Evening star., 1900-02-05
OUR TRANSPAcIFIc TRADE
Exports to Asia and 0ceania Increased 27
Per Cent.
Imports From That Part of the World
Increased 40 Per Cent-Possibilities
in Dutch East Indies.

American commerce with the islands and
| countries Of the Pacific shows a greater
| gain tn the year 1899 than that with any
l other part of the world. Our total exports
increased s2O,OOOOO0, and our exports
to Asia and Oceania alone increased over
s19,OOOOO; our total imports increased
s164, ,OOO,O and s4S,OO0,OO0 of this increase
were from Asia and Oceania. Exports to
Asia and Oceania increased q per cent,
while imports from that part of the word
increased 40 per cent.
OF this increase of $50, 600, 600 in exports
ts Asia and Oceania over six millions went
to British Australasia, four millions to the
Hawaiian Islands, four millions to China
and the remainder distributed to the yari-
Gus countries and islands of that part of
the western Pacific, while of the Imports
from Asia and Oceania twelve millions were
from the Dutch East Indies, eleven millions
from Japan, nine millions from the Brit
ish East Indies, seven millions from China
and six millions from Hawaii.
OF the increase in exports the large pro-
portion was in cotton, cotton goods, ma
chinery and other manufactures of iron
and steel. The increase in our exports to
China was largely in manufactures of cot
ton, and that to the Hawaiian Islands and
Australia manufactures of all kinds, the
large proportion, however, being machinery
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 Japan the i'm
portations of raw silk increased 5000 900,
and there was also considerable increase
in mating. From the great tin mines of
the Straits Settlements there was an in
crease of $5,OOO,OO0 worth of pig tin for use
in manufacturing tin plates, and from Brit
C c uyoC L.,
jute and jute bagging and other productions
of this character. From China there was
an increase of over five millions in raw silk
for use in manufacturing. From the Phil
ippines an increase in hemp and other ar
ticles, and from the Hawaiian Islands a
small increase in sugar, while the most i'm
portant 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
J, ,4S5, 4GO,61 pounds, against $50 657 T94
pounds in 1898 and 536.227 .T03 pounds in
1897, the value of the sugar imported from
the East Indies in 1899 being $50, 6}S, 400
against $16039,642 in 1898 and S9,999,194 in
1897.
Possible Market in Dutch East Indies.
This rapid increase of our imports from
the Dutch East Indies suggests new field
for our expectations, which have been to
that particular spot very light up to the
present time. The French consul at Ba-
tavia, Java, in report, which has just
reached the treasury bureau of statistics,
suggests that the Dutch East Indies offer
an especially fertile field for those desiring
to make sales of agricultural machinery
and implements which at present, he says,
are of an extremely primitive charactersin
those islands.
Most of the implements 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 the blade, while agricultural
machinery, properly SO called, including
machinery for planting, reaping, binding
and thrashing, are practically unknown.
Even sugar cane plantations have as yet
made little progress in the adoption of
modern machinery. The difficulties which
have been encountered in attempts to in
troduce agricultural machinery are, first,
the cheapness of manual labor; second, the
climatic conditions under which articles
of iron and steel grew rusty and unfit for
use in a short time If 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 go sugar
factories, which supply one-third of the
sugar imported into the United States, and
that the total imports of the Dutch East
Indies average $6S 100000 and our own ex-
ports to them less than $1,000, 600 annually,
while our imports from them in 1899 We're
over 32,OOOOOO, suggests valuable and i'm
portant trade possibilities in that direction
if properly cultivated.