WEIGHTS, MEASI'llES, AND MONEY. Mexican money was current until the end of when a five-peseta piece was coined and put in circula tion. The peseta has now been superseded by the American dollar. The metric system of weights and measures is in use.
PortmArioN. The population by the census of 1899 was 953,243. or 264 to a square mile, a density of population about the same as that of New Jersey. The people live chiefly in the rural districts. There are no large cities, the only cities exceeding 25.000 inhabitants being San Juan (32.048) and Ponce (27.052). :Mayaguez bad a population of 15,1S7, and Arecibo SODS. There are S731 more females than males in the island. The census divides the inhabitants into whites, numbering 589.426. or 61.8 per cent.; and colored. numbering 363317. The classification `colored' ineludes a very few Chinese and many persons of mixed white and negro blood, as well as the pure negroes. More than three-fifths of the population are pare white. and nearly two fifths are partly or entirely negroes. About S4 per cent. of the total colored were returned as mixed blood. Of the whites of Porto Rican birth, 21 years of age and upward. 35.397 could read, and of the colored, 12.576. Un
der the educational qualification. therefore. the number entitled to vote would be 49.073. About 200.000 persons are employed as laborers in the fields. Though small in weight and stature, their bodies are all hone and sinew. and they have great powers of endurance. The aver age daily wage of the farm hand is about 35 cents, and the scale of wages can hardly he Increased until there is a general rise in the price of agricultural products. In 1897 the wealth of the island was estimated at $150,000,000, hut the municipal and private mortgage indebtedness was about one-third of the total wealth, and rates of interest are very high.
lmmnazAnox. The immigration laws and regulations of the United States apply to Porto Rico. Of the 1008 persons arriving at San Juan in 1902, 725 were cabin passengers, three-fourths of whom were Spaniards who left the island at the time of the American occupation and are now returning. Most of the immigrants are from the other West Indies. Spain, and South Amer ica. a lane part being Porto Ricans who left at the time of the American occupation..