Office, 39, Victoria-street, London, S.W. The 
applicant must possess £100, or prove that he is in a position to 
maintain himself in South Africa. Applicants living within 50 
miles of London must apply in person. These permits are no 
guarantee that the holders will be allowed to proceed inland. 
The Permit Office does not include persons wishing to go out 
to farm, without any definite farm in prospect, amongst those 
having knowledge of a trade or profession. From a large 
number of official reports, dated at the end of 1901, which have 
been received from all parts of the colony, it appears that there 
was a demand for skilled labour in King William's Town, 
Grahamstown, East London, Wellington, Beaufort West, 
Somerset West, Stellenbosch, WDlowmore, Port Nolloth, 
Mafeking, and some other small places, and for female servants 
in many parts. This demand was owing to so many men 
having joined the irregular forces at higher wages, and to 
various military demands. Rates of wages and prices of pro- 
visions were rising in most districts. (Natal). — There is a good 
demand throughout the colony foi men in the building trades, 
such as carpenters, bricklayers, stonemasons, plasterers, painters, 
etc. Competent men of good character can obtain reduced 
third-class passages at £’io. 2s. and 12 guineas a head by apply- 
ing to the Agent-General for Natal, 26, Victoria-street, London, 
S.W. A few railway guards, platelayers, locomotive boiler 
makers, locomotive fitters, turners, and machine men of five 
years’ experience are also wanted. Permits to land must be 
obtained from the Permit Office, 39, Victoria-street, London, 
S.W. The cost of living in Natal has risen considerably. 
(Orange Rivar Colony and Transvaal). — Only refugees, 
Government employes, and persons engaged in a service of a 
public nature will be permitted to proceed to the Transvaal. 
Candidates for the new South African Constabulary should 
apply to The Recruiting Officer, S.A.C. , Recruiting Office, 
King's-court, Broadway, Westminster, S.W. ; they must be 
good riders, good shots, single, strictly sober, and from 20 to 35 
years of age ; they will be given free passages to South Africa. 
Farriers also are wanted for this Force. 
