588 



NETHERLANDS. 



land under King Willem III, devolves under 

 the Salic law upon Duke Adolphus of Nassau, 

 born July 24, 1817, who is the head of the elder 

 branch, called the line of Walram, who founded 

 the family in the eleventh century, while King 

 Willem represented the cadet line, running back 

 to Count Otto, who settled in the Netherlands 

 in the fifteenth century, whose descendants be- 

 came hereditary stadtholders of the Republic of 

 the Netherlands in 1747, and the hereditary sov- 

 ereigns when it was proclaimed a kingdom in 

 1815. By the treaty of London, signed May 11, 

 1867, Luxemburg was declared a neutral terri- 

 tory under the guarantee of the great powers. 

 The legislative authority in the grand-duchy, 

 which has an area of 998 square miles and 213,- 

 283 inhabitants, is exercised by a Chamber of 

 42 members. Duke Adolphus was the reigning 

 prince of the Duchy of Nassau until it was an- 

 nexed to Prussia, in 1866. When King Willem 

 was declared incapable of ruling in April, 1889, 

 he went to Luxemburg on the invitation of the 

 Chamber and was invested with the powers of 

 Regent, which he resigned as soon as the King 

 was restored sufficiently to resume the Govern- 

 ment. On Nov. 6, 1890, the duke took the oath 

 as Regent for the second time in the presence of 

 the Chamber, and on Nov. 24 he was proclaimed 

 Grand-Duke of Luxemburg. He took the oath 

 to observe the Constitution and formally opened 

 his first Parliament on Dec. 9. In the address 

 in answer to the speech from the throne the As- 

 sembly declared that the Luxemburgers would 

 know 'how to vindicate and defend their liberty, 

 welfare, autonomy, and independence. 



Colonies. The colonial possessions in the 

 East and West Indies have an aggregate area of 

 766,137 square miles and a population more than 

 six times as numerous as that of Holland. The 

 most important colony is Java, which, with the 

 dependent island of Madura, has an area of 131,- 

 733 square kilometres or 50,848 square miles and 

 a population of 22,818,179 in the beginning of 

 1889, of whom 22,526,015 were natives. The 

 European civilians numbered 42,263 ; Chinese, 

 233,693; Arabs, 13,365; Hindus and others, 2,- 

 843. Batavia, the capital, had 101,274 inhabit- 

 ants; Soerabaya, 131,682; Samarang, 71,794. 



The area of the other Dutch possessions in the 

 East Indies, including Sumatra, Riouw, Banca, 

 Billiton, a part of Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, 

 a part of New Guinea, Timor, Bali, and Lombok, 

 is about 1,728,000 square kilometres, and their 

 population is estimated at 8,400,000. 



The Governor - General of Dutch India has 

 the supreme executive power and the power of 

 making laws and regulations in all matters not 

 reserved to the States-General of the Nether- 

 lands by the regulations for the Government of 

 Netherlands India adopted in 1854. Dr. C. Pij- 

 nacker Hordijk has held this office since June 

 19, 1888. Europeans and persons assimilated to 

 them are governed under Dutch law, while the 

 jurisdiction over natives and the classes assimi- 

 lated to them is modified by their own customs 

 and institutions. 



The receipts of Dutch India, according to the 

 budget for 1890, are 182,653,477 guilders, and the 

 expenses 140.162.812, leaving a deficit of 7,509,- 

 335 guilders. The sales of Government Java 

 coffee amount to 39,231,549 guilders ; sales of 



cinchona, 222,750 guilders ; sales of tin, 5,288,- 

 890 guilders ; lease of the privilege of selling 

 opium, 18,101,000 guilders ; customs, 9,759,000 

 guilders ; land tax or tithe, 16,615,000 guilders ; 

 salt tax, 7,641,200 guilders; post-office and tele- 

 graphs, 1,399,000 guilders; railroads, 6,151,500 

 guilders ; miscellaneous receipts, 28,243,588 guild- 

 ers. The expenditure in Holland amounts to 

 25,732,455 guilders, and in India to 114,430,357 

 guilders. For 1891, owing to the failure of the 

 the coffee crop, a deficit of 20,000,000 guilders 

 is expected, which will be covered by the balances 

 from former years. The receipts are taken as 

 116,000.000 guilders, and the expenditures as 

 136,000,000 guilders. 



The imports in 1887 amounted to 126,279,000 

 guilders, 3,274,000 guilders being Government 

 stores, 123,005,000 guilders private merchandise, 

 and 6,623,000 guilders specie. The total value 

 of the exports was 187,159,000 guilders, 19,803,- 

 000 guilders standing for Government exports 

 of merchandise, 166,619,000 guilders for private 

 exports of merchandise, and 737,000 guilders for 

 shipments of specie. The exports of sugar were 

 valued at 69,600,000 guilders ; of coffee, 30,500,- 

 000 guilders : of tobacco, 24,200,000 guilders ; of 

 tin, 13,100,000 guilders ; of rice, 7,800,000 guild- 

 ers ; of pepper, 6,900,000 guilders ; of gum, 2,- 

 600,000 guilders ; of indigo, 2,400,000 guilders ; 

 of tea, 2,200.000 guilders ; of peanut oil, 2,200,000 



tuilders ; of skins, 2,100,000 guilders ; of rattan, 

 ,000,000 guilders ; of gambier, 1,900,000 guild- 

 ers ; of gutta-percha, 1,900,000 guilders. Of the 

 total exports of Indian produce, the produce of 

 agriculture constituted 84-8 per cent., pastoral 

 produce 1'2 per cent., forest products 6'3 per 

 cent., and mineral products 7'7 per cent. 



The greater part of the land in Java belongs 

 to the Government. In the western part of the 

 island there are private estates owned by Dutch- 

 men and Chinese. The private estates of Euro- 

 peans in 1887 numbered 121, covering 1,140,219 

 bahus, while 229 Chinamen owned 418,196 bahus, 

 and 55 other Oriental settlers owned 24,215 ba- 

 hus. The mass of the natives are agricultural 

 laborers, and the law permits the land owner, 

 whether the Government or a private individual, 

 to exact one day's labor in the week from the 

 people living on his land. Forced labor for the 

 Government was to a large extent abolished in 

 1882 by the law allowing it to be commuted by 

 the payment of a head tax of 1 guilder per an- 

 num. Under the provisions of the agrarian law 

 of 1870 a large extent of vacant land has been 

 brought into cultivation by private persons who 

 occupy it under hereditary leases running 75 

 years. The natives in Java and Madura culti- 

 vated in 1887 3,586,616 bahus of land (1 bahu 

 If acre). Serf dom under the " culture system.'' 

 which formerly prevailed throughout the resi- 

 dencies, has never been introduced in the Out- 

 posts, as the Dutch possessions outside Java and 

 Madura are called. In pursuance of the law of 

 1870 it has been abolished in the cultivation of 

 indigo, pepper, tea, tobacco, and other products, 

 and in 1890 came to an end on the Government, 

 sugar plantations, being still retained only for 

 the production of coffee. The sugar-planting 

 industry has largely passed from the Govern- 

 ment, which had 38,668 bahus in 1879 and only 

 14,163 in 1887, into the hands of private plant- 



