590 



NETHERLANDS. 



NEVADA. 



Atcheenese have already been well supplied by 

 English traders of the Straits Settlements. 



On May 14, 1890, the Atcheenese took posses- 

 sion of the fortified position of Benting, near 

 Edi, while it was entirely deserted. The Dutch 

 made a vain effort with 300 men to dislodge 

 them, and lost 4 dead and 24 wounded. A 

 stronger force was brought up, and on June 11 

 the Atcheenese were driven from the elevated po- 

 sitions that they had occupied along the Edi 

 river, leaving 80 dead on the field, while on the 

 Dutch side the loss was 2 officers and 22 men 

 wounded. The Government troops pursued the 

 enemy, and on June 13 attacked Kwalabagoh 

 and Olehgadjah, capturing the latter place with 

 the loss of 3 men wounded. After this success 

 the column returned to Edi. The naval forces 

 co-operated with the army in clearing the neigh- 

 borhood of Edi of the enemy. 



The colony of Surinam or Dutch Guiana, in 

 South America, has an area of 119,321 square 

 kilometres and 66,037 inhabitants, including 

 12,000 savage Indians and boschnegers or de- 

 scendants of runaway slaves. Paramaribo, the 

 capital, has 27,752 inhabitants. The sedentary 

 population comprised 27,820 males and 26,217 

 females in 1888. The marriages numbered 117; 

 births, 1,826; deaths, 1,596; excess of births, 

 230. The budget for 1890 makes the revenue 

 1,320,813 guilders, and the expenditure 1,627,154 

 guilders. The imports in 1888 were valued at 

 4,346,840 guilders, and the exports at 3,316,377. 

 The produce of sugar in 1887 was 8,416,615 kilo- 

 grammes ; of cacao, 1,602,898 kilogrammes ; of 

 bananas, 544,851 bunches; of coffee, 6,668 kilo- 

 grammes. The export of gold in 1887 was 

 1,006,904 grammes, of the value of 1,379,458 

 guilders. In that year 395 new mining conces- 

 sions were granted. The value of the gold mined 

 from the first establishment of the industry to 

 the end of 1887 was 9,936,777 guilders. The 

 mining laws have allowed claims to be held 

 without working, and for that reason a large 

 quantity of mineral land has remained idle in 

 the hands of speculators. Operations have been 

 confined to surface mining, and as the richer 

 placers have been worked out two or three of the 

 American companies engaged in the business 

 have retired and production has begun to de- 

 cline. No attempt has yet been made to sink 

 shafts and begin regular mining operations, and 

 no thorough search has been made for quartz 

 ledges. The Governor of Surinam is assisted in 

 legislative matters by a body called the Provincial 

 States, in which four members are nominated 

 by him and the others are elected in the propor- 

 tion of one to every 200 electors. Gov. de Savor- 

 nin Lohman, a brother of the leader of the Or- 

 thodox or Pietistic party in the Second Chamber, 

 was appointed Governor in 1888. Although per- 

 fect accord between the representatives of the 

 home Government and the colonists has always 

 been the rule, differences arose with the new 

 Governor, who was inexperienced in colonial 

 affairs, and was suspected "of having sought the 

 place on account of the emoluments. He con- 

 ceived it to be his duty to befriend and protect 

 the negro population, believing it to be oppressed 

 by the whites, and on this question an open con- 

 flict broke out. The blacks of the Para district 

 having refused to pay taxes, a military force was 



sent to restore order; but in consequence of the 

 threatening attitude, of the negroes the troops 

 withdrew. In the Colonial States the Governor 

 was requested to explain the situation. He de- 

 clined to give any information, saying that he 

 was responsible to the sovereign for his acts, and 

 not to the Colonial States. Petitions were sent 

 to the King asking for the recall of the Gov- 

 ernor, who had violated precedents in other 

 matters also, and come into collision not only 

 with the representatives of the colonists but 

 with the members of his own council. There- 

 upon he committed the further illegality, or ir- 

 regularity, of sending a member of the court of 

 justice to Holland to present his side of the case 

 and of defraying his expenses out of the colonial 

 treasury. The complaints regarding his admin- 

 istration were the chief cause of the adverse 

 vote that led to the resignation of Keuchenius as 

 Minister for the Colonies ; but when his brother 

 became Prime Minister he was not disturbed. 



A long-standing difference between France 

 and the Netherlands regarding the delimitation 

 of their territories in Guiana became a matter of 

 moment after the discovery of rich gold diggings 

 in the disputed zone. On Nov. 29, 1888, a con- 

 vention was signed, by which they agreed to sub- 

 mit the question to arbitration, and selected the 

 Emperor of Russia to decide whether the Lawa 

 or the Tapanahoni river was the true boundary. 

 The arbitrator designated in January, 1890. de- 

 clined to act under the conditions named, and 

 on April 28, 1890, a declaration was signed at 

 Paris by the representatives of the two govern- 

 ments, removing the restriction and agreeing, 

 subject to the approval of the respective Legis- 

 latures, to accept an intermediate frontier. The 

 district in dispute is the tract inclosed be- 

 tween the two rivers that unite in the Maroni, 

 which forms the boundary further down. The 

 Dutch Government, affirming that the Lawa was 

 the boundary, would not agree to the French 

 proposal to divide the debated tract that was 

 made before arbitration was discussed. The 

 mines were first discovered and opened by 

 Frenchmen, but, pending the settlement of the 

 dispute, troops were stationed by both govern- 

 ments on either side of the river. 



The colony of Curacao or the Dutch Antilles 

 has an extent of 1,130 square kilometres and 

 a population of 46,461. Curagao, the largest 

 island, on which Willemstad, the capital, is situ- 

 ated, is 550 square kilometres in extent, with a 

 population of 25,877. The other islands, in the 

 order of their population, but not of their size, 

 are Aruba, Bonaire, St. Martin, Saba, and St. 

 Eustache. In the entire colony were registered 

 239 marriages, 1,690 births, and only 778 deaths 

 in 1888. The population was divided as to H'.X 

 into 20,862 males and 25,569 females. The re- 

 ceipts and expenditures in 1890 are balanced in 

 the budget at 672,195 guilders. The imports in 

 1887 were valued at 3,240,006 guilders. Corn, 

 beans, and cattle, fruit preparations, lime, and 

 salt are the chief products. 



NEVADA, a Pacific Coast State, admitted to 

 the Union Oct. 31, 1864; area, 110,700 square 

 miles. The population, according to each de- 

 cennial census since admission, was 42,491 in 

 1870; 62,266 in 1880; 45,761 in 1890. Capital, 

 Carson City. 



