As regards the expenditure of money raised by taxes and duties, while little came to the King, little also was spent on the islands. It was estimated that in 1897 $611,145 were expended on public works. If so, the result was not visible in the Philippines. If a bridge was needed, the neighboring nations had to raise the money to build it. More money was set aside for the transportation of priests than for the building of railroads, while ten times the sum was donated to the support of the Manila Cathedral than was spent for new improvements and for public instruction. Regarding the officials, from the Governor-General down to the lowest underling, they seem to have devoted themselves industriously to robbing the people with one hand and the Government with the other, sowing a crop of hatred of the Spaniard and of Spanish rule, which had its harvest in the fierce insurrection of 1896-98. AGRICULTURE: THE SUGAR AND RICE CROPS. Agriculture--The Chief Industry. The land is the mainstay of the Philippines, and farming is the native occupation. Manufacture is a diversion to which the natives do not take kindly. The only industrial art that has made any progress is the rolling of tobacco into cigars and cigarettes. Many thousands of people are engaged in this occupation at Manila, but, otherwise, manufacture is almost at a standstill. A little cordage is made; some straw or split-bamboo hats are fashioned and shipped; in some provinces split-cane and Neto hats and straw mats are made. Iloilo yields a rough cloth,--sinamay, made from selected hemp fibre. Piña muslin, made of pure pine-leaf fibre, and husi, of mixed pine-leaf and hemp, are fabricated. Those, with a few other articles, make up the native manufactured products. They do not occupy the attention of the people, the greater part of the population getting their livelihood from the fields. Plantation life is the industrial unit of the islands. The soil is divided up into plantations, large and small, according to the capital and enterprise of the planter. As a rule, the planters are of the Malay race, and the work of the fields is done by other Malays, as many as five or six hundred being employed on large plantations. The laborers live in little bamboo houses, the planters furnishing them both food and clothing. The food consists of rice and fish,--very cheap provender in the Philippines,--and the clothing is of a primitive character, that costs little. Yet, at the end of the season, the laborer has usually exhausted his wages and may be in debt to the planter.