Vol. VIII, No. 95. 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
[November. 1902.] 299 
transformed the rock, which sometimes contains as much as 25 per cent, of phosphate of 
alumina. 
“All these different phosphates originating from the guano deposits are found in 
immense quantities, which I estimate as over several hundreds of thousands of tons. On the 
same island very different kinds of guano deposits are found, and scientific investigations are 
rendered necessary when the extraction of guano is started. 
“ Some of the guanos are exported to Mauritius, South Africa, and Europe, and, as the 
phosphoric acid they contain is very soluble in citrate of ammonia, they are much 
appreciated everywhere. When they contain less than 20 per cent, of phosphoric acid they 
are very seldom exported on account of their not being able to bear the cost of freight, as 
the price they fetch depends on the quantity of phosphates they contain. These poor 
guanos remaining in Seychelles will always form an important reserve for the agricultural 
development of the colony. 
“Another source of manure is to be found in the deposits of seaweed which are washed 
up in some places during the N.W. monsoon, and in others during the S.E. monsoon. The 
component parts of these weeds very nearly approach those of good farm manure, but with 
a greater percentage of potash, and it is well known what wonderful effects they produce 
in the cultivation of granitic countries like the coast of Brittany in France. 
“ It is rather surprising that, notwithstanding a good climate, and so many sources 
of manure, agriculture in Seychelles seems to be in a backward state. This is due no doubt 
to absence of capital, and to the abnormally high rate of interest at which alone the planter 
is able to secure advances. If means could be adopted of obtaining capital at reasonable 
rates to help the planters, the present industries of the island would, in a short time, be 
extended, whilst others would be established. 
“Again, owing partly to absence of capital, labour is very scarce in Seychelles. Many 
labourers have been employed by the poorer proprietors as “ metayers, ” and the result is 
that it is now very difficult to rely on the former labourers, who, having become half 
proprietors, naturally look askance at the less lucrative hire system. 
“ The labourer of Seychelles is a negro of fine physique, and it is a pity to see him 
avoiding situations for which he is admirably fitted. The necessity of importing labourers 
is now becoming urgent, and the only countries from which reliable emigrants can be 
obtained are India and Ceylon. 
“ A fully representative committee was appointed at the end of 1900 to enquire into the 
question of the scarcity of labour, but no practical solution of the question has so far been 
arrived at, as planters are unwilling to import labourers unless the entire cost of their 
introduction is borne by the Government.” 

THE EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE. 
The report of the Chief of the Customs on the trade and Customs’ revenue of the East 
Africa Protectorate for the year ended March 31 last has just been issued by the Foreign 
Office. Owing to special and temporary causes, both revenue and trade have fallen. Trade 
at Mombasa is in a sounder condition than'it has been for years past, for a number of smaller 
merchants who were trading on narrow margins and long credits have gone. India sends a 
third of the imports, the United Kingdom 27, Germany II, and the United States 6 per cent. 
The American share of the trade would be larger but that Russian kerosene has been underselling 
that from the United States. The imports of fruit and vegetables have declined, because the 
Protectorate now produces its own and will probably soon export them to South Africa. As 
to the Uganda Railway, Mr. Marsden says that, although the rails reached Lake Victoria in 
December last, there is still a year’s work to do in constructing bridges and laying the per- 
manent way. Two steamers are being built to take the traffic from the centre of Uganda 
across Lake Victoria to Port Florence, the terminus of the line, and it will depend on the 
through rates charged whether exporters will find it worth while to send their products to the 
coast. “ Merchants and others who have travelled in Uganda speak in the highest terms of 
the possibilities of raising crops, and of the cultivation of coffee and rubber, but fear that the 
present freight charges will act as a deterrent to their being exported in any volume.” The 
total imports last year amounted to just over £421,000, the largest in any previous year 
having been £468,000. Piece-goods formed more than a quarter of the whole, and various 
foodstuffs about the same. The exports were ,£113,200, of which ivory formed more than 
half and grain a fifth. The piece-goods trade has gone on steadily increasing, even in years 
when the total imports showed a decline. This is said to be a sure indication of the 
development of the country and of the desire of the natives to clothe themselves in something 
other than feathers and skins. The first case of plague appeared on February 28 in Nairobi, 
the headquarters of the Uganda Railway, 330 miles from the coast, but, stringent 
precautions being taken, it was confined to that town, and speedily stamped out. Owing 
to the coast towns being kept free from plague there was no interruption of shipping business, 
but the traders in Nairobi in some cases suffered considerably, through cessation of their 
business and the destruction of their property, though it is expected that, in the latter case, 
reasonable compensation will be made by the Administration. The bazaar has been moved 
to a more healthy site, and the buildings in the infected area, where the bazaar formerly 
stood, have been destroyed by fire. 

