508 



NETHERLANDS. 



guilders; copper, 38,978,000 guilders; rice, 37,- 

 698,000 guilders; coffee, 31,734,000 guilders; 

 wood, 29,404,000 guilders ; margarine, 23,170.000 

 guilders. Some of the largest exports, and their 

 values, out of a total of 1,134,000.000 guilders 

 for 1892, were: Drugs, 135,889,000 guilders; 

 textiles, raw and manufactured, 126,055.000 

 guilders; cereals and flour, 92,978,000 guilders ; 

 iron ;uid steel and manufactures thereof, 76,- 

 015,000 guilders ; margarine, 55,899,000 guilders ; 

 sugar, 47,279,000 guilders ; vegetables, 21,235,000 

 guilders; paper, 20,911,000 guilders. 



Navigation. There were entered during 1893, 

 at the ports of Holland, 1,467 sailing vessels, of 

 1,131,384 cubic metres, of which 603, of 283,166 

 cubic metres, were registered as Netherlandish. 

 The number entered with cargoes was 1,235, of 

 1,085,102 cubic metres. The total number cleared 

 was 1,512, of 1,153,601 cubic metres. The steam- 

 ers entered were 7,711 in number, of 16.572,844 

 cubic metres, of which 2,119, of 4,900,976 cubic 

 metres, were of Dutch register, and 7,284, of 15,- 

 904.903 cubic metres, were with cargoes. The 

 number of sailing vessels cleared was 1,512, of 

 1,153,601 cubic metres; the number of steamers 

 was 7,558, of 16,232,714 cubic metres. 



The Netherlandish merchant navy, on Jan. 1, 

 1893, consisted of 447 sailing ships, of 349,206 

 cubic metres, and 150 steamers, of 479,314 cubic 

 metres. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 length of the Dutch railroads on Jan. 1, 1893, 

 was 1,839 miles, of which 986 miles belonged to 

 the state. The capital invested in the state rail- 

 roads was 262,674,000 guilders to Jan. 1, 1892. 



The post office in 1893 earned in the mails 

 60,760,000 domestic and 19,864 foreign letters, 

 31,394,000 domestic and 4,889,000 foreign postal 

 cards, 101,699,000 domestic and 11,631,000 for- 

 eign newspapers and circulars, and 2,807,000 do- 

 mestic registered letters and postal orders rep- 

 resenting 292,414,000 francs, and 450.000 foreign, 

 of the declared value of 106,945,000 francs. The 

 receipts were 14,791,549 francs, and the expenses 

 12,042,430 francs. 



The state telegraphs in 1893 had a length of 

 3,440 miles, with 12,350 miles of wire. The 

 number of internal dispatches was 2,235,432, and 

 of international dispatches 2,155,633. The re- 

 ceipts were 2.941.825 francs; expenses, 4,429,366. 



The Waterstaat. The dikes and canals of 

 Holland are in charge of a separate depart- 

 ment of the Government. There are 1,907,170 

 miles of canals and 3,000 miles of canalized riv- 

 ers, chief of which is the Yssel. 



A commission that has studied the question of 

 draining the Zuyder Zee has recommended that 

 the work be carried out. It is proposed to re- 

 claim from the sea about 450,000 acres, the value 

 of which is estimated at 326,000,000 guilders. 

 The cost of the work is estimated at 189,000.000 

 guilders, to which must be added compensation 

 to fishermen and defensive works, making the 

 total cost 315,000,000 guilders. The draining is to 

 be carried out by means of a sea dike from North 

 Holland to EMesland. The wall will be 216 feet 

 wide at the base, and its top will be 17f feet 

 above the level of the sea at Amsterdam. On 

 the inner side, below the summit, will be laid a 

 railroad track beside a wagon road. The sea 

 having been barred out, 4 different areas will be 



inclosed in separate embankments, containing in 

 the aggregate 750 square miles of polders or re- 

 claimed areas, which will be emptied by pump- 

 ing. As the shallower parts are drained they 

 will be successively brought under cultivation. 

 It is reckoned that within ten years from the be- 

 ginning of the work 25,000 acres will be re- 

 deemed annually. When the work which is to 

 be spread over a period of thirty-three years 

 shall have been completed, the Zuyder Zee will 

 be reduced to a central channel 17 miles wide, 

 to be called the Ysselmeer, communicating with 

 the' sea by locks at Wieringen, with Amsterdam 

 by a branch 3 miles wide, and with the mouth of 

 the Yssel by a shorter branch. About 350 squar 

 miles have been reclaimed by similar works, the 

 most important area being the Haarlem polder, 

 covering 72 square miles. The recovery of t IK 

 land under the Zuyder Zee, which was submerged 

 as the result of a series of floods beginning in 

 the year 1170 and ending in 1410, will have one 

 serious drawback in the destruction of the fish- 

 eries, which employ 3,000 persons and bring in 

 about 1,000,000 guilders a year. 



Franchise Crisis. In the session of 1893-'94 

 the long-expected bill for the extension of the 

 franchise was introduced by Dr. Tak van Poort- 

 vliet. All parties have agreed that the franchise 

 ought to be extended. The Constitution of 1848 

 fixed a property qualification 20 guilders of 

 taxes in the small townships, and ranging up tc- 

 160 guilders in the large cities. There were not 

 more than 130,000 electors in a population ol 

 4.000,000 before the Constitution of 1887 was 

 adopted, under which the taxpaying qualifier 

 tion was lowered and the electorate more thai 

 doubled. That Constitution does not prescril 

 a property qualification of any sort, but simply 

 states that Dutchmen to be voters must have at- 

 tained the age of twenty-three years and p<>- 

 the attributes of fitness and social well-being. 

 and enumerates as disqualifications degradation 

 from the franchise by the judgment of a crim- 

 inal court, a legal judgment declaring one unfit 

 to manage his property, the receiving of alms or 

 public charity, and a failure to pay the tax im- 

 posed in the preceding year, provided a tax- 

 paying limitation is a part of the electoral law. 

 When the Conservative party was defeated in 

 1891, the Liberals came into power with a dis- 

 tinct mission to widen the electoral franchise, 

 and the task was in particular intrusted to Dr. 

 Tak van Poortvliet, who had been the champion 

 of a democratic reform of the franchise. 



Dr. Tak's bill declared that all burghers are 

 entitled to the franchise who possess the means 

 of maintaining themselves and supporting their 

 families, and education enough to apply in writ- 

 ing for registration on the list of voters. It- re- 

 quired that the voter should have lived in the 

 same house three months before registration, 

 and that he should not have changed his dwell- 

 ing more than once during the twelve months 

 preceding ; that he or his wife or children should 

 not be recipients of alms or parochial relief, or 

 condemned to deprivation of civic rights, or 

 have been within three years detained in a re- 

 formatory or imprisoned for vagabondage or 

 mendicancy. If the burgher had failed to per- 

 form his military duties or had been dismissed 

 from the army as a rogue, or had failed to pay 





