ROUGH ESTIMATES OF DISTANCES.

MILES
Puget Sound to mouth of Amoor River3,900
" " " Vladivostock4,700
" " " Shanghai5,750
" " " Canton6,500
" " " Singapore8,100
" " " S. W. point of Australia9,550
San Francisco to Vladivostock5,200
" " " Shanghai6,100
" " " Canton6,800
" " " Singapore8,400
" " " S. W. point of Australia9,500
" " " St. Petersburg via Vladivostock9,700
St. Petersburg to Vladivostock4,500
San Francisco to Calcutta10,200
Liverpool to mouth of Amoor River13,550
" " Vladivostock 12,700
" " Shanghai 11,750
" " Canton 10,900
" " S. W. point of Australia 10,750
" " Singapore 9,300
" " Calcutta8,700

Liverpool and Puget Sound are about equally distant from west coast of the Malay Peninsula.

MILES
New York to Canton, via Puget Sound9,500
" " Shanghai " " 7,800 to 8,000

By this it will be seen that New York, by way of Puget Sound, is 1,400 miles nearer to Canton than Liverpool is, and nearly 4,000 miles nearer to Shanghai. Mr. Swan makes the distance from the Pacific coast less than I have given. It should also be noted that Puget Sound has the advantage of distance over San Francisco also.

Puget Sound has also the advantage over all competitorsAdvantage in productions. of being able to produce a large bulk of the materials for commerce in its own vicinity. In this report there will be a large array of facts concerning the present and future productions of Washington Territory, which will amply confirm and illustrate the above statement. The only real competitor of Puget Sound on the American coast is British Columbia, but British Columbia cannot vie with Washington Territory in the production of the materials of commerce, and Canada at large furnishes no such background as the United States.

Coastwise trade.It will, of course, not be overlooked, that in the great coastwise trade which the Pacific States have and must always have with each other, they will minister to each other's prosperity. And here it will be shown that Puget Sound will have the advantage in supplying the wants of others.

South American trade.In addition to these is the foreign trade along the coast of British Columbia, Mexico, Central America, and all the Pacific States of South America. Chili is a prosperous State. She has nearly doubled the volume of her trade in ten years. From 1874 to 1883 her exports went up from $32,000,000 to $73,000,000, and her imports from $35,000,000 to $50,000,000. The United States imports over $4,000,000 of goods from the Pacific side of South America, and exports about $8,000,000 to these states. England, however, gets the most of the West South American trade, so that here again we must enter the lists with Britannia. Already the contest has begun, and our Pacific States must bear off the palm sooner or later.

Large existing trade.Thus it is evident that a vast field of commercial enterprise is wide open to the people of Washington Territory as well as to Oregon and California. And our commercial statistics show what handsome progress has already been made. Taking both exports and imports, there is already a business of $80,000,000 done by the seven Pacific ports of entry. San Francisco is now far ahead of the others, and this city has nothing to fear from any other port except Puget Sound, which will gain upon her rapidly and ultimately surpass her. Washington Territory has all that California has on which to trade, and a great deal besides; and has the advantage of position. When our commercial statistics were made up, Puget Sound had no direct railroad communication with her own back country east, much less a transcontinental line. A very different story will be told a few years hence. I here insert a table of summaries which show that the commercial revolution is now in operation.

PORTS
OF THE PACIFIC.		TOTAL VALUE OF
EXPORTS OF DOMESTIC
MERCHANDISE
FOR YEAR ENDING		TOTAL VALUE OF
IMPORTS OF
MERCHANDISE
FOR YEAR ENDING
JUNE 30, JUNE 30, JUNE 30, JUNE 30,
1885.1887. 1885. 1887.
Humboldt, Cal.$201,500$1,731
Oregon 1,928,829 161,170
Puget Sound, W. T. 1,877,485 238,036
San Diego, Cal. 65,654 71,106
San Francisco, Cal. 37,082,520$32,027,995 35,040,350$40,707,708
Willamette, Oregon 4,142,156 277,386
Wilmington, Cal. 252,673 187,348
$45,550,817$35,977,127

In the latest report to which I have access, San Francisco is the only one of the Pacific ports mentioned separately.

Much of the exports above reported to the credit of Oregon really came down the Columbia River from the eastern part of Washington Territory; and the great bulk of the exports from San Francisco consists of wheat, flour, and other breadstuffs, an item in which Washington Territory can surpass all competitors. The following table shows the principal items of export from the Pacific ports.

Let it be noted that in respect to the production of the larger items, to wit, wheat and flour, wood and its manufactures, animals, iron and steel and their manufactures, machinery of all sorts, fish, etc., Washington Territory can surpass all competitors.

PRINCIPAL EXPORTS OF DOMESTIC MERCHANDISE,
YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1885.
PORTS ON THE
PACIFIC.		APPROXIMATE
VALUES.
Humboldt, Cal.$165,000Wood, and Manufactures of.
Oregon, Oregon

{

1,493,600
400,000
32,000		Canned Salmon.
Wheat and Flour.
Wood, and Manufactures of.
Puget Sound, W. T.

{

830,000
240,000
160,000		Wood, and Manufactures of.
Wheat and Flour.
Animals.
San Diego, Cal.

{

58,000
4,000
1,800		Animals.
Wood, and Manufactures of.
Machinery.
San Francisco, Cal.

{

27,226,000
1,211,000
900,000
745,000
700,000
650,000
430,000
375,000
358,000		Wheat, Flour, and other Breadstuffs.
Manufactures of Iron and Steel.
Fish.
Ginseng.
Cotton Manufactures.
Wood, and Manufactures of.
Fruit.
Gunpowder, etc.
Medicines, etc.
Willamette, Oregon

{

3,339,153
704,000
37,000		Wheat.
Flour and Breadstuffs.
Wood, and Manufactures of.
Wilmington, Cal.

{

211,928
33,600		Wheat.
Honey.

Note.—Humboldt, Oregon, San Diego, Willamette, and Wilmington have almost no exports except those included in this list. Puget Sound and San Francisco have a great variety of exports.