PORTUGAL'S FINANCES

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 27

PORTUGAL'S FINANCES

LONDON, February 26. Owing to Portugal's financial embarrassments, "foreign bankers suggest the sal© of Delagoa Bay to Great Britain, of Angola to Germany, and of Macao and Timor to France. The elections will be held early m April. Delagoa Bay is a large bay in Portuguese East Africa. The south-east portion of the bay, sheltered by Inyald peninsula and island forms the admiral natural harbour of Port Melville, but the commercial port of Lorenza Marquez, whence the railway starte for the eastern parts of the Transvaal, at the head of the bay, can be approached only by narrow and tortuous channels. . ' Angola, or Portuguese Lower Guinea, is | bounded on the north and east by the Congo State and Rhodesia, on the south by German South-West Africa, and on the west by -the Atlantic Ocean. The estimated area i« 517,000 square miles. The greater part of the country is in the hands of the Bantus under their tribal chiefs. There are 250 miles of railway in operation, the line running from Loanda to Ambacoa. A line 1242 miles in length, from Lobito Bay in Benguela to Katanga (where there, are vich copper mines) and the Tanganyika Co.'s concessions, ifl being constructed. A line from Mossamedes to the tableland of Chella is also being built. The chief products are coffee, rubber, sugar, oils, and ivory, and the trade is chiefly carried on by bartering with the natives, but there are great agricultural and mining possibilities. A company working in Mossamedes has a concession for mining, cattle-rearing, and fishcuring; and minerals, including gold, are known to exist in paying quantities. There are several other companies at work in the colony. The revenue in 1906 was £329,800; expenditure, £603,800. Imports— l9o6, £1,282,970; exports, £953,140. Macao is an island at the mouth of the Canton River, in China, forming with small islands adjacent ,a Portuguese dependency. The area is five square miles, and the population 80,000. Timor is an island in the Malay Archipelago. The eastern portion of it, with

the- island of Pulo Cambtaff, fa PorfuMge** The chief products are coffee and wax. Tn4| port is Dilly. The area is 7290 6quar« miles, and the population 300,000,.