400 



NETHERLANDS. 



containing 50 members, elected by the provincial 

 councils for nine years, and a Second Chamber, 

 containing 100 members, elected for four years by 

 the direct votes of all citizens who pay any 

 direct taxes or are legally qualified for any pro- 

 fession or employment or have money in the sav- 

 ings bank, or earn 275 guilders a year, or own 

 boats, or occupy separate 'dwellings. The reign- 

 ing sovereign is Queen Willemina, born Aug. 31, 

 1880, daughter of Willem III by his marriage 

 with Princess Emma of Waldeck. The Queen 

 succeeded to the throne at the death of her father 

 on Nov. 23, 1890, and assumed the royal authority 

 on Sept. 6, 1898, the Queen Dowager having acted 

 as regent during her minority. 



The Council of Ministers at the beginning of 

 1900 was composed as follows: President of the 

 Council and Minister of Foreign Affaire, Dr. W. 

 H. de Beayfort; Minister of the Interior, Dr. H. 

 Goeman Borgesius; Minister of Finance, Dr. N. 

 G. Pierson ; Minister of Justice, Dr. P. W. A. Cort 

 van der Linden : Minister of the Colonies, J. T. 

 Cremer; Minister of Marine, Vice-Admiral J. A. 

 Roell, succeeding J. C. Jansen; Minister of War, 

 Lieut.-Gen. K. Eland; Minister of Waterstaat, 

 Commerce, and Industry, C. Lely. 



Area and Population. The area of the Neth- 

 erlands, or Holland, is 12,648 square miles. The 

 population on Dec. 31, 1898, was estimated at 

 5,074,632, being 401 to the square mile, divided 

 into 2,513,267 males and 2,561,365 females. The 

 urban population was 34.3 per cent, of the total, 

 the rural population 65.7 per cent. The number 

 of marriages in 1898 was 36,813; of living births, 

 160,765; of deaths, 85,813; excess of births, 74,- 

 952. The net emigration in 1898 was 851 viz., 

 781 to the United States and 70 to South Africa. 

 Of the emigrants 439 were men, 226 women, and 

 186 children. The number of foreign and Dutch 

 emigrants who took passage from the ports of 

 Holland was 14,119. The population of the prin- 

 cipal towns at the end of 1898 was: Amsterdam, 

 512,953; Rotterdam, 309,309: The Hague, 199,285; 

 Utrecht, 100,066. 



Education lias not hitherto been made compul- 

 sory in the Netherlands, nor is it everywhere free. 

 By the act of 1889 the Government grants sub- 

 sidies to private religious schools, besides sup- 

 porting the secular public schools jointly with 

 the communes, paying part of the salaries of 

 teachers and 25 per cent, of the cost of all new 

 school's. There were 3,091 public elementary 

 schools in 1898, with 15,696 teachers and 405,054 

 pupils; 1,434 private elementary schools, with 

 7,146 teachers and 224,361 pupils; 139 public in- 

 fant schools, with about 825 teachers and 25,543 

 pupils; 904 private infant schools, with about 

 2,660 teachers and 8(5,078 pupils; 123 schools for 

 the working classes, with 1,166 teachers and 16,- 

 457 pupils; 73 intermediate schools, with 973 

 teachers and 9,266 pupils; 29 classical schools, 

 with 428 teachers and 2,370 pupils; and 11 schools 

 of navigation, with 08 teachers and 877 pupils. 

 The 4 state universities had 165 professors and 

 2,822 students, and the polytechnicum 30 pro- 

 fessors and 581 students. There are also agri- 

 cultural and horticultural schools, a school for 

 the East Indian civil service, several military 

 schools, an academy of art, a royal school of 

 music, and nonnal schools for teachers. The ex- 

 penditure of the Government in education in ISMS 

 was 9,895.992 guilders, that of the communes 10.- 

 097,092 guilders. The proportion of totally illit- 

 erate conscripts in 1898 was 3.6 per cent. A bill 

 introducing compulsory school attendance was 

 presented by the Minister of Education in the 

 spring session of 1900. The Second Chamber by 



a single vote defeated the proposal to make con- 

 tinuation beyond the rudiments obligatory, al- 

 though it agreed by the same narrow majority to 

 impose on the communes the duty of establishing 

 and maintaining continuation schools. 



