NETHERLANDS. 



589 



of Il.4ol.s74. of which 4,232, of 7,130,327 

 -hipped cargoes. Of the steamers en- 

 tered 1,657, of 3,423,661 tons, carried the 

 Dutch flag, and of those cleared 1,734, of 

 ons. The mercantile navy of the 

 Netherlands on Jan. 1, 1888, comprised 516 

 sailin- "f 440.430 metric tons, and 



Iu5 steamers, of 284.927 metric tons. 



Railroads There were 2.550 kilometres or 

 1,584 miles of railroads in operation on Jan. 

 1. 1887. The state owned 1,390 kilometres. 

 The earnings of all the lines in 1885 amounted 

 to 25.oUt.OnO iruilders. and the expenses were 

 14,4(56.000 guilders. The earnings of the State 

 railroads were 11.876,000 guilders, and the ex- 

 penses 7,210,000 guilders. The capital invest- 

 ed in railroad construction up to 1885 was 

 213.651.089 guilders. 



Telegraphs. The State had 4,903 kilometres 

 of telegraph lines and 17.233 kilometres of wires 

 on Jan. 1, 1888. Of 657 stations m the coun- 

 try 358 belonged to the State and 299 to com- 

 panies. The number of messages that passed 

 over the wires in 1887 was 3.734.065. of which 

 1,996.628 were internal, 1.706,396 international, 

 and 31.041 official. The receipts were 1,176.- 

 146 guilders; the expenses, 1.519,028 guilders 

 for ordinary, and 28,639 guilders for extraor- 

 dinary pur; 



The Army. The war strength of the Europe- 

 an army in 1887 was 2.342 officers and 63,391 

 men, exclusive of the active schutteryen. num- 

 bering 41.217 men, and the territorial militia, 

 numbering 7'>.467 men. The Vitali system of 

 converted rifle has been adopted for the infantry. 



Thf .VaTV. The fleet of war in July, 1888, 

 consisted of 24 iron-clads, 12 monitors, 6 river 

 gun-boats, 28 cruisers, 8 paddle-wheel gun- 

 boats. 30 coast-guard gan-boats, 31 torpedo- 

 boats, 5 batteries, and 21 other vessels. 



Colonies The Dutch possessions in the East 

 Indies are divided into the colony of Java and 

 Madura, where there is a settled government, 

 and the so called outpost*, which include Su- 

 matra. Borneo, the Riouw-Lingga Archipelago. 

 Banka, Biliiton, Celebes, the Molucca Archi- 

 pelago, and the Sunda Islands. Java has been 

 governed since 1832 on the culture system, 

 under which the labor of the natives is official- 

 ly superintended and directed so as to produce 

 food crops sufficient for the population and as 

 much colonial produce for the European market 

 as is possible. Under this system coffee, indigo, 

 sugar, pepper, tea, tobacco, and other articles 

 have been cultivated for the Government by 

 the forced labor of the natives. Forced labor 

 has been abolished except in the cultivation of 

 coffee and sugar, and will cease in connection 

 with the latter crop after 1890 in accordance 

 with a law that was passed in 1870. The 

 culture system has not been introduced in the 

 outposts except in the tobacco districts of the 

 west coast of Sumatra and in the residency of 

 Menado on the island of Celebes, where it is 

 applied to the cultivation of coffee. The Gov- 

 ernment, by monopolizing the trade, derives a 



large profit from the privately grown tobacco 

 of Java, which is purchased at one fifth or 

 one sixth of the price for which it is sold in 

 the auction sale at Amsterdam. The opium mo- 

 nopoly adds to the revenue of the Government, 

 although the introduction of the narcotic has 

 tended to impoverish the people. The natives 

 of Java were formerly submissive and satisfied, 

 but of late years the failures of the coffee-crop, 

 the crises in the sugar and indigo trades,and the 

 irregularities that have crept into the colonial 

 administration have produced widespread dis- 

 content. In 1888 an insurrection took place in 

 the spring in the district of Bantam, which was 

 put down with difficulty by the prompt and 

 energetic action of the military authorities, 

 who sent a large force into the disturbed 

 district. A pretender appeared who falsely 

 claimed to be a descendant of the former sul- 

 tans, and obtained a large following, but was 

 finally arrested and proved to be an impostor, 

 and was condemned to four years' imprison- 

 ment. In the summer the rumor of a general 

 insurrection spread through the eastern part 

 ot the island, and the Europeans were plunged 

 into a state of extreme anxiety. At Soera- 

 baya the civic guard had orders to take up 

 arn,s at the first alarm, and the whites who 

 lived outside brought their families into the 

 town. The expected uprising was prevented 

 by the timely action of the police. There was 

 a conspiracy extending through central and 

 eastern Java. In Surakarta. where nightly 

 meetings took place in various [daces, the 

 authorities seized the principal ringleaders, 

 who confessed that their object was to estab- 

 lish a new Javan empire. In the residencies of 

 Kediri. Madiun, and Pasnruan the head con- 

 spirators were caught in time and brought 

 behind bars. In Yorstenlanden a nocturnal 

 assembly was surprised by the police, and in 

 the house of one of the leaders was found a 

 seal of state on which was engraved the name 

 Mangku Negoro IV. as the prospective ruler 

 of the restored empire was called. 



The island of Sumatra is divided into a 

 number of districts, provinces, or kingdoms, 

 some of which are directly under Dutch rule, 

 whereas others continue under the native 

 rulers aided by Dutch advisers. The latest 

 official statements give the population at 2.792. - 

 561 natives. 105.823 Chinese, and 3,847 Euro- 

 peans. 



The military authorities were no nearer 

 mastering the rebellion in 1888 than they had 

 been in previous years. A falling out between 

 the Sultan and one of his vassals, who was a 

 formidable enemy of the Dutch, was a favor- 

 able circumstance. Yet the strongest foe that 

 they had to encounter, the berri-berri disease, 

 was worse than ever before. It attacked 

 European women, who had previously been 

 spared. A medical commission that was sent 

 to study the nature of the plague and means of 

 prevention, suggested preventive measures that 

 reduced the ravages among the soldiers. The 



