656 



NETHERLANDS. 



The army of the Netherlands in Europe in 

 1879 consisted of 2,039 officers and 61,486 

 men ; the East Indian army numbered 1,458 

 officers and 38,905 men. 



The navy on July 1, 1879, consisted of 100 

 steamers, with 398 guns, and 14 sailing vessels, 

 with 102 guns; total, 114 vessels, with 500 

 guns. 



The merchant navy on January 1, 1879, con- 

 sisted of 1,100 sailing vessels, of 806,279 metric 

 tons, and 79 steamers, of 160,114 metric tons ; 

 total, 1,179 vessels, of 966,393 metric tons. 



The aggregate length of railroads in opera- 

 tion on January 1, 1879, was 1,967 kilometres 



(1 kilometre = 0-62 English mile), of which 

 1,089 were state railroads. 



The aggregate length of the state telegraph 

 lines on January 1, 1878, was 3,519 kilometres; 

 aggregate length of wires, 12,882 kilometres ; 

 number of offices, 346 ; number of telegrams 

 carried in 1878, 2,452,725; revenue, 791,000 

 florins; expenditures, 1,181,160 florins. 



The number of post-offices in 1878 was 1,2S9. 

 The number of inland letters was 40,704,846 ; 

 of foreign letters, 11,698,212 ; of postal cards, 

 12,672,744; and of newspapers, etc., 32,797,742. 



The movement of shipping in 1878 was as 

 follows : 



The imports and exports in 1877 were as 

 follows (in florins) : 



native population of the other colonies is not 

 known. The foreign population was as fol- 

 lows in 1876: Europeans, 54,230; Chinese, 

 319,137; Arabians, 14,983; Hindoos and oth- 

 ers, 9,853. In America, Surinam, or Dutch 

 Guiana, had in 1877 a population of 68,531 ; 

 and the island of Curacao, 41,870. 



The budget estimates of the Dutch colonies 

 for the year 1879 were as follows : 



The colonies of the Netherlands are consid- 

 erably larger and more populous than the coun- 

 try itself. Their area is estimated at 661,400 

 square miles. In the East Indies, Java and 

 Madura have a population of 18,515,414. The 



The commerce of the East Indian colonies in 

 1876 was as follows: Imports, 121,511,000 

 florins; exports, 213,519,000. The movement 

 of shipping in the East Indian ports in 1876 

 was as follows: Entered, 7,363 vessels, of 1,- 

 529,458 tons; cleared, 7,550 vessels, of 1,596,- 

 083 tons. The commercial navy in the same 

 year consisted of 1,384 vessels, of 130,266 tons. 



Java had 371 kilometres of railroad in 1879. 

 The length of telegraph wires in operation on 

 Java and Sumatra in 1877 was 6,953 kilome- 

 tres, and of lines 6,654 kilometres. The total 

 number of dispatches sent in 1877 was 360,322 ; 

 number of stations, 67. The number of letters 

 sent through the East Indian mails was 3,550,- 

 401 ; number of papers, etc., sent to the differ- 

 ent islands, 1,777,389; weight of the papers 

 sent abroad, 48, 784 kilogrammes (1 kilogramme 

 = 2'2 pounds) ; number of postal cards sold, 

 295,263. 



M. de Roc van Andewerelt, the Minister of 

 "War, died on December 30, 1878, and in Feb- 

 ruary, 1879, Lieutenant-Colonel den Beer Poor- 

 tugael was appointed in his place. M. van 

 Bosse, Minister of the Colonies, who died on 

 February 21st, was replaced in March by Otto 

 van Rees, the former President of the Council 



