The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-01-07 00:00:00

TOBACCO MANUFACTORN AT MANILLA

Our Manilla correspondent informs us that he has just re-
turned from a visit to the government manufacture of cigars
in that city, and observes that this manufacture isa close
of
government monopoly, yielding a clear revenue
above
1,000,000 Spanish dollars annually, and that it is increasing.
Tne tobacco, which is of the finest quality, is grown ins the
northern provinces of the Phillippines, anti may be increasedh
infinitely; it is bought of the grower by the Manilla govern-
ment at a very remunerating price, but can only be sold to
government !
In the enormous warehouses in Manilla, 7500 women, and
2000 men are employed, With a number of clerks and super-
intendents. They are all housed and protected from the
weather as coolly and healthfully as the first merchant in
INlaailla-rthey are paid by the number each prepares, and
therefore their industry, without coercion, is unceasing—the
work people are divided at tables, sitting ten at each—every
six tables have a female superintendent, who is responsible
to the clerk of the works for the number and quality of cigars
delivered, and who pays the sixty workers at her tables, and
has an open acconnt with the clerk. These old ladies make
large sums by advancing money to the girls under their care,
on the security of -their week's wages, at worse than Jewish
interest. The usual or average rate that a woman can earn,
in making cigars, is about 37 100 of a dollarper diem—at our
present exchange, Is. 10d ; b'ut many grades of quickness of
hand exist, and e several hund.d reds of women earn the large
m i d
sum of fro
Per day ; and when it is consi-
dered that every article of life here is at a price five times
lower than in England, the,
women beat the men in making` e'e wages are very high. The
gars.
The foreign export cigars are
a separate branch of the es-
tablishment, and though more fair
to look on (the most ex-
pert hands are engaged to prepare them), the material is pre-
cisely the same. The portion of hands
employed in prepar-
ing the export cigars is as 2 to 51 for home
use, but export
is increasing here ; the present price of 1000 e xport cigars at
the manufactory is 71 Spanish dollars. The division of la-
bour is perfect and systematic.
A snuff manufactory forms apart of the establishment,
and
works up the tobacco which is too small for cigars" The
vernment of Old Spain has recently increased its ordersgfoo;
raw tobacco very largely, and places the quality on the.
same
footing with the best Havannah. The gross sum paid out in
wages and prime cost in this admirable institution is 1,500,066
Spanish dollars, and the net profit' exceeds a million, and is
said by some to amount to 1,200,000 dollars. The boys and
girls only work from seven until twelve a.m., and from two to
six p.m., and a merrier or more industrious set it is not pos.
sible to see; they are in separate galleries. The artifictrs
are bound under penalty of dismissal never to blunder the
number of cigars in a bundle, and to distribute weight equally ;
they never count or weigh, yet, from long practice, it is done
as quick as lightning, and always right.—Morning Herald.

PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE.—On Christmas Day evening,
as Mr. and Mrs. Shuttleworth, of Sheffield, accompanied by
a gentleman and lady, with an infant child, were proceeding
in a four-wheeled vehicle from Calow towards Chesterfield,
on arriving at the top of I-lady-hill, the horse suddenly broke
into a full gallop, and descended the hill at a furious rate.
The females, alarmed at theirdangerous situation, screamed,
v: rich caused the animal to increase its speed in spite of all
the efforts made to prevent it. At the bottom of the hill" the
vehicle came in contact with the battlements of the bridge on
the north side, with great violence, and precipitated the
adults over—the females into the river, where they must
have found a watery grave, bad not the men, who fell on the
hank, and had sustained but little injury, instantly recovered
their feet and plunged into the water to rescue them. As
soon as this was done, they next became concerned for the
child, but were soon attracted to the road by its cry. The
child was discovered three or four feet from the horse's
head, and strange to say, unhurt, although it must have been
thrown a distance of not less than seven yards. Mrs. Shut-
tleworth is very much bruised and cut about the head and
face, but is fast recovering; the` Others have sustained no
other injury than a few. bruises. The carriage was literally
dashed to pieces by the shock, but the horse is unhurt.--
Derbyshire Chronicle. •