NETHERLANDS. 



aid from the community or any benevolent soci- 

 ety, with the exception of medical assistance, 

 which he may receive gratuitously. Disqualified 

 are persons who have lost their right of admin- 

 istering their own affairs, who are deprived of 

 the right to vote by a sentence of the court, who 

 have not paid their direct taxes, who are serving 

 in the army, who are sentenced to more than 

 four years' imprisonment, or who have been ex- 

 cluded from the army. Of about 1,000,000 

 adults, 200,000 are disqualified for some of the 

 reasons stated above, so that by the new law 

 about 80 per cent, of the adult male population 

 will be qualified to vote. 



The Army Bill. A reorganization of the 

 Dutch army had long been the desire of the 

 Government, and the Minister of War, A. Seyf- 

 fardt, presented a bill to the States-General on 

 Nov. 17, 1892, which it is supposed will satisfy 

 the present demands. Those liable to do service 

 are divided by lot into two categories. The first 

 category, which will have a longer period of 

 service in time of peace, forms the active army ; 

 the second category, which besides serving a 

 shorter period, has also a considerably smaller 

 sphere of activity, will compose the territorial 

 army, which will be trained by local drills. Be- 

 sides a reserve in the depots and a small supple- 

 mental reserve, the formation of a Landsturm 

 in case of extreme necessity has been provided 

 for. The period of service is to be nine years. 

 The mobile active army will be composed of 3 di- 

 visions of 12 battalions each, with cavalry, artil- 

 lery, and pioneers ; the immobile army will num- 

 ber 48 companies of infantry and 46 companies 

 of fortress artillery ; both mobile and immobile 

 armies making a total of 68,115 soldiers. The 

 conscriptions for the territorial army are figured 

 at 19,000 men annually, and its duties will be 

 mainly confined to internal defense. The addi- 

 tional expense of this reorganization is estimated 

 at 86,120 guilders annually. 



The Merwede Canal. The new canal con- 

 necting Amsterdam with the Rhenish provinces 

 of Germany was completed in 1892, and opened 

 for traffic as far as Vreeswijk. It had long been 

 the aim of the city of Amsterdam to have a more 

 direct route to the upper Waal, so as to be on 

 an equal footing with Rotterdam, which has a 

 free water highway to Germany by way of 

 Dordrecht. The new canal runs from Amster- 

 dam to Utrecht, and thence by way of Vrees- 

 wijk, on the Leek, to Gorinchem. It is 65 

 feet broad at the bottom, and has a minimum 

 depth of 10J feet. At places where an accumu- 

 lation of vessels is expected it reaches a breadth 

 of 131 feet. The locks are 394 feet long and 

 82 feet wide, the gates 39-4 feet wide. The rail- 

 road bridges are fixed, with a minimum height 

 of 21 feet from the water line to the under part 

 of the bridge. The total length of the canal 

 from Amsterdam to Gorinchem is 44-7 miles, 

 and the distance opened for traffic in 1892 is 

 30'3 miles. The new canal will permit the pas- 

 sage of vessels of four times the size of those 

 which can safely pass the older route. The 

 passage is free of tolls, and the time of transit, 

 formerly from sixteen to eighteen hours, is re- 

 duced to seven hours. 



East Indian Colonies. These include (1) 

 Java and the neighboring island of Madura; 



(2) the outposts, embracing the islands of 

 Sumatra, Borneo, Riau-Lingga archipelago, 

 Banca, Billeton, Celebes, Molucca archipelago, 

 the smallest Sunda Islands, and a part of New 

 Guinea. Java and Madura are divided into 

 provinces, which are administered by a president ; 

 the outposts are governed by functionaries with 

 the titles of governor, resident, assistant resi- 

 dent or controleur, who exercise almost absolute 

 control over the provinces in their charge. The 

 executive power over Dutch East India rests in 

 the Governor-General, who is assisted in his ad- 

 ministrative duties by a council of five members. 

 He has a right of passing laws and regulations 

 for the administration of the colonies, subject, 

 however, to the power reserved to the Legisla- 

 ture of the mother country, and the constitu- 

 tional principles as laid down in the " Regula- 

 tions for the government of Netherlands India, 

 passed in 1854. 



The budget estimates for Dutch India for the 

 year 1892 placed the revenue at 119,599,713 

 guilders, and the expenditures at 137,451,954 

 guilders, leaving a deficit of 17,952,241 guilders. 

 The receipts in Holland, from the sales of 

 Government coffee, according to the estimates, 

 amounted to 13,222,523 guilders; from sales of 

 cinchona, 196,020 guilders ; from those of tin, 6,- 

 217,340guilders ; from railroads, 855,000 guilders ; 

 from various other sources, 1,260,385 guilders. 

 The receipts in India from sales of opium 

 amounted to 18,420,000 guilders ; from import, 

 export, and excise duties, 11,264,000 guilders ; 

 land revenues, 16,671,000 guilders; sales of 

 coffee, 9,087,500 guilders ; sales of salt. 8,047,000 

 guilders ; and other revenues, 34,358,945 guilders ; 

 making the total receipts in India 97,848,445 

 guilders, and those in the mother country 21,- 

 751,268 guilders. Of the expenditures, about 

 one third goes to the army and navy, and an- 

 other third is used for the general administra- 

 tion. The budget for 1893 estimates the reve- 

 nues at 139,000,000 guilders, leaving an esti- 

 mated deficit of 9,000,000 guilders. The coffee 

 crop is estimated in the budget at 395.000' 

 piculs (1 picul =: 135'8 pounds), but an actual 

 harvest of about 100,000 piculs more is expected 

 which will be kept in reserve for next year. The 

 Colonial Minister demands a credit of 1,500,000 

 guilders for the development of the coffee plan- 

 tations, which are to be inspected and supervised 

 by a technically educated commission. A sum 

 of 9,000,000 guilders has been assigned for irri- 

 gation works and the construction of harbors 

 and railroads, including the Tarik-Soerabaya 

 Kalimas line. It is further proposed to im- 

 pose a tax on the sugar industries, based on 

 the average amount of the export duties which 

 these industries would have paid within the 

 past three years had the duties not been sus- 

 pended. 



The army, which is purely colonial, consisted 

 at the end of 1890 of 1,384 officers and 32,547 

 subofficers and soldiers, of whom 13,663 were 

 Europeans, 57 Africans, 2,290 Amboinese, and 

 16,537 natives. The navy, which is partly colo- , 

 nial and partly royal, consisted in the begin- 

 ning of 1890 of 27 royal vessels manned by 

 2,380 Europeans and 913 natives, and 36 colo- 

 nial vessels manned by 117 Europeans and 1,353 

 natives. 



