PORTO RICO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 90, 12 May 1909, Page 2

PORTO RICO.

A SKIUOCS SITUATION. INCAPACITY i'OK SELf-GOVEItX-JIEXT. \ Received ilay 11, 11.20 |i.in. Washington, .May 11. ' President Taft, in a message to Congress, states that a grave situation lias arisen at l'orto Rico, owing to the failure of the l'orto Ricon Assembly to pass Appropriation liills. Evidently they were incapable of self-government, political .power having been extended to them too soon. He recommended the compulsory appropriation of the necessary funds. [l'orto Kieo, until 1808 a Spanish colony, but then ceded to tile i'nited States by the American treaty of peace, lies to the east of San Domingo, in the -West Indies, it is administered by a Governor with an Executive Council, consisting of 0 officials and 5 natives appointed by the President, and a Legislative Assembly of 35 members elected on a franchise restricted by a small property qualification and a low educational test. The islund of Culehra, between l'orto Rico and St. Thomas, lias been

made a I'.S. naval base. « The island is mountainous, the climate healthy, and the chief exports ale coH'ee, fruit, sugar, tobacco, and timber, i fee trade lietween the island anil the I'nited States was inaugurated iu .Inly, 1001, with very beneficial results on the sugar and tobacco trades.' The I'nited States send the great bulk of the imports and take ■most of tiie exports. There are ITS miles of railway. Area is about 30011 square miles, and the population 1,000,000, of Whom about <iO,OOO are negroes, about 300,000 mulattoes, and about 500,000 whites. The chief towns are: San Juan, population 32,048; Police, 27,'J~)2. Imports, 1004-"), .63,418,534; ISIO.VO, £4,427,273; exports, 11)04-5, £3,7.10,008; 1003-fl, £4,740,120.]