Evening star., 1901-09-14

like Preanger If the Secretary of Agricul-
ture should establish an experimental Gin
chano estate in the mountains near Zam-
boanga or Davao, the matter could be
easily tested, and it might result in ex-
ports of enormous value
AT present something like 16,0Oo,oo0
pounds of quinine are used in the word
every year This is about 1900, ,000. 600
grains. or enough to give every man. wo-
man and child three two-grain pills, an
amount which is manifestly not enough to
counteract the malaria and the mosqu1-
toes. An allowance of one dozen pills per
person would quadruple the demand, re-
quiring a product of 10000 100000 grains. or
enough to build up quinine fortunes in
every part of the Philippine Islands
The Mosquitoes and Malaria.
The scientists here are inclined to the be-
lief now current at home that the mosqul-
toes communicate malaria. They tell me
certain kinds of mosquitoes are full OF ma
larial parasites, germs so small that 1t
takes a billion of them to give man bad
case of fever. and a quarter of billion to
produce a chill These parasites breed so
rapidly, however, that few hours, or at
most a few days, after being bitten by the
mosquitoes the man is full of them and he
soon comes down with malaria. The
only thing poisonous to the para sites
SO far discovered is quiniue. This Kills
them, the blood throws off the organ
ism and the man grows well again. l came
near dying while in Ecuador not long ago
from the bites of such mosquitoes. L had
gone up to the foot of the Andes through
a vast tract of flooded country which
swarmed with malarial mosquitoes. rode
about for two days in a canoe through the
tops of the trees being bitten by these in
sects, and upon my return to Guayaqual
was taken down with a bad case of PERM
coso, something like the Chagres fever.
l had native doctor who gave me from
thirty to sixty grains OF quinine at time
and the quinine / believe killed the organ
isms and saved my life. Later on l met
In Argentina one Of our consuls, Dr.
Ayres, who has been stationed for some
years in the city of Para, at the mouth OF
the malarial Amazon. | told him of my
experience with the fever and also that l
was going up the Amazon. He thereupon
warned me to saturate myself with quinlne
before I got there, saying that the fever
germs could not live In cells which contain
quinine. l did so, and though L Travelled
two thousand miles among the mosquitoes
of the Amazon 1 had no sign of malaria.
A Chat With the Resident Governor.
During my stay here I have called upon
the resident governor Of the Preanger Prov
inces, Lord Van Benthem van den Berg.
This man is one Of the ablest of the officials
in the Dutch East Indies and he has one
of the most responsible positions Of this
island. The provinces over which he rules
are exceedingly rich and he has many mil
lions of natives under him. He has mag
nifcent home here surrounded by palms
and other tropical trees and 1t was In It
that he received me when l presented my
letters from the governor general. He
speaks English f1uently and we chatted for
some time about Java.
Among other things, l asked Lord Van
Bethem van den Berg something as to the
land system of the country. Said he:
1.-The lands here nominally belong to the
government, and we really have control Of
most Of them. We take charge Of them to
hold them for the natives In case the popu-
feed the people. We will then dispose Of
them to small proprietors or in some way
give them to the people. We believe it Is
our duty to take care Of Java so that 1t
must keep the title to the lands out Of the
hands of SPECTATORS, and especially of the
Chinese The Chinese are anxious to get
the lands and once in their possession,
benefit, disregarding that Of the peo-
pie. They do not care II the ma
tives are Impoverished. They will es
tablish stores on their lands and keep
and paying them In store orders. This
would mean the practical enslavement of
the natives. You see, the Javanese are
much like children. They have no care for
the morrow, and no idea whatever OF ac-
cumulation We protect them by holding
on to the lands. If we allowed them to
have the lands they would sell them to the
Europeans, and they in turn might resell
to the Chinese.
How the Government Leases Lands.
1T was a good deal Of a question with
the government as to how to manage the
lands,' continued Lord Van Bethem van
den Berg. land 1 think you will find it
quite a problem in the Philippines. When
we took hold of this island there was much
1o1 rrha
1t belonged to the government or the ma
tives. Thereupon the government advanced
the theory that the lands Originally came
from God to the kings of Java and to the
Dutch government as the heir to those
kings
THE government now leases It's lands
Tor terms of seventy-fve years at about a
gulden, more or less, per acre. This rent
takes the place of taxes, although there is
an additional tax on incomes. At present
there are about 100000 acres leased out in
that way, and it is the only way that land
can be secured. Since 1915 the government
has not alienated any land in this island,
and at present there are little over two mil
lion acres owned by the Europeans, and
less than half million acres owned nv
the Chinese"
A Word About the Filipinos.
The conversation here turned to the Java
nese as compared to the Filipinos, and I
told his excellency that our people were
SSihS tAC I llpILOS lHcy were our EQUALS.
He replied:
I'm that you are making a mistake. They
are not your equals. They are children
and you doing as much wrong to tell
them that as you would If you were to tell
your little boy that he Is as strong in body
and brain as yourself. The F'ilipinos will
not understand you, and you will do your
selves and them a damage which will take
years to repair. We try to impress our
superiority on the natives. They have been
accustomed to look up to their chiefs, and
we try to have them do the same to Us.
1t may be that they will so advance in
time that we can treat them differently At
present they are as happy as any people Of
their kind anywhere. They do not suffer,
and travellers say they are the happiest and
most prosperous Of all the natives of the
far east" FRANK G. CARPENTER.
THE STEEL MARKET
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