The Phillipinds.

Manawatu Herald, 18 September 1900, Page 3

The Phillipinds.

» From a amall book obtained by Mr Herbert Austin at Manila we have been enabled to glean the following items of interest about the Phillipines. The area of the various islands are estimated variously from 52,000 to 115,000 square miles. The population is from seven to eight millions. There is a great diversity of weather in this archipelago as it stretches north and south nearly a thousand miles. Regions that face the south-west monsoon, which blows from August to December, have their wet season during those months, while on the other side of the mountain ranges the dry season prevails. In Manila there are five months of pleasant temperature — from November to March. April is hot, May and June still hotter, the mercury rising about ninety degrees every day ; but in the evening the atmosphere is almost always tempered by a sea breeze, which makes sleep possible. In August begin the rains, which are not as heavy as in many tropical countries, the total * fall for the year being from 80 to 110 inches. The day begins at four o'clock in the morning and most of the work is done before eight. From noon to four or five o'clock the city is like a city of the dead, nobody stirring abroad except under absolute compulsion. At six it re-awakens, the prinoipal meal of the day is served, and then the whole population drives or walks in the cool of the evening. Manila, the capital, is situated on the island of Luzon, at the mouth of the River Fasig, on the Bay of Manila. The city has a population of about 300,000, composed of some 180,000 natives, 50,000 Chinese, 20,000 Spaniards, 40,000 American soldiers, 6000 Spanish half-breeds, and about 2000 other Europeans. The city is divided in to three distinct parts, the Walled City of Old Manila, New Manila where the principle business, wholesale and retail, is carried on, and the district of San Miguel, which is the aristocratic residence portion of the city. The principle languages spoken, •'are the Spanish, Tagalog, and English, the latter now being the official language.