JOHORE. 
The following particulars respecting the State of Johore have recently been received from 
the Corresponding Agent of the Institute, the Hon. Dato James Meldrum : — 
Johore. — The Singapore-Johore Railway, 14 miles, may be finished this year. More 
money has been applied for. More than a million-and-a-half of dollars will have been 
expended on this narrow gauge line ere it is completed. The line through Johore to connect 
with the flourishing railways of the Federated Malay States is not yet begun. 
The Royal Johore Tin Mining Company, Limited, at an extraordinary meeting of the 
shareholders in Singapore, declared an interim dividend of $5 per cent. — 50 cents per share. 
After paying the dividend, from $6,ooo to $7,000 would be carried forward towards next 
dividend. There was $35,000 on fixed deposit and $27,800 in current account at the Bank, 
besides about $4,500 more for tin on hand in Singapore on which advances have been paid, 
but the proceeds not yet received. 
With regard to the land, the chairman said they had a quantity, certainly enough for 
two or three years to come. The Sultan of Johore had been approached by the Company 
with a view to his granting them a circle of 2 \ miles wide all round their present boundaries. 
The Sultan, however, wants the Company to pay the cost of surveying the land. The $10 
shares are now at $q|- only. 
Tin is quoted at $81.50 per picul of 133J lb. ; gambier, the staple product of Johore, 
$14.12 ; black pepper, $32. The cultivation of those articles is entirely in the hands of the 
Chinese ; they also get the tin ore. Prices are greatly regulated by the cost of rice ; at 
present, Rangoon white rice costs $154 P er coyan of 40 piculs ; Siam No. 1, $19°- 
Owing to the great scarcity of water in Singapore at present, the Tanjong Pagar Dock 
Company, Limited, has obtained some from here, with the Sultan’s permission. There are 
no artesian wells in this part of the world. 
The decimal system prevails all over the Far East, and helps immensely to facilitate 
trade and to render the arithmetical education of the young and the ignorant easy. Its 
SS 
adaptation for the purposes of trade is immense ; our complicated system of weights and 
measures, etc., would never answer here, trade would be frustrated thereby, and be seriously 
hampered, and others who use the decimal system have the advantage over us. 

TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS. 
The Commissioner of the Turks and Caicos Islands concludes his report for the past 
year by a comparison of the condition of the islands 50 years ago and now. In 1852, the 
population was 3,260, the total revenue £10,690, and the expenditure £10.370 : the imports 
were £"29,460, and the exports £"22,166, which consisted almost wholly of salt, the export 
of this article being 1,061,776 bushels, valued at £22,034. Twenty five years later, the 
population had increased to 4,723, and the revenue and expenditure had been reduced to a 
little over ,£7,000, because, in the meantime, at the request of the people, the separate 
administration of the colony was given up and it was placed under Jamaica, by which 
considerable economies were effected. Imports fell to ,£22,900, and exports increased to 
£"26,700, of which £23,000 was the value of 1,641,384 bushels of salt sent abroad. To-day 
the condition of the colony is very satisfactory. Without increase of taxation, and even with 
a reduced tariff, the revenue has gone up to £9,000 ; the expenditure is £8, 000 ; the imports 
have increased to over £30,000 and the exports to just on £40,000, of which £22,780 was the 
value of nearly if millions of bushels of salt. The United States absorbs the bulk of the trade, 
as in 1S52 ; the total value of the salt exported, in spite of a great fall in price, remains much 
the same ; but it no longer forms about 99 per cent, of the exports, for though the colony 
continues to owe its existence to the salt industry, it has been reinforced by the sponge ana 
fibre industries. Twenty-five years ago the export of sponges was about £100 ; 10 years 
ago it was £600 ; last year it had reached £9,277. There are three sponge establishments 
on the Caicos Islands, where the sponge is gathered on the banks and finds a ready sale in 
the United States, though not of the quality of the Mediterranean sponge. Fibre is also a 
recent industry; in 1S90 the value of the export was £49 ; last year it was £6,551. The 
salt is produced from sea water by solar evaporation in the Turks Islands, and is the sole 
industry there, for the absence of rain for weeks, the hot dry wind (which renders the 
production of salt possible), and the sandy soil prevent any cultivation ; but in the Caicos 
the conditions are more favourable. Here two large fibre plantations have been formed, and 
are extending their acreage. There are still some thousands of acres suitable for the 
industry, which in three or four years would give a fair return on the money invested, so long 
as the present price of the fibre is maintained. 

NEW BOOKS, etc. 
L. K. Cameron. (Toronto, 1902.) 
Eleventh Report of the Bureau oj Mines , 1902. Thos. AN. ClRSON, Director. 
Printed by order of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. With maps. La. 8vo., 
pp. 309. 
