508 



NETHERLANDS. 



factured goods, and 146,600,000 guilders of miscel- 

 laneous products. 



The amount of trade, in guilders, with the dif- 

 ferent countries in 1895 is shown in this table : 



Communications. There were 1,632 miles of 

 railroads in operation on Jan. 1, 1896. The state 

 telegraphs had a total length of 3,497 miles, with 

 12,511 miles of wire. The number of messages sent 

 in 1895 was 4.673.224, of which 2,380,336 were in- 

 ternal and 2,252,921 international paid messages 

 and 39,967 were official ; the receipts were 3,106. 706 

 francs and expenses 4,142,934 francs, excluding 382,- 

 121 francs of extraordinary expenditure. The post 

 office in 1895 forwarded 64,605,000 internal and 23,- 

 225,000 foreign letters, 34.371,000 internal and 

 6,056,000 foreign postal cards, 113,487,000 internal 

 and 13,640,000 foreign printed inclosures, and 

 3,194,000 internal money orders and letters of the 

 value of 309,027,000 francs and 528,000 foreign ones 

 of the value of 101,246,000 francs. The postal re- 

 ceipts were 15,958,718 francs and expenses 13.016,- 

 598 francs. 



Legislation. The Minister of the Interior's elec- 

 toral reform bill was passed by both houses, although 

 it was entirely acceptable to no party. The Second 

 Chamber adopted it by the small majority of 56 to 

 43, and the First Chamber ratified it on Sept. 6 by 

 the votes of 30 Liberals and 4 Roman Catholics 

 against 12 Anti-Revolutionaries and Catholics. The 

 franchise is conferred upon every male citizen who 

 has reached the age of twenty-five years and pays a 

 direct tax of a little more than a guilder, or has 

 lived in a hired room or apartment for six months, 

 or draws a pension from some public institution or 

 has 100 guilders in a savings bank, or has passed an 

 examination qualifying him to be a professor, an 

 engineer, a surgeon, or the like. No one is dis- 

 qualified who can support himself and his family, 

 nor does the fact of receiving gratuitous medical 

 aid constitute a bar. All officers are electors, and 

 also noncommissioned officers not in barracks. The 

 new law goes into force on May 15, 1897. 



Candidates for the Second Chamber must be pro- 

 posed in advance by at least 40 electors. When 

 only one candidate is thus presented, the seat is 

 given to him without the formality of an election. 

 When there are several candidates, the burgomas- 

 ter sends the list to every voter, with a notification 

 of the day of election, which must not be a Sunday 

 or holiday. Members are elected in single districts 

 and not by scrutin de liste. 



The elections for a renewal of a third of the 

 members of the First Chamber took place in July. 

 The Liberals lost seats in Zeeland and Gelderland, 

 but still had a majority of 31 in the First Chamber 

 over 13 Catholics, 4 Anti-Revolutionaries or Ex- 

 treme Protestants, and 2 Conservatives. At the 

 opening of the new session on Sept. 15 bills were 

 announced providing for the compulsory insurance 



of workingmen against accidents and for reforms 

 in the system of communal finance. 



The city of Amsterdam is proceeding to munici- 

 palize the water, gas, telephone, and street-car serv- 

 ices. The water company has been compelled un- 

 der the terms of its charter to sell its plant to the 

 city at about one third of the capitalized value. 

 There was a long contest over this, and a similar 

 contest took place over the gas franchise which re- 

 sulted in notice being given of its termination in 

 1897. The telephone company succeeded in mak- 

 ing an arrangement more acceptable to the share- 

 holders. A majority of the municipal council fa- 

 vors the acquisition of the street railroads also and 

 all public services with the aim, on the one hand, 

 of furnishing cheaper gas, water, telephonic com- 

 munication, transport, etc., to the citizens and, on 

 the other, of improving the financial position of 

 the city by profits from the undertakings. 



The Dutch East Indies. The Dutch possessions 

 in Asia comprise the colony of Java and Madura 

 and the outposts, which include Sumatra, Borneo, 

 Dutch New Guinea, the Riau-Lingga Archipelago, 

 I'anca, Billiton, Celebes, the Molucca Archipelago. 

 and the minor Sunda islands. The territories are 

 divided as to their political status into directly ad- 

 ministrated, vassal, and confederated lands. Java, 

 including Madura, is divided into 22 provinces, each 

 governed by a resident and his staff through the 

 medium of a large force of native officials, who re- 

 ceive sometimes fixed stipends and sometimes a 

 percentage of the taxes that they collect. The sys- 

 tem of government is quite despotic, the Governor 

 General having power to make any laws and regu- 

 lations that are not in conflict with the statutes. 

 The Government owns the land, and under the cul- 

 ture system compelled the natives to produce the 

 exportable products, such as sugar, indigo, tobacco, 

 pepper, tea, etc., but forced labor is now required 

 only on coffee plantations. The system has been 

 extended also to the coffee lands in western Suma- 

 tra and Celebes. The Governor General is Jonk- 

 heer C. II. A. van der Wyck, appointed in 1893. 



Java, with Madura, has an area of 50,554 square 

 miles, and in 1894 had 25,067,471 inhabitants, of 

 whom 24,746,368 were native Malays, 50,393 Euro- 

 peans, 251,325 Chinese, 16,319 Arabs^ and 3,066 Hin- 

 dus and others. The total area of the outposts is 

 685,846 square miles, and the population 9,206,090. 



The estimated revenue of the East Indies for 

 1896 was 131,823.666 guilders, and the expenditure 

 140,362,581 guilders. Of the revenue 22,618,588 

 guilders were the proceeds of sales of coffee, 114,840 

 guilders of cinchona, 5,083,085 guilders of tin, 17,- 

 167.000 guilders of the opium monopoly, 15.115,000 

 guilders of customs, 17,273.000 guilders of the land 

 tax or tithes, 8,556.600 guilders of the salt duty, 

 1,875,800 guilders of posts and telegraphs, 10,219,- 

 000 guilders of railroads, and 33.800,753 guilders of 

 various other revenues. The railroads in operation 

 in Java had in 1894 a length of 1,095 miles, and 412 

 miles more were building. In Sumatra there were 

 197 miles completed and 20 miles building. The 

 telegraph lines had a total length of 5,190 miles, 

 with 7,607 miles of wire. The number of internal 

 dispatches in 1894 was 427,447; of international 

 dispatches, 160.055. The post office forwarded 

 12,951.772 internal and 8.321,676 foreign letters; 

 receipts, 2,251,000 guilders; expenses, 3,729,000 

 guilders. 



The merchandise imports of private persons into 

 Java in 1894 were 112.115,000 guilders: into the 

 outposts, 46,443,000 guilders; imports of the Gov- 

 ernment, 6,712,000 guilders; total merchandise 

 imports, 165,270,000 guilders. The merchandise ex- 

 ports of private individuals from Java were 137.062,- 

 000 guilders ; from the outposts, 45,122,000 guilders ; 



