The White Star Line will soon have a regular service from Liverpool to Australia, calling at Cape Town. The steamers will have a tonnage of 12,000 tons burden and will be fitted with large cooling chambers to carry meat, fruit, etc. American doors and sashes sent here are not properly packed or crated, and the railroads refuse to carry them, except at owners' risk. As the United States exports the bulk of doors and sashes, the makers should be very careful in packing. Portable small houses or huts for natives would find a ready sale; a Scotch Company is now producing them. The following from the British and South African Gazette gives details on the subject: PORTABLE HUTS FOR SOUTH AFRICA. What in most cases will be regarded as the "eureka" of speedily improvised dwellings is the "Pioneer" hut, made by the Finnieston Engineering Company, Glasgow. This hut is made in a number of dissectible pieces, which can be put together by the most unskilled in a surprisingly short space of time and as easily dismounted and repacked ready for transport. The building when erected has a diameter of 10 feet, with a height to the eaves of 7 feet, and the whole, when packed, is contained in two easily transportable boxes. The hut is made of mild steel, with a strong pine floor, the sides being of "arc" sheets, jointed with tubes. The roof is formed of double-sheeted panels (the space between the double sheets being packed with nonconducting material), and jointed also with tubes. The hut is supplied with ventilating window, combined shutter and sunshade, and pine door. Provision for ventilation is ample; for, besides a perforated center plate in roof and swinging window, two ventilating openings are provided in sides, and it is perfectly weather tight. Altogether it has a most pleasing appearance, calculated to make an impression on the beholder, be he white man or native. Furniture in the shape of folding iron bedsteads, folding chairs and tables of iron and wood, and stoves with ash tray and chimney, are also supplied to order, so that the pioneer or traveler may acquire a complete house and household equipment which can be transported with the least possible trouble and cost. There can be no doubt that this "Pioneer" hut is destined to meet with a considerable sale among the large migrating and even stationary populations of South Africa, so soon as its merits become more fully known. An illustrated sheet showing in a clear, simple manner the method of erection is sent with every hut. CAPE TOWN, July 26, 1899. JAMES G. STOWE, PUMPS IN CAPE COLONY. I have already called the attention of manufacturers of well drills, pumps, and windmills to the demand for wells and pumping apparatus by the farmers of this country,* and I now present some statistics on the subject. In 1890, the first boring was made in this country by a diamond drill for water, and from that year to the *See CONSULAR REPORTS No. 218 (November, 1898), p. 458. present time the government has carried on the work, owning the drills and charging a less price than the farmer would have to pay if he owned the drill. It is estimated that a successful bore made by the government costs the farmer 19 ($92.46), against £29 ($141.13) when he does the work himself, and more successful results have been obtained. The result has been, for 1898 alone, to add 3,000,000 gallons to the daily water supply of this colony. The government is still inundated with applications, and with the present supply of drills the work can not be done fast enough. It is expected that by the time the applications now on hand are taken care of, 1,000 more will be waiting. It is an established fact that there is an excellent supply of underground water almost all over the colony at a reasonable depth below the surface. The rainfall of this colony is not greatly inferior to that of other countries. Several dams are being built, and in one over 1,400,000,000 gallons have passed through the sluices, and there is still sufficient water to fill the dam when completed. The wells being bored will need pumping appliances of various kinds, and windmills appear to be the most inexpensive; those just arriving have been readily sold. The government may yet assist the farmers in purchasing such appliances. In 1898, there were 19 government water drills at work; 206 applicants were served and 547 applied; 367 bore holes, 10 feet or more deep, were made; 26,573 feet were bored, the drills (19) making an average of 1,399 feet each; 258 holes produced 1,000 gallons per day and upwards; and the estimated total yield of water per diem was 3,000,000 gallons. In 106 holes, water flowed to the surface to the extent of 783,000 gallons per diem; and by pumping, a supply of 2,217,000 gallons can be obtained from the other 219 holes. Recently, a large steam-power drill was purchased in England for the purpose of making a trial deep-bore hole. The first boring, when between 120 and 171 feet from the surface, struck a supply of water yielding 21,400 gallons per diem, and a steam pump failed to lower it. Another bore has been made to the depth of 1,504 feet and discontinued, owing to the exhaustion of the special fund set apart by the government. I attach a copy (only one can be obtained) of the rules and regulations for the hire of drills owned by the government. * CAPE TOWN, August 8, 1899. J. G. STOWE, * Filed for reference in the Bureau of Foreign Commerce. LIFE INSURANCE IN CAPE COLONY. Under date of July 21, 1899, Consul-General Stowe, of Cape Town, transmits statistics showing the extent of life insurance in Cape Colony during the calendar years 1894-1897, the latest date for which figures were available. The number of policies written up by the twenty-four foreign companies and the three home companies doing business in the colony was: The average sum insured per head of the white population is now over £26 ($126.53). It is said no other country, with the possible exception of New Zealand, shows such an average. December 31, 1897, the life assets held by foreign companies in securities in the colony amounted to $2,923,350, against sums insured amounting to $31,659,594. The annual premium income of all the foreign companies from business done in the colony