NETHERLANDS, THE. 



625 



The commerce of the East Indian colonies, 

 in 1878, was as follows: imports, 140,450,000 

 florins ; exports, 179,967,000 florins. 



The revenues have improved of late years, 

 hut the process of extending the railroad sys- 

 tem and acquiring the canals as state property 

 entails considerable deficits in the annual budg- 

 ets, and the consequent augmentation of the 

 public debt. There remained from the reve- 

 nues of the fiscal years 1874 and 1875 surpluses 

 amounting to 6,093,607 guelders, and from 1876 

 to 1879 deficits amounting to 31,804,999 guel- 

 ders. The remainder of the loan of 1878, of 

 which 26,652,177 guelders was left, more than 

 covered the resulting deficiency. In 1880 a sur- 

 plus of 2,205,001 guelders was left over. The 

 estimated amount of the revenue of 1881 was 

 108,650,000, and the estimated expenditures 

 126,150,000, leaving a deficit of 17,500,000 

 guelders for the year, and, deducting the dis- 

 posable surplus, a resulting deficiency of 13,- 

 500,000 guelders. The estimates for 1882 

 were for 106,664,559 guelders of revenue and 

 128,695,940 gueiders of expenditures, leaving 

 an estimated deficit of 22,900,000, of which 

 14,000,000 guelders represented railroad con- 

 struction, 1,226,000 guelders the improvement 

 of the canal from Rotterdam to the North 

 Sea, and 1,937,000 guelders expenditure on 

 fortifications. The project of the construction 

 of a canal to the Rhine would require the ex- 

 penditure of 12,250,000 gaelders, that of im- 

 proving the Rotterdam and North Sea Canal 

 2(5,274,000, and the extension of the railroad 

 net-work 14,000,000 guelders additional. The 

 expenditure for such public works would re- 

 quire 127,400,000 guelders to be raised in a few 

 years, and a new loan to cover this expenditure 

 is proposed. 



The estimate of the colonial revenue for 

 1881-'82 was 138,913,703 guelders; the esti- 

 mated expenditure was 148,499,631 guelders. 

 The improvement in the revenue, owing to 

 the higher price of tin, does not prevent a 

 large deficit occurring, to cover which, and 

 the unliquidated liabilities of former years, a 

 loan will be raised ; and meanwhile the Treas- 

 ury advances the sum of 25,000,000 guelders 

 to clear off these floating liabilities, which 

 is to be repaid out of the proceeds of the 

 loan. The States-General also agreed to the 

 proposal of the Colonial Minister, Van Golt- 

 stein, to abolish the corvee in the East Indies, 

 and substitute a poll-tax of one guelder for 

 the forced labor. The operation of the laws 

 regulating the importation of opium into the 

 colonies was made the subject of a parliament- 

 ary investigation. The privilege of selling the 

 drug is farmed out, and the license fees have 

 been gradually raised to a very high sum. It 

 seems that the Government has overshot the 

 mark, and caused a heavy contraband trade to 

 spring up, with the consequence that the price 

 of opium has gone down at the same time 

 that the licenses have been augmented. The 

 budget, which was voted in November, in- 

 VOL. xxi. 40 A 



eludes appropriations for the improvement of 

 the Soerabaya Harbor and the excavation of a 

 new outlet for the Solo River. 



A conference for the regulation of the North 

 Sea fisheries was held at the Hague in Octo- 

 ber, which framed a treaty to be concluded 

 between Holland, England, Belgium, Germa- 

 ny, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and France, 

 which embodied the propositions brought for- 

 ward by the British representatives. Vessels 

 engaged in fishery are to be registered and 

 numbered, and must present their papers to 

 the captains of cruisers which will patrol the 

 seas. These captains are empowered to settle 

 all disputes which shall arise between fisher- 

 men on the sea. 



General van der Heyden, who had brought 

 the war in Acheen to a termination at last, 

 received great honors on his return to Holland. 

 Great Acheen was placed under a civil govern- 

 ment, but the sequels of the outbreak still 

 kept the country disturbed. Some of the 

 chiefs had not made their submission, and dur- 

 ing the entire year marauders plundered the 

 settlements, without the military and police 

 being able to prevent them. The royal de- 

 cree for the replacement of the military dicta- 

 torship by a civil administration was issued in 

 October, 1879, but the time of its execution 

 was left to the discretion of the Governor- 

 General in Batavia. The war in Acheen was 

 carried on with great losses in men and treas- 

 ure, and with varying fortune > from 1873 to 

 1877, under Generals Koehler, Van Swieten, 

 Pel, Wiggers, Van Kerchem, and Diemont. 

 With the exception of Pel, who died prema- 

 turely, none of these commanders gained any 

 decided successes. In the beginning of 1877, 

 Colonel (afterward Lieutenant-General) van 

 der Heyden was given the command, after a 

 visit of the Governor-General van Lansberghe. 

 The ability and energy of the new commander 

 soon changed the situation, and after two of 

 the most brilliant campaigns ever fought by 

 the Dutch in the East Indies, he could report 

 the war ended. The obstinacy of the resist- 

 ance offered by the Acheeneso was such that 

 over 60,000 Dutch soldiers met their death in 

 the field or in the hospital. The heaviest 

 losses were when Koehler and Van Swieten 

 commanded, while under Van der Ileyden they 

 were insignificant. The victorious general re- 

 mainded in the country, which ho ruled with 

 wisdom as a kind of military dictator. His 

 kindly and judicious government won the rev- 

 erence and gratitude of the natives, to whose 

 race he himself partly belonged, being born of 

 a Malay mother. The land was beginning to 

 flourish, although the cost of the administra- 

 tion could not yet be supported by the people 

 themselves. Nevertheless, there were many 

 protests raised in the Netherlands against the 

 long-continued military rule. Pruys van der 

 Hoeven went out in the beginning of 1880, to 

 take over the direction of affairs and establish 

 civil government, but the universal protests 



