REUNION — FRENCH SOMALI COAST 835
1910, ceded his sovereign rights to France. Vanilla cacao and perfume plants are successfully cultivated. Grande Comore has a fine forest and exports timber for building and for railway sleepers.
Local budget of Mayotte and dependencies, 1909, 221,341 francs, and of Grand Comore 176,200 francs. Outstanding debt January 1, 1910, 883,760 francs.
Imports into Mayotte and Comorres in 1911 amounted to 52,565Z. , exports, to 188,261Z. The principal imports were cotton fabrics, metals, and rice ; the principal exports, hides, sugar and vanilla.
BEUNION.
Reunion (or Bourbon), about 420 miles east of Madagascar, has belonged to France since 1767. It is administered by a governor assisted by a privy council, and an elective Council-General, and is represented in the French Parliament by a Senator and two deputies. It has an area of 970 square miles and population (1912) of 173,822, of whom 159,218 were Europeans ; there were also 8,341 British Indians, 1,868 natives of Madagascar, 2,927 Africans, 884 Chinese, 584 Arabians. The chief towns are : St. Denis, with 23,972 inhabitants in 1912 ; St. Pierre, 29,481 ; St. Paul, 18,646 ; St. Louis, 13,346. The towns are under the French municipal law. In 1911 there were 165 schools with 380 teachers and 15,051 pupils. The chief port, Pointe-des-Galets, is connected by a coast railway of 80 miles with St. Benoit, on the one hand, and St. Pierre on the other. In 1888 this railway was taken over by the State. The cliiel productions are sugar (40,000 tons exported in 1911), rum (953,877 gallons), coffee (81 tons), tapioca (2,860 tons), vanilla (51 tons), spices. The chief imports are rice (1911, 293,709 bags), grain, &c. ; the chief export iis sugar. In 1911, 121 vessels of 240,729 tons entered, and 113 vessels of 217,730 tons cleared at the ports of the Island. The Tamatave-Reunion-Mauritius Telegraph Cable is open for traffic. The local budget for 1912 showed income and expenditure 5,071,980 francs. Expenditure of France (budget 1913) 2,238,190 francs. The Colony, as such, has no debt ; 18 communes have debts, amounting in January, 1913, to 6,698,386 francs, incurred for works and buildings. The Bank of Re'union has a capital of 3,000,000 francs and reserve fund (1913) of 1,500,000 francs.
St. Paul and Amsterdam, small islands in the Indian Ocean, belong to France.
Kerguelen, a desolate island, about 50 S. lat. and 70 E. long., was annexed by France in 1893.
British Consul at Reunion. — E. G. B. Maxse, C.M.G. There is a British Vice-Consul at St. Denis.
FRENCH SOMALI COAST.
The Somali Coast Protectorate lies between the Italian Colony of Eritrea and British Somaliland, the inland boundary towards Abyssinia being, by convention of March 20, 1897, at a distance of 90 kilometres (about 56 miles) from the coast. The territory has an area of about 5,790 square miles, and the population was estimated in 1910 at about 208,000. It is adminis- tered by a Governor with a Privy Council. The port of 01)ock was acquired for France in 1862, but it was not till 1884 that its active occu- pation began. -In 1884 Sagallo and Tajurah were ceded to France ; in 1885, Ambado ; in 1888 the territory was delimited by agreement with Great Britain ; in 1888 a port was created at Djibouti, now the seat of government.
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