INDUSTRIES OF JAVA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVIII, Issue 12070, 25 October 1913, Page 3 (Supplement)

INDUSTRIES OF JAVA.

The island of Java, in the- Dutch East Indies, though a country ot 35,000.000 population, is so little known in the United States that- many'pernors do not know where it is located, according to J. vaii ; Engers. Jr., ot Sou'rabaya. one of the principal cities of Java, who is at the New "vVillard. "I have talked to some of your prominent merchants since coming to the United States, and in many instances have had to point out the location or Java." said Mr.Enters. "Java, does a liiir business '-wish China. Japan and European countries, but comparative y little'with'the-United: States, notwithstanding business relations between Java and the' United States could.be lam-elv extended ; with mutual profit. We" have in Java-Chinese sugar manufacturers who are worth individually as much as £6,000,000'. I presume there are 400 sugar refiners in Java, and an immense quantity of sugar is exported.; Coffe is another of our important products. The-. Java - coffee .is --known. - throughout the- world," But in recent, years "bur coffee.growers are discontinueino-- the growing of ■ the Java bean • andturning to" a 'new-variety known as EobustTi. The Java coffee after many years was found to exhaust the soilPlantations were- playing out and the Java product was deteriorating. _ J.He Eobusta not onlv is a finer grade o. coffee, but instead of exhausting u■ enricl'ic- the soil. There is still some Java coffee raided in the island, but its pro---dunction is growing les sand less. "Chinese and Europeans do the great share of business in : Java. it is a possession of Holland, as you know, ot course, and there are a preponderance; of Hollanders among the _Europeans. Few Americans reside in Java. Die Chinese are shrewd, honest- business men. I am sorry I cannot say so muclr for-the Japanese.- . There has always been more or less "of a tear that some time Japan reign: covet the. island ot Java, but we feel reasonably, sale .to long as the United States- keeps the Philippines. Holland is enlarging her navy m East-Indian waters to provide stronger defence-.; . - "One would think with wages, as low as thev are in. Java that hying would be cheap,-but it is not '.'he in the plantations, nearly all of u noi.i are- native are paid from Jo to 25 cents * day, never .-more Ut course, the poorer people live cheaply, ■but it costs Europeans and persons ot the better class"-as much to live in Sourabaya" or Batav'ia: the capua , as 'it dues m the-big cities of .Europe.'