The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-04-24
Poor Cuba.
The Havana correspondent of the New York
yQIDacS writes as follows of Cuba:


Nlnacs writes as follows of Cuba:
No longer the inexhaustible Eldorado where
Spaniards amassod a competency in few years,
and then returned to the mother country; no
longer The paradise of Office holders and eysium Of
daring slaves, where the doubloon was considered
an insignificant piece Of money, but country full
of misery, with an exhausted exchequer and plenty
Of debts; it's merchants at the will Of foreigners
and the shipping in dread OF prlvateers; the plant
ers in debt and unable to obtain the necessary
funds, while commercial crisis is still threaten
ing, and every body is ground to the very earth by
the enormous taxation which affects both the
planter and the merchant, and which they will be
compelled to pay in spite Of their appeals and re-
monstrances.
The last steamer brought Commissioner to
inauguratc and direct the new system of taxation,
and he has already opened his Office in the old
Custom House building, attended by number Of
assistants Many of the smaller farmers don't
know how to read or write; they are taxed accord
ing to the supposed value of their plantations and
crops and should the Collector be dishonest he
can easily charge chem what he p!eases, or else
mot enter it in tho books. A new tax collector
may again present the bill already paid, and the
poor farmer pays IL over again. "ris true that he
has redress by producing. the old receipt, If he
has any; but to obtain tie justice which is sure to
be granted to him, he will be compelled to lay his
complaint before tho Intentente who resides in
Havana, and the expense Of travelling and loss OF
time, not counting the usual delay in oil cases,
where justice is to be meted out OF asked for in
this country, is psrhaps quadruple the mount in
dispute and the farmer makes wry face, INDUCES
in q few mcomplimentary remarks about the
Government, but pays the bill over again.
The higher authorities in the island are very
anxious to do justice to all and watch any official
who should transgress his authority, the present
Captain-General being very honorable and up
right gentleman, but the familiar Russian saying
t.Lat God is good and the Gear lives far away,
finds plenty of application here. The i'll educated
or tlmid countryman will suffer and submit to the
insults and orerbearing behavior of some petty Of
fetal for fear Of moestation, especially charge
can be trumped up 80 easily here, and q man
might lay for months in prison before his trial
comes on; and although he may be declared inno
cont by the tribunal, thero is no remedy against
anybody, and in the meantime the mans business
has been ruined during his absence.
The rumor about the landing of q cargo Of
slaves near Remedies, spread by nobody knows
whom, has proved to be false. The time for land
ing cargoes Of ebony has happily gone by, but the
irving every week. The coolie trade is in the
hands of a French company, of whom J. N. Zan-
groniz is the agent. and some English and Span
isll houses. No American house or firm is engag-
ed in this traffic, which is only another kind of
slavery, under q sugar-coated exterior. The phi
lanthropic English seem to take q great interest
in the business, and English bottoms bring the
coole emigrant is better treated on any ship than
on the English. Of course this will be denied by
John Bull, who will cite statistics, but who will for
get to state that the ship has been whitewashed
in Hong Kong or Marao and is consequently no
longer an English ship After arriving here the
vessel loa for New York or, Falmouth, and is
again as good an English vessel as the coaster on
the Clyde. The stoicism and bull dog nature Of
the Englishman is very plable when money is
concerned,