is estimated at about $1,000,000. SAMPLES OF UNITED STATES GOODS WANTED IN SYRIA. Of late, considerable interest in American manufactures of various kinds has become manifest among Beirut merchants. This may be due to the fact that German export houses are drawing the lines tighter on Syrian commission merchants; or it may be attributed to the late war, which brought the United States into prominence even here in the Levant, where it was formerly known only vaguely and where nobody was aware of its industrial and commercial achievements. Articles commenting on our tremendous exports have been translated from French or, through the cooperation of the consulate, from American papers and published in the local Arabic sheets. In this connection, it should be remembered that while previously United States vessels laden with petroleum, furniture, hardware, cotton goods, cordage, lumber, and flour have visited this port, no United States ship has been seen in these waters since 1880, excepting men-of-war and pleasure yachts. This new interest in American affairs has also been aided by the growing Syrian exports to the United States, the emigration, the agitation for direct steamship facilities, etc. The present time seems favorable for a move on the part of American manufacturers to meet this sentiment and take advantage of it. The merchants here want samples, and will not, except in rare cases, buy from catalogues. Samples should cover, I should say, as far as practicable, flour, iron, petroleum, lumber, mechanics' tools, kitchen utensils, carriage springs, hardware in general (nails, screws, locks, etc.), pumps, windmills and hydraulic rams for irrigation, lamps, clocks, furniture (chairs, desks, and iron bedsteads), cotton goods (cheap and showy prints and heavy cloth for tents, awnings, sails, and shoes), canned provisions and prepared cereals, patent medicines, paints, leather and saddlery, paper (print, packing, and stationery), shoes and slippers, crockery, bicycles, toys, and notions. I would recommend that such samples be sent the sooner the better to Mr. Fried. Wehner, an old trading and banking house in Beirut, which enjoys an excellent commercial reputation, and the financial standing of which, according to the Imperial Ottoman Bank (Beirut), is very high. I have before me a written pledge, dated May 12, 1899, and addressed to me, in which Mr. Wehner (whose affairs are now being conducted by Mr. Hummel, the honorary consul-general of the Netherlands in Syria) says: I declare myself to be ready to accept the deposit of the samples which American mercantile associations may be disposed to intrust to me, and to do my utmost in order to procure the best business transactions, not only at Beirut, but also for all the markets existing in Syria and Palestine. The experience I acquired during thirty years' work in this country allows me to guarantee full success on condition that the prices allow competition with European houses. Being also ready to furnish any information, I have the honor, etc. If American manufacturers adopt the suggestions herein contained to the extent anticipated, a separate sample room will be set apart by Mr. Wehner for our goods. No charge will be made, as the house expects to make a profit on future orders, besides buying, for their own account, American goods which prove to be popular. Manufacturers or exporters at home will, of course, pay the freight on the samples or the post-office charges, as the case may be; also the duty, amounting to 8 per cent ad valorem on a low valuation, except on samples of cloth, which are admitted free up to a weight of 5 kilograms (11 pounds). There will also be a slight charge for port dues, lighterage, and porterage. Samples of value will in due time be sold for the benefit of the owner, at the best obtainable prices. An employee of the consulate will devote half of his time to the promotion of the trade which such an agency will presumably help to create, and the consulate will, of course, continue to give the matter of introducing American goods its careful attention. If, in conjunction with the establishment of a sample room under these circumstances, a direct line of steamers could be induced to operate regularly between New York and the Syrian coast, touching either outward or homeward bound at Alexandria, a decided advantage would be gained for American foreign trade. As already stated in CONSULAR REPORTS (by Consul-General Dickinson, at Constantinople*), Barber & Co., Produce Exchange, New York City, have inaugurated a line for Smyrna, Constantinople, and Black Sea as well as Grecian ports. One of their steamers is now on its way, sailing direct from New York to Beirut. It will call at Alexandria on the return trip. Another steamer of the same company leaves New York for this port about July 10. This route should be permanently adopted, and it rests with American manufacturers to bring about this important result. G. BIE RAVNDAL, BEIRUT, June 20, 1899. Consul. OLIVE OIL IN SYRIA. Physicians at home have written me occasionally, inquiring as to the price of Syrian olive oil, saying in effect that they need pure olive oil in their practice and that such an article is scarcely to be found • in American drug stores, where adulterated French and Italian olive oils prevail. One of these gentlemen informs me that good olive oil is being successfully used in place of cod-liver oil for medicinal purposes. Another correspondent, who deals in olive oil for the table, repeats the old story that most of the so-called high-grade olive oil sold in the United States is Syrian, North African, and European olive oil mixed with cotton-seed oil exported from the United States to France and Italy. So far as my consular district is concerned, the olive-oil industry is an important and a growing one. The natives are learning by degrees how to properly cultivate, harvest, and press the precious fruit. The American colonists at Haifa seem to have proven that by judicious management the olive tree can be made to bear fruit every year; and that by picking the olives from the trees, instead of beating them roughly down with sticks and stones-by which method *See CONSULAR REPORTS No. 224 (May, 1899), p. 76. |