INSURANCE OF EMPLOYEES.

For the benefit of those employees whose wages do not exceed 2,000 marks ($476) per annum, sick, accident, life-insurance, and assurity funds are established. These are also charged to the expense accounts, as is also the cost of the employees' uniforms, each man being provided with at least one uniform, two caps, an overcoat, etc., per annum, except, however, those who are working for the first year, from whose wages 10 pfennigs per day is deducted to pay for the uniforms. Under taxes are included the 2 per cent of the total receipts, which were mentioned in the paragraph entitled "Concessions," taxes upon real estate, revenue stamps, etc.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

The condition of the two railway companies at the end of the calendar year 1902 is shown in the following statement:

FLOUR AND WHEAT IN AUSTRALIA.

The imports of wheat and flour into Australia from January 1 to June 30, 1903, are equivalent to 10,276,349 bushels, or 275,259 tons, of wheat. This total consists of 7,399,421 bushels of wheat and 59,936 tons of flour. The following summary shows the quantities (reduced to the equivalent in wheat) received at Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, and other places:

The total to all ports as stated above is equivalent to 275,259 tons of wheat. Adding about 51,750 tons to arrive from the Argentine Republic, and about 5,800 tons to arrive from the Pacific coast, the total quantity already provided for is equivalent to about 332,800 tons, or 12,424,500 bushels.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, July 6, 1903.

JOHN P. BRAY,

Consul-General.

FOOD ADULTERATION IN EUROPE.

An article on the adulteration of food products is going the rounds of the German press. It is stated, for instance, that an ordinary liver patty is made into fine "Strassburger" paté de foie gras (a goose-liver patty) by means of borax or salicylic acid and of finely chopped and cleverly distributed pieces of black silk, representing truffles.

Cosmos, a German paper, guarantees the fact that under the label of canned lobsters the soft parts of the cuttlefish and crabs are sold.

In Paris snails are of late very popular, and the adulterators mix them with lungs of cattle and horses. Even entirely artificial snails. are manufactured. The shells, recoated with fat and slime, are filled with lung and then sold as "Burgundy" snails.

Lovers of fresh rooster combs are imposed upon by a substitute cut out of hogs' intestines.

Chopped artificial truffles are made of black rubber, silk, or softened leather, and even whole truffles are made out of roasted potatoes, which are given a peculiar flavor by adding ether. They are said to sell well.

Fish spoiled in spite of ice and borax is treated with salts of zinc, aluminum, and other metals. Rubbing the fish with vaseline to give it a fresh look and coloring the gills with fresh blood or eosina coal-tar color-is resorted to. The latter is also used to intensify the red color of inferior crabs.

Imparting a greenish color to oysters is another adulteration. An oyster requires about one month in the beds to acquire the greenish color. As this is too long a time, the dealers help them along with an artificial color.

The chemists in the Paris municipal laboratories have shown that tomato jelly is adulterated with turnips, and powdered pepper contains a large admixture of powdered hard-tack.

FRANKFORT, GERMANY, July 7, 1903.

RICHARD GUENTHER,
Consul-General.

RUBBER PRODUCTION AND TRADE OF BRAZIL.

The rubber-crop year for the season of 1902-3 closed June 30 under very satisfactory conditions. Estimates and preparations are now being made for the new season just begun. The crop of 1901-2 was the largest ever produced—29,998 tons. The crop of the season just closed was 29,890, a decrease of only 108 tons, or less than 1 per This is especially satisfactory to the trade. Of last season's crop Europe took 15,261 tons and the United States 14,566 tons, an increase in shipments to the United States over the previous year of 510 tons, while the shipments to Europe fell off correspondingly. The product was shipped as follows:

cent.

The stock on hand June 30 was 129 tons.

During the past year prices ruled fairly firm at good figures. The exceedingly high prices which prevailed formerly may never be restored, but producers as well as dealers find there is still a very handsome profit for them, once they have accommodated themselves to the new and more healthy conditions.

Never before has so much enthusiasm been shown in the trade, and never before have so many men been employed in the business. Thousands of laborers are pouring into the forests of the interior, and thousands more will follow. New rubber fields will be opened and old ones worked with improved methods and larger forces. an example of this, I might quote the case of one of the largest rubber producers on the Madeira, who recently informed me that he would take out this year four times as much rubber as ever before.

