PROGRESS IN BRAZIL.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2605, 23 March 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

PROGRESS IN BRAZIL.

The Economiste Francais publishes some very interesting figures showing that, since the abolition of slavery, there has been a marked increase in the number of immigrants arriving in Brazil, and also points out several facts, such as the increase in the number of banks, which show that the financial condition of the Empire is rapidly improving. In the year 1887, previous to the abolition of slavery, the number of emigrants who landed in Southern Brazil, that is to say, in the temperate zone of the empire, was 55,980, as against only 25,741 in 18S6; but the total for last year at the two points of Rio de Janeiro and Santos alone was 130,036. These immigrants all found immediate occupation upon the fazemhs in the provinces of Bahia, Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, San Paulo, Minas Geraes, Parana, Santa Catharina, and Rio Grande, where the coffee plant, the sugar cane, and tobacco plant are grown, ana where there is a great abundance of live stock. It may be added that M. de Grelle, the Belgian Minister in Brazil, has addressed a very favourable report to the Belgian Foreign Office as to the condition of his compatriots who have emigrated of late years to Brazil, this report being to the effect that '"the Belgians whom I have met with in the colonial centres assure me that they have no complaint to make as regards their material condition.. They dispose of sufficient resources for their subsistence and for the maintenance of their families. They have, moreover, the prospect before them of becoming in a few years' time owners of not less than 25 acres of land, and of making a small fortune by the subsequent profits of the ground they till." The Economiste Francais goes on to point out that in the three coffee-growing provinces of Brazil—Rio de Janeiro, San Paulo, and Minas Geraes—there are 19 banks, two of which are English and one German, with a subscribed capital of nearly £15,000,000, and that one of these banks last year paid a dividend of 15 per cent, another of 12 per cent., six more of 10 per cent., two of 9 per cent., four of 8 per cent., and three of G per cent. Moreover, the paper money, which six months ago was much below par, is now at a premium aa compared with gold, and it is pnticipated that the new law as to banks of issue, which came into force at the end of last year, will lead to the calling in of paper money and to the establishment of a fixed monetary standard.