across the Island
and up the west coast as far north as Tuburan. There was a land-line
from Manila to Bolinao (Zambales), from which point a submarine cable
was laid in April, 1880, by the Eastern Extension Australasia and
China Telegraph Company, Ltd., whereby Manila was placed in direct
telegraphic communication with the rest of the world. For this
service the Spanish Government paid the company P4,000 a month for
a period of 10 years, which expired in June, 1890. In April, 1898,
the same company detached the cable from Bolinao and carried it on
to Manila in the s.s. _Sherard Osborn_, 207 nautical miles having
been added to the cable for the purpose. In return for this service
the Spanish Government gave the company certain exclusive rights and
valuable concessions. In May, 1898, the American Admiral Dewey ordered
the Manila-Hong-Kong cable to be cut, but the connection was made
good again after the Preliminaries of Peace with Spain were signed
(August 12, 1898). Cable communication was suspended, therefore,
from May 2 until August 21 of that year.

In 1897 another submarine cable was laid by the above company,
under contract with the Spanish Government, connecting Manila with
the Southern Islands of Panay and Cebu (Tuburan). The Manila-Panay
cable was also cut by order of Admiral Dewey (May 23, 1898), but after
August 12, under an arrangement made between the American and Spanish
Governments, it was re-opened on a neutral basis, and the company's
own staff worked it direct with the Manila public, instead of through
the medium of Spanish officials.

Since the American occupation a new cable connecting the Islands
with the United States has been laid (opened July 4, 1903), whilst a
network of submarine and land-wires has been established throughout
the Archipelago.

Owing to their geographical position, none of the Philippine ports
are on the line of the regular mail and passenger steamers _en route_
elsewhere; hence, unlike Hong-Kong, Singapore, and other Eastern ports,
there is little profit to be derived from a cosmopolitan floating
population. Due, probably, to the tedious Customs regulations--the
obligation of every person to procure, and carry on his person, a
document of identification--the requirement of a passport to enter
the Islands, and complicated formalities to recover it on leaving--the
absence of railroads and hotels in the interior and the difficulties of
travelling--this Colony, during the Sp