The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-02-05
ISLES OF THE PACIFIC
GROWTH OF COMMERCE. WITH
THEM FROM AMERICAN PORTS.
Oceanica and Australasia Furnish n
Great and Growing Field for Amer
lean Mercantile Activity.


WASHINGTON, Feb. 4-American COM
merce with the islands and countries of
the Pacific shows a greater gain in the
year 1899 than that with any other part of
the world Our total exports increased
twenty millions of dollars and our exports
to Asia and Oceanica alone increased over
nineteen millions; our total imports in
creased s164.00OOO0. and s4S,OOO,OOO of this
increase were from Asia and Oceanica.
Exports to Asia and Oceanica increased q
per cent, while imports from that part of
the world increased 40 per cent. OF this
increase of twenty millions of dollars In ex-
ports to Asia and Oceanica over six mil
lions went to British Australia, four mill
lions to the Hawaiian islands, four millions
to China. and the remainder distributed
to the various countries and islands of that
part of the western Pacific while Of the
imports from Asia and Oceanica twelve
millions were from the Dutch East In
dies, eleven millions from Japan, nine mil
lions from the British East Indies, seven
millions from China, and six millions from
Hawaii.
proportion was in cotton, cotton goods,
and steel. The increase in our exports
to China was largely in manufactures of
cotton, and that TO the Hawaiian islands
and Australia manufactures of all kinds,
the large proportion, however, being ma
chinery and general manufactures of iron
and steel. OF the increase of forty-six
millions in imports, from the countries of
the Pacific, raw silk, tin, fibers and sugar
were the most important items. From ia
pan the importations of ray silk increased
$S,0O0,000, and there was also a considerable
increase in mating; from the great tin
mines of the Straits Settlements there
was increase of $5,OOOO0O worth of pig
tin for use in manufacturing tin plates,
and from British East Indies there was an
increase in jute and jute bagging and
other productions of this character; from
emma there was an increase of over five
millions In raw silk for use in manufac-
turing; from the Philippines an increase In
hemp and other articles and from the
Hawaiian islands a small increase in sugar;
while the most important and suggestive
increase from the Pacific countries is that
OF sugar from the East Indies, chiefly the
Dutch East Indies. which amounted in
the year just ended to LASS, 46O, 90 pounds,
against $50, .794 pounds in 1898, and $780,
227, 103 pounds in 1897. the value of the sugar
imported from the East Indies I'm 1899 being
$50. 636. 46e. against s16039.6i2 in 1898, and
50 999. 194 in 1897.
This rapid increase of our imports from
the Dutch East Indies suggests a new
field for our expectations which have been
10 that particular spot very light up to the
present time. The French consul at Ba-
tavia, Java, in a report which has just
reached the Treasury Bureau of Statistics,
suggests that the Dutch East Indies offer
especially fertile field for those desir-
ing TO make sales of agricultural machin-
cry and implements which at present, he
says, are of an extremely primitive char
acter in those islands. Most of the impe-
ments used in small farming come from
Germany and England. and are in many
particulars unsatisfactory: the handles of
the sickles are not properly fastened to
properly so-called. including machinery
for planting, reaping, binding and thresh-
ing, are practically unknown. Even sugar
cane plantations have as yet made little
progress In the adoption Of modern ma
chinery. The difficulties which have been
encountered in attempts to introduce ag-
ricultural machinery are, first, the cheap
ness of manual labor: second, the climatic
conditions under which articles of iron and
steel grow rusty and unfit for use in
short time IL exposed to the open air. and
third. the fact that the white ant destroys
nearly all kinds of wood except teak.
which Is, therefore. necessarily used in
the construction of machinery for use in
the island. The fact, however that there
are in Java and Sumatra 2S0 sugar facto-
imported into the United States. and that
the total imports of the Dutch East In
dies average sixty-eight millions of dol
lars, and our own exports 10 them less
than two millions annually, while our i'm
ports from them in 1899 were over thirty
two millions suggests valuable and impor-
tant trade possibilities in that direction, IL
properly cultivated.