This useful report contains a record of the progress of the mining industry in the 
Province of Ontario up to the date of issue. The statistics of mineral production are for 
the calendar year 1901, but those relating to metalliferous products for the first quarter 
of 1902, having been collected while the report was in press, are also given. The 
information will be most useful to those engaged in the business of mining as prospectors, 
miners or mine owners, as well as to promoters and capitalists. The work of the 
Geological Survey of Canada and of the Ontario Bureau ol Mines has resulted in the 
accumulation of much useful knowledge respecting the geology of the accessible portions 
of the Province, and in various districts the way has been cleared for more detailed 
examination and the tracing out of mineral-bearing formations or knowm mineral belts. 
The results of these labours have been published yearly in the reports of the Bureau. 
With the development of the Province, the operations of the Bureau increase and multiply. 
The opening up of new or Northern Ontario is a question now occupying the public 
mind, and that there is great mineral "wealth in this region can no longer be doubted. 
Professor A. P. Coleman has been engaged during the past year in exploring the Iron 
Ranges of North-AVestern Ontario, and contributes a report thereon as well as a study of 
the Syenites of Coldwell. The important metallurgical and mineral industries established 
at Sank Ste. Marie by the Clergue companies are fully described by Professor A. B. 
Willmott. Professor Miller has examined the Eastern Ontario Gold Belt, and the mineral 
resources of Nipissing district, and the results of his investigation are given in this present 
report, together with geological maps. Mr. I. AY. Wells has written a paper on 
“Arsenic in Ontario,” containing much information on the mispickel deposits in the 
Province and the industry growing up therefrom, which is likely to become important. 
The exhibit of Ontario minerals at the Pan-American Exposition held at Buffalo, N. Y., 
last year, is described by Mr. Frank N. Speller, Superintendent of the Exhibit, 
and the Rev. Thomas Nattress of Amherstburg supplies a brief description of the 
Corniferous rocks as exposed in the quarries of Anderdon township, Essex county. 
Air. W. E. FI. Carter, the Secretary of the Bureau, has also given a full report of his 
inspection of the mines throughout the Province. 
Eyre and Spottiswoode. (London, 1902.) 
The Founding of Fort St. George , Madras. By William Foster. Published 
by order of His Majesty’s Secretary of State for India in Council. Svo., pp. iv, + 113. 
(Price, is.) 
This small brochure , which is an official publication, has been compiled from hitherto 
unpublished extracts from the India Office records, and supplies materials for writing an 
account of the establishment of the settlement of Madras and its history under Hindu 
rule. The early history of Madras has not been fully written, there being many blanks, 
and a number of doubtful statements in the books published on the subject. The author 
of this pamphlet says in his preface that the collections from which the extracts have been 
drawn — the most important of which is that known as the Original Correspondence (O.C.) 
Series — are by no means as complete as could be "wished. Many important letters have 
perished entirely ; of others only portions survive, often in very unlikely quarters ; while 
several events of the first importance are merely referred to obliquely in the contemporary 
correspondence. Such as they are, however, the extracts are believed to reflect fairly all 
the information of importance which it is now possible to glean from the records of the 
East India Company. It was at first intended to confine these extracts to the actual 
founding of the Fort, but the necessity of dealing with the well-known story of 
Sri Ranga’s grant carried the narrative forward to 1645, and it then seemed advisable to 
go on to the conquest of the district by the Golconda troops two years later. The extracts 
are connected by explanatory notes, so as to form in some sort a continuous narrative. 
The quaint spelling of the Company’s factors and agents is very amusing, and their letters 
give many interesting details respecting their dealings with the natives and their rulers. 
The record of a consultation at Fort St. George on the 29th December, 1642, notes that 
— “ The warrs and broyls increasing in this Countrey, and now by reason of our great 
naique’s imprisonment drawing nere to us, wee latelie raised a third Bulwarke of turfe ; 
and wanting Gunns to mount thereon, have resolved that the Advice shall spare us foure 
Minion for that purpose.” The tenacity and sturdiness of the founders of Fort St. George 
led to the successful establishment of the Government at Madras, and greatly influenced 
the future of the settlement. 
W. and R. Chambers, Limited (London and Edinburgh, 1902). 
The Progress of New Zealand in the Century. By R. F. IRVINE, M.A., and 
O. T. J. Alpers, M.A. Svo., pp. xviii + 460. (Price, 5s. net.) 
The authors of this volume have produced a very interesting and complete 
account of the progress of New Zealand, “the fortunate isles,” during the past 
century. Part I., which deals with the history of New Zealand up to the year 1S70, 
has been written by Mr Irvine, who begins with a description of the Maoris and 
their migration from Hawaiki. The manners, customs, and religion of this singular 