As

Business is steadily improving here. One encouraging sign of the times is the fact that several new houses are preparing to embark in the export trade. It seems safe to predict that if there are no further political troubles on the upper river, the crop of this season will be far in advance of any ever before known.

PARA, BRAZIL, July 7, 1903.

K. K. KENNEDAY,

Consul.

ADVANCE IN PRICE OF GERMAN RUBBER GOODS.

A circular recently issued by the India Rubber Manufacturers' Association announces an advance of 10 per cent in the price of mechanical goods, which may be roughly described as packing, belting, and hose. This advance is due to the rise in price of raw rubber. Para rubber, which rules the market quotations, has seen some rather prominent fluctuations in recent years, and its purchase has come to be looked upon as a proceeding of a highly speculative nature. In 1900 the price reached $1.01 per pound. Since then it has touched 69 cents. Of late, however, contrary to general opinion, a steady rise has been perceptible, the present price being 95 cents. per pound, with every prospect of the figures of three years ago being exceeded in the near future. Under the circumstances, therefore, it was imperative that stringent measures should be taken by manufacturers to insure that they should not, in taking contracts, lose money. It was not merely a consideration of greater or less profit, though this can not, of course, be looked upon as of subsidiary interest; it has obviated the alternative of a reduction in quality. Such reductions have been resorted to in the past much more freely than was to the ultimate advantage of either buyer or seller. OLIVER J. D. HU ES,

COBURG, GERMANY, July 14, 1903.

Consul-General.

RUBBER-GOODS INDUSTRY OF GERMANY.

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

While in 1902 the rubber industry in Germany only held its own, no new plants having been constructed, it seems probable that the general tendency of steady expansion which has marked this industry for over a decade will be gradually resumed. The importations of rubber and gutta-percha rose steadily from 25,800,000 marks ($6,140,400) in 1892 to 73,800,000 marks ($17,564,400) in 1900, but dropped to 48,200,000 marks ($11,471,600) in 1901-a decline caused by the serious business depression prevailing in Germany during that year. In 1902 the import of raw rubber and gutta-percha increased to 60,935,000 marks ($14,502,530), and the three months. of January, February, and March show an increase in the amount of rubber and gutta-percha imported and in the amount of rubber goods exported.

Although the business depression has been seriously felt by the rubber industry, it has not suffered from the serious failures that have affected other lines of manufacture. Decreased consumption in the home market and a tendency to unduly lower prices were the most serious difficulties contended with in the year 1902. In the first nine months of that year there was a decided increase of the amount of rubber consumed as compared with the corresponding period of 1901, and an increased export of rubber goods amounting to 3,500,000 marks ($833,000).

THE NEW TARIFF.

The most important factor that is likely to materially affect the manufacture of rubber goods in this country in the near future is the new tariff, which increases the duties on various classes of rubber goods and will affect to an important degree competition. from foreign countries. The most radical advances in duties relate to woven goods containing rubber and textiles, the duty being raised from 90 marks to 100 marks ($21.42 to $23.80) per 100 kilograms (220.46 pounds), except when silk is used with rubber, in which case it was raised to 180 marks ($42.84), and on rubber shoes, the duty on which is raised from 40 marks to 70 marks ($9.52 to $16.66) per 100 kilograms for unlacquered shoes and from 60 marks to 100 marks ($14.28 to $23.80) on lacquered shoes.

The new German tariff will not go into effect before new commercial treaties are negotiated with foreign powers, and if these treaties fail to secure satisfactory conditions for the export of German rubber goods the product manufactured for export will be sold in Germany and will, it is feared, seriously congest the whole market, as in certain lines of goods-especially in belting-the inland trade is not large enough to give sufficient work to all factories.

WAGES IN GERMANY AND IN THE UNITED STATES.

In all lines of manufacture requiring hand labor Germany has the advantage of cheap wages, and it is only in machine-made articles that the United States can hope to compete successfully. It is estimated that the wages paid in Germany at present to workers in the manufacture of rubber goods vary from 40 cents to $1 for women and from 75 cents to $1 for men, the average wage for women being about 47 cents and for men 92 cents per day. Low as are the wages of the German laborers, the wage paid Russian laborers is only about one-half thereof, and the increased competition, especially in rubber shoes from Russia, was one of the factors in the increase of duties on rubber goods in the new tariff. With cheap skilled labor, adequate capital, and thoroughly scientific methods, it is likely that Germany will remain a keen competitor in the world's markets.