accounts only for the ordinary expenditure, as a statement of extraordinary expenditure is also submitted as follows: Public works........... Bounties and subventions... Railway guaranties Differences in exchange.. Subvention to municipality. Special laws..................... Total......... To meet which the following extraordinary ways and means are set forth: $4,290,000 606,000 3,802,510 5,016,400 I, 190,000 1,000,000 15,904,910 $900,000 Land tax, 36 per cent......... Licenses, 20 per cent.. National bank shares (dividend)..... Other shares (dividend).. Interest on deposits of treasury funds..... 290,000 3,600,000 1,000,000 Tax, I per cent. on issue of banks during "curso forzoso". 15 per cent. additional for differences in exchange...... Sundries..... Total............ 2,500,000 1,100,000 6,900,000 200,000 16,490,000 This would leave a surplus of $585,490, and it is pleasing to note that the chief magistrate promises to meet the expenditure of the State without increasing taxation. If the figures go right, the surplus will amount to almost two and one-half millions. The disposable funds of the treasury, an immense sum, according to the message, have not been touched, and will not be touched to meet either ordinary or extraordinary expenditure. This is an important statement, and we shall have shortly occasion to refer to it in considering the budget more at length In the meantime we see by the message that on the 11th instant the Government had deposited in the national and provincial banks $41,524,150 in notes of legal tender and $24,066,326 in gold, to which may be added $6,000,000 gold held by the Government in Europe and $6,500,000 more which the recently incorporated free banks have to deliver. In a word, by the light of these figures, the treasury was never in a more flourishing condition. The greatest prudence, however, is necessary. President Juarez calls on Congress to be extremely careful to avoid innovations or changes of too sudden a character. He holds out the promise that he will reduce many taxes. The estimates of revenue, $57,380,000, show how wonderfully the country is progressing. In 1885 it was $39,340,000; in 1886, $46,364,000; in 1887 it rose to $57,126,149, and last year it was $57,651,711. The estimates for next year have consequently been very carefully drawn up, and it is satisfactory to see the Government display that prudence which it is so desirous Congress should imitate. In the voting of special laws, which are only set down at a million, our Congressmen will have a good opportunity of responding to the call of the chief magistrate by giving proof of discretion and prudence. To resume, the budget has been set down as follows: Expenditure......... Ways and means... Extraordinary expenditure Extraordinary ways and means... $55,473,762.38 57,380,000.00 15,904,901.00 16,490,000.00 Having no accurate figures for 1887, it is impossible to make a comparison of the two years, but the increase in 1888 over 1887 is at least 100 per Export from Batoum and Poti to the United States in 1886, 1887, and 1888. The licorice root was exported in three sailing vessels direct to United States ports; the wool and other articles went in steamers via Marseilles, Antwerp, and London. A remarkable increase in the output of petroleum products from Batoum in 1888 over 1887 is shown by the following figures: As much of the illuminating oil shipped to Russia was exported by railway to Roumania and Austria, the above does not show the actual increase in export via Batoum. There is no perceptible failure of crude supply at Baku, and the export facilities of Batoum have been greatly increased by the addition of new tank steamers; in fact, the export facilities are so much greater than the capacity of the Transcaucasian Railway that prices advanced 50 per cent. in December and January, and are now very high, but apparently weak and declining. Oil for future delivery at Batoum is selling under spot prices, because of the construction of a pipe line for refined over the Suram Pass by Nobel Brothers, which pipe line is expected to be ready for work by May 1st, and will, it is believed, greatly increase the capacity of the railway. UNITED STATES CONSULAR AGENCY, JAMES C. CHAMBERS, Batoum, February 5, 1889. FLOODS IN CHINA. REPORT BY CONSUL PETTUS, OF NINGPO. I have the honor to report on the unprecedented fall of rain here, commencing at night on Thursday, the 22d of August, and ending at midnight on the following Saturday (the 24th). The rain-fall during this time, say about fifty-four hours, was 15 inches, as correctly taken by the imperial Chinese customs. I have delayed making a report on the matter until I could procure something correct, as we had a great many reports from the Chinese from the interior, a number of which conflicted; but the facts, as near as I can gather from my own observation and from our missionaries who have been into the country, are as given below: Late on Saturday evening, the 24th of August, the pontoon bridge spanning the Tze Ch'e, or western branch of the Yung River, and connecting Compo (this settlement) and the city of Ningpo, was disconnected and broken. into eight parts by the strong ebb-tide then running. Each of the parts floated down the river; some got in among the junks at anchor, doing a deal of damage, and others went further down. Two of the pontoons went as far as 7 miles. It was said that several lives were lost at this disaster. And on Sunday morning the other bridge, spanning the southern or Feng'hua branch of the Yung River, went asunder by being run into by junks which broke their moorings or dragged their anchors, though not so much damage was done here. A large number of lives were lost, they say from twenty-five to thirty. We had high tides on the nights of the 24th and 25th of August, overflowing the first floor of the houses in this suburb. We had no high winds, except on Thursday night, when the storm was at its height. The greatest destruction of lives and property was, perhaps, experienced by the inhabitants of Taiping, a city between this and Wenchow. The report was brought here by a native courier, who stated that over a thousand lives were lost there. The typhoon was severe at Wenchow. The mail steamer Hai Chang, trying to make that port, came near being lost. She finally went on a mud bank, but got off safely after the storm. A village some 20 miles southwest of this was visited by an English missionary since the storm. He reports that nearly all the houses were destroyed (few were left standing), with some loss of lives. The vast plain of this district was all more or less overflowed, in the lowlands from 5 to 7 feet. The paths, or roads, were torn up in many places, bridges in large numbers were washed away or fell. An English missionary, writing to the Daily News of the 2d instant, says: In our lovely hill village of a hundred families or more, a place where the waters found a specially tortuous and confined exit, the outburst was so great and so sudden that nearly twothirds of the houses were carried away and a hundred lives lost; in some cases whole families were drowned together. The corpses there have been lying unburied for some days past. The injury to cotton, rice, and other growing crops is quite serious, especially on and at the foot of the hills. I have gone over the crops near this consulate, two and three miles away. They were overflowed from 10 to 20 inches. At first I thought the cotton was much injured; it looked badly for a few days, but it has come out blooming and fruiting and looking vigorous. The rice on the same farms was not injured. Where the water remained but a short time and not overflowing deep I hardly think the rice and cotton will be injured to any extent. I never saw rice looking better. With the large crop already gathered and this second crop (although a good deal of it has been destroyed) I really think will give the people food, until another crop. Cotton picking is now general; the fruiting is better than I have known since I have been here, as the season has been very favorable for this plant. THOS. F. PETTUS, UNITED STATES CONSULATE, Ningpo, September 10, 1889. Consul. IMPORTATION OF AMERICAN LIVE OXEN INTO GERMANY. REPORT BY COMMERCIAL AGENT SMITH, OF MAYENCE. Very high prices for meat are at present prevailing in Germany, as reported upon by me September 23, caused in part by the exclusion of cattle from Russia and Austria-Hungary on the ground of infection by disease; and a firm of well-to-do butchers at this city has been led thereby to try the experiment of importing a few live oxen from the United States, and arrangements have been made by them for the shipment of nine hundred head of fat oxen to this country, to come by six different vessels during a period of two months, one hundred and fifty animals to come by each ship. This is quite a noteworthy transaction, because it is the first time, I am informed, that live oxen from the United States, all ready for slaughter, have been imported into Ger |