[11] Clavigeroʼs “Storia Antica del Messico.”
[12] British patents for paper-making from banana fibre were granted to Berry in 1838; Lilly in 1854; Jullion in 1855; Burke in 1855; and Hook in 1857. In these Islands a cloth is woven from this fibre.
[13] To express juice from the small species of lemon, the fruit should be cut from the stalk end downwards. If cut otherwise the juice will not flow freely.
[14] “Flora de Filipinas,” by Father Manuel Blanco. Published in Manila by the Augustine Order in 4 vols., 1879.
Mineral Products
Coal—Gold—Iron—Copper—Sulphur, Etc.
Owing to the scarcity of manufacturing industries in this Colony, the consumption of Coal is very limited, and up to 1889 it hardly exceeded 25,000 tons per annum. In 1892 nearly double that quantity found a market. In 1896 the coal imported from Newcastle (New South Wales) alone amounted to 65,782 tons; in 1897 to 89,798 tons. A small proportion of this is employed in the forges, foundries, and a few steam-power factories, most of them situated around Manila, but by far the greater demand is for coaling steam-ships. Since the American occupation the increase of steam-shipping and the establishment of ice-plants all over the Colony have raised the consumption of coal. Wood fuel is still so abundant in rural districts that coal will probably not be in general request for the steam sugar-mills for many years to come.
Australia, Great Britain, and Japan supply coal to this Colony; in 1892 Borneo traders sent several cargoes of inferior product to Manila; nevertheless, local capital has been expended from time to time in endeavours to work up the home deposits.
Philippine coal is more correctly speaking highly carbonized lignite of the Tertiary age, and analogous to Japanese coal. Batan Island, off the south-east coast of Luzon Island, is said to have the finest lignite beds in the Archipelago.
The island of Cebú contains large deposits of lignite. The mines of Compostela are estimated to be very rich in quantity and of medium quality. The late owner, Isaac Conui, for want of capital, was unable to develop them fully. Transport by buffalo-carts from the mines to the coast was very deficient and costly, and Conui, who was frequently my guest in Manila in 1883, unsuccessfully sought to raise capital for constructing a line of railway from the collieries to Compostela village (east coast). They were then taken up by a Spaniard, with whom the Spanish Government made contracts for coaling the gunboats. A tram line was laid down to the pits, but there was a great lack of promptitude in deliveries, and I heard of ships lying off the coaling-wharf for several hours waiting to start coaling. The enterprise has by no means given an adequate return for the over ₱100,000 invested in it up to the year 1897. The coal-mine of Danao, on the same coast, has not been more prosperous. When I visited it in 1896 it had not yielded a cent of nett profit. In 1904 I made the acquaintance, in Cebú Island, of a holder of ₱47,000 interest in this enterprise. He told me that he had got no return for his money in it. He had spent ₱1,000 himself to have the mine inspected and reported on. He sent the report to his co-partners in Manila, and heard no more about it until he went to the capital, where he learnt that the Managing Director had resigned, and no one knew who was his successor, what had become of his report, or anything definite relating to the concern.