Immigration to Costa Rica has been small. During the first half of 1897 there entered 1533 individuals by Port Limon and 389 by the Port of Puntarenas; but during the same time 1150 persons left Costa Rica through Port Limon and 344 through Puntarenas. The result is a gain of only 428 persons in favor of the country. In 1896, the excess of registered immigrants over emigrants was 1112 persons, there having entered 3980 and departed 2868 persons. Several times attempts have unsuccessfully been made by foreigners to establish colonies.
Still there is a colony in the Department of Guanacaste, called “Colonia de Nicoya,” which was commenced by Cubans, headed by Maceo, the late Cuban revolutionist chief. This colony possesses a sugar factory and five trapiches, producing 720 quintals of sugar and about 3000 quintals of mascabado. Only five colonists still cultivate tobacco. The colony has a school for boys and another for girls, the latter attended by thirty and the other by forty pupils. Besides there is here postal service and a telegraph office.
A second colony located in the San Carlos district is known as “Colonia de Aguas Zarcas,” and has 500 lots, but it does not progress for lack of roads and markets easy to reach.
A third colony was established in Santa Clara, on a branch of the Atlantic Railroad. But there are actually there only eight families with about seventy hectares of cultivated land, one trapiche and a saw-mill.
Another colony was started by the River Plate Trust, Loan and Agency Company, Limited, in Turialba, near the railroad between Limon and San José. There were 500 acres sold for 15 pesos each, 2071.9 acres for 20 pesos each, 750 acres for 25 pesos each, and 1381.1 acres for 30 pesos each, the land being situated on the Tuis River and Cabeza de Buey. Besides a contract was made with W. C. Beal from Portland, Oregon, U. S. A., for the sale of 14,000 acres on condition of procuring each year for seven years the settlement of a number of families to cultivate these lands. In order to give easy access to the markets, a cart-road is in process of construction, which will connect the colony with the nearest railroad station.
The Government of Costa Rica is now preparing new laws in regard to immigration, colonization and sale of national lands. The former laws have been suspended, the Government being convinced that the lands appropriated in former years are more than sufficient to respond to the requirements of the next twenty years. The Government also thinks it to be preferable to promote by restrictive laws the subdivision of these lands and their cultivation than to consent to new grants under the former statutes. Exceptions are to be made for colonization companies and enterprises adapted to the economic development of the country.
In former years the Government of Costa Rica has often offered inducements in the way of land-grants for European immigration. In 1849 a grant of land of twenty leagues in length by twelve in breadth was made to a French company for 1000 colonists. The conditions of the contract were not carried out, though a considerable number of immigrants formed under it an establishment. A similar grant was made on the Atlantic coast to a British company, which had no result.
Still another concession was made, May 7, 1852, to a German company organized at Berlin with Baron von Bülow as Director. This enterprise died with its manager in 1856.
A further attempt was made in 1852, by Crisanto Medina, to whom a large grant of land was made for colonization purposesat Miravalles, about 2500 feet above the sea, but this project too was abandoned after settling about thirty-seven Germans on the grant. In 1856, some French immigrants came, and in 1858 another colonization law was passed, and ever since the Government has persisted in the policy of augmenting the population by offering inducements to foreigners to settle in Costa Rica. All these Government proffers have, however, proved ineffectual.