COLOMBIA. 



isa 



schools. The total expenditure for the Depart- 

 ment of Public Instruction for the year men- 

 tioned was $212,782.90. 



Newspapers. No fewer than forty-five period- 

 icals of all kinds are published in Bogota, the 

 capital of the republic a goodly number for a 

 city of less than 96,000 inhabitants, of whom 

 only 34,500 can read and write. 



In October the Conservative party, through 

 their recognized organ, published a list of ten 

 reforms that they considered requisite to the 

 perfecting of the Constitution. The eighth of 

 the proposed reforms, and one likely to pro- 

 voke a storm of contention, read as follows: 

 " We ask for universal public instruction, and 

 that the education of our youth should have 

 for its basis the religious belief of the people 

 of Colombia." This reform would be the re- 

 placing of the educational system in the hands 

 of the clergy. 



Finance. The financial condition of Colombia 

 seems to be one of hopeless bankruptcy. The 

 total amount of the revenue for the fiscal year 

 ending Aug. 31, 1883, was $6,063,010, derived 

 from the following 



SOURCES OF NATIONAL INCOME. 



Customs $4,318,719 



Salt-works 801,452 



Panama Railway 10,000 



Bolivar Railway and Telegraph 175,839 



Stamps 34,168 



Post-Office 75,523 



Magdalena river tax 1 02,077 



Salt imports 72,685 



Telegraphs 88,486 



National properties 5,455 



Mortmain properties 18,848 



Mint . ... 4,731 



Sea-salt consumed in the interior 1,895 



Sundries 405,132 



Total ,,. $6.068,010 



Expenditure 7,517,886 



Deficit $1,454,876 



" In these returns (of revenue) the Magdalena 

 river tax, fords, and marine salt, are made 

 to figure, although they should not appear as 

 moneys which enter the Treasury, since each 

 item had been previously set apart, by law, 

 for a certain purpose. The river tax has to be 

 expended for keeping the Magdalena and Toli- 

 ma rivers clear ; the salt duties belong to the 

 Atlantic States ; the fords, to the States of Toli- 

 ma and Cundinamarca ; and the tax on marine 

 salt, if it is not a complete illusion, should go 

 to the last-named States. These sums must 

 therefore be deducted from the budget, and 

 then we find ourselves with only $5,883,755 

 with which to cover all the expenses of gov 

 ernment, meet the charges on the home and 

 foreign debts, and other heavy liabilities. It 

 will also be observed that the river taxes rep- 

 resent but a trifling sum. This arises from 

 the fact that the accounts had not been sent in 

 by the employes intrusted with the control of 

 that department. The amount of that tax has 

 been more accurately reported at $218,555. 

 Similar obscurity is observable in the returns 

 of customs receipts, salt-works, coinage dues, 

 national properties, salt imports, and stamps, 



as respectively made by the receiving and dis- 

 bursing ministers, and which show scandalous 

 discrepancies, to the amount of $139,526, which 

 I fail to comprehend." * 



In the budget estimates for 1884-'85 the 

 revenue and expenditure figured at $6,182,- 

 920.75 and $6,236,905.60, " with, of course, a 

 deficit, but, after all, a deficit reduced to in- 

 significant proportions " $53,984.85. " In pre- 

 paring the budget, the Government has had in 

 view the laudable aim of establishing an equi- 

 librium between the national income and out- 

 lay. But that is not the most difficult that 

 awaits the Congress of 1884; it has before it 

 the very arduous one of organizing the country's 

 credit upon a firm basis. The Legislature 

 should be stimulated by the reflection that so 

 long as Colombia neglects her credit abroad, 

 she will not be able to gather means for the 

 building of rail and other roads requisite for 

 the development of her public and private re- 

 sources; and that so long -as the home debt 

 continues to be a permanent debt of the Treas- 

 ury, the palace of San Carlo will be continually 

 besieged by creditors." " In 1881 Congress 

 cost $180,134," says a Bogota journal ; " in 1882 

 it cost $250,889 ; and in 1883, $338,669. At 

 this rate, within four years it will cost $1,000,- 

 000, and meanwhile poverty is universal, and 

 our credit at home and abroad grows worse 

 daily." A decree, dated Dec. 19, 1883, in- 

 creases to 75 cents per kilogramme the import 

 duty on all articles of Class V of the tariff. 



The condition of the national finances had 

 become so alarming in March, 1884, that the 

 Senate, not content with the exposition con- 

 tained in the President's message, demanded 

 of the Ministers of the Treasury and of Finance 

 a minute report of their respective depart- 

 ments, to be submitted for examination to the 

 Comision de Gredito Publico (Committee on 

 "Ways and Means), with a view to the passage 

 of a law to enforce regularity in the service of 

 the national debt. 



The state of this debt, as presented by Presi- 

 dent Otalora in February, was as follows : 



Capital of the foreign debt $9,570,500 OD 



Arrears of interest : 



1879-'80 $731,684 00 



1880-'S2 908,91209 



1882-'88 454,45600 



. 2,095,052 00 



Total foreign debt Dec. 81, 18S3 $11,665,552 00 



Home debt 10,340,883 85 



Total national debt Deo. 81, 1883 $22,006,435 85 



The ministers' reports, when presented, were 

 found to be no more satisfactory than the Presi- 

 dent's statement, and the Senate then resolved 

 upon another and more efficient course of in- 

 quiry into the causes of the evil, in orclei to 

 have the suitable remedy applied without far- 

 ther delay. Among other expedients suggested 

 was that of the consolidation of the home debt, 

 which measure, with a general system of econo- 



* From Mr. Groot's review for February, 1884, published 

 in Bogota. 



