ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



31 



Here, then, is a difference of no less than 

 $4,126,570.29, which, with the above-men- 

 tioned extraordinary expenditure of $3,076,- 

 156.33 for rebellions, almost reestablishes the 

 equilibrium between the national income and 

 outlay for 1874. 



We annex a table showing the amount of the 

 revenue for each year of the decade 1864-'74 : 



YEARS. Revenue. 



1865 $8,295,071 



1866 9,568,554 



1867 12,046,287 



1863 12,496,126 



1869 12,676,6^0 



YEARS. Revenue. 



1870 $14,883,905 



1871 12,682,155 



1872 18,172,379 



1873 20,217,232 



1874 16,090,662 



In spite, however, of the decline in the reve- 

 nue, all war expenses, as well as the ordinary 

 expenditure of the budget, have been met ; 

 $4,500,000 of arrears have been paid to the 

 War Department between January, 1874, and 

 May, 1875 ; arms and ships, for which no 

 special appropriation had been made, have 

 likewise been paid for, and all without the 

 slightest injury to the national credit, and 

 even without the necessity of negotiating the 

 balance of the loan in London. " The Minis- 

 ter of Finance," observes the President, "even 

 in the darkest hour, paid no more than the 

 national bank-rate for money." 



The public works of the 1871 loan pro- 

 gressed uninterruptedly, and the expenses 

 thereof were defrayed out of that loan. 



In the estimated budget for 1874, the ordi- 

 nary expenditure had been set down at $23,- 

 383,000 ; but, at the end of the year, there re- 

 mained a surplus of $3,702,000. By virtue of 

 special laws, an extraordinary expenditure of 

 $25,000,000 had been authorized; but of that 

 sum $8,929,000 only were used. 



Concerning the foreign debt, amounting to 

 about $50,000,000, some interesting details will 

 be found in the ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1874 

 (page 32). 



The following particulars relative to the 

 home debts of the republic were published on 

 April 12, 1875, by the national accountant, Se- 

 flor P. Agote : " The sum total of the home debt 

 is somewhat over $21,000,000, being much 

 under that of Uruguay. With us it amounts 

 to about $10, while in the other republic it 

 is between $50 and $60, for each inhabitant." 

 Here follow the different branches of the debt : 



BRANCHES. 



The Argentine navy, according to the report 

 of the Minister of War and Marine, comprised 

 in 1875 : 



Two iron-clads, at a cost of $500,000 each; 

 2 gunboats, $130,000 each; 13 steamers, at an 



average cost of $42,461 each ; 2 brigs, $14,000 

 and $500 ; 1 pontoon, $12,000 ; 4 faluas, $1,000 

 each; and 1 gig, $160; total cost $1,842,660. 



On the subject of public instruction, so pe- 

 culiarly favored in the Argentine Republic, and 

 especially so by the present zealous and inde- 

 fatigable minister, Senor Leguizamon, the fol- 

 lowing remarks are quoted from the President's 

 message to Congress in May last : 



The census of schools has been retarded by war ; 

 but we have to report renewed activity in Mendoza, 

 Santa Fe, Entre-Eios, and Buenos Ayres. In Mefodo- 

 za City we find one-fifth of the inhabitants attending 

 school, including night schools for adults. A normal 

 school is about to be opened in Tucuman ; that of Pa- 

 rana has doubled the number of its pupils. The 

 government of Buenos Ayres has approved the plan 

 for the normal school for females, for which the na- 

 tional Treasury holds $40,000, appropriated by act 

 of Congress. The National College of Eosario was 

 opened on March 1st. There are in the other four- 

 teen national colleges 4,000 pupils, and since Jan- 

 uary, we have appointed sixty professors for new 

 courses of study. Apparatus for the natural sci- 

 ences, books, etc., have been ordered from Europe, 

 and the number of the latter, as also that of free li- 

 braries, will greatly increase in the current year. 

 The Cordoba Academy of Sciences has been re- 

 opened, and the new building is rapidly pushed for- 

 ward toward completion. The Faculty of Science in 

 Buenos Ayres has been remodeled ; institutions of 

 this kind raise our intellectual level, and bestow 

 lasting glory on the country. Dr. Gould (an Amer- 

 ican, director of the National Observatory of Cordo- 

 ba) has presented two luminous reports on the As- 

 tronomical and Meteorological Departments. " We 

 shall," he says, " shortly require funds for the pub- 

 lication of the Uranometria Argentina, and climatic 

 observations, which will form a voluminous work." 

 Several scientific associations in the United States 

 have sent us donations of valuable works as an en- 

 couragement to our efforts. Such friends deserve 

 our public thanks.* 



Thanks to the unremitting efforts of Senor 

 Leguizamon, the normal school bill, of which a 

 translation is here annexed, became a law 

 during the second session of Congress : 



BUENOS AYRES, October 13, 1875. 

 Whereas, the Senate and Chamber of Deputies of 

 the Argentine nation, assembled in Congress, have 

 decreed : 



ARTICLE I. That the Executive be empowered to 

 establish a normal school, for the preparation of 

 schoolmistresses for the elementary branches of edu- 

 cation, in the capital of each, province that demands 

 one, and that offers as basis a suitable location be- 

 longing either to the province or to the municipality, 

 or that may procure such location out of the national 

 resources, in accordance with the general law of sub- 

 ventions. 



The first course of instruction being terminated, 

 the Executive will hand over the normal schools to 

 such provinces as will bind themselves to defray the 

 expenses required for their support, either wholly, 

 or in accordance with the law of September 25, 1871. 



ART. II. Annexed to every normal school will be 

 established a graduate school, which will serve as 

 a scale for normal studies, and at the same time a 

 practical course for the female teachers to be pre- 

 pared therein. 



ART. III. The normal course will embrace a term 

 of three years, and the graduate school two years, 



* Minute educational statistics will be foiind in the ANNUAL 

 CYCLOPAEDIA for 1374, 