Finances. The ordinary revenue for 1898 was 

 138.305,846 guilders, and the extraordinary rev- 

 enue from loans and other sources was 5,755,139 

 guilders; total revenue, 144,120,985 guilders. The 

 total expenditure was 150,505,462 guilders, of 

 which 37,747,308 guilders went for defense, 33,- 

 459,451 guilders for debt, 19,970.410 guilders for 

 public works, and 59,328,293 guilders for the gen- 

 eral expenses of government. The estimate of 

 revenue for 1899 was 140,796,900 guilders, and of 

 expenditure 152.013,959 guilders. For 1900 the 

 budget estimate of revenue was 144,723,185 guil- 

 ders, of which the land tax gave 12,635.000 guil- 

 ders; personal tax, 8,600,000 guilders; tax on capi- 

 tal, 7,100,000 guilders; tax on incomes from trades 

 and professions, 5,675,000 guilders; excise duties, 

 47,440,000 guilders; indirect taxes, 21,065,000 

 guilders; import duties, 8,917,250 guilders; tax 

 on gold and silver, 300,900 guilders; domains, 

 1,970,000 guilders; post office, 9,910,000 guilders; 

 telegraphs, 2,036,000 guilders; lottery, 651.000 

 guilders; shooting and fishing licenses, 130,000 

 guilders; pilot dues, 2,000,000 guilders; mining 

 dues, 7,705 guilders; state railroads, 4,306,190 

 guilders; share of the East Indies in the interest 

 and sinking fund of the debt, 3,848,000 guilders; 

 miscellaneous revenues, 8,131,140 guilders. The 

 total expenditure for 1900 was estimated in the 

 budget at 151,260,244 guilders, of which the civil 

 list took 800,000 guilders; States General and 

 Royal Cabinet, 680,992 guilders ; Ministry of For- 

 eign Affairs, 855.140 guilders; Ministry of the In- 

 terior, 15,474.449 guilders; Ministry of Marine. 

 15,959,263 guilders; Ministry of Finance, 25,283.- 

 592 guilders; Ministry of War, 22,584,783 guil- 

 ders; Ministry of Public Works, 27,421,266 guil- 

 ders; Ministry of the Colonies, 1,206,004 guilders: 

 public debt, 35,118,640 guilders; contingent ex- 

 penses. 50,000 guilders. Of the total revenue of 

 1898 direct taxation produced 33.014,530 guilders. 

 excise 46,915,485 guilders, indirect taxes 19,581,873 

 guilders, and customs 8.787,071 guilders; to- 

 gether 24.77 per cent, of the whole, and respec- 

 tively 6.55, 9.31, 3.89, and 1.74 per cent. The 

 customs duties, framed for revenue only, do not 

 exceed 5 per cent, on most dutiable articles, and 

 on imports used in the industries they are not 

 over 2.5 per cent., if any duties at all are levied. 

 The budget for 1901 shows a deficit of 5,250,000 

 guilders, 2.000,000 guilders of which are due to 

 increased expenditure on the army and navy and 

 on education, and the remainder to expenditure on 

 extending public works. 



The public debt in 1900 amounted to 1,160,- 

 246,800 guilders, of which 624,996.600 guilders are 

 2.5-per-cent. funded debt, 520,250,200 guilders 3- 

 per-cent. loans of 1895, 1898, and IS'i't. and !.">.- 

 000,000 guilders uncovered papered money. The 

 5- and 6-per-cent. debts of expropriated railroads 

 w r ere redeemed in 1899. There is a floating debt 

 requiring about 300.000 florins a year to be paid 

 in interest, and 290,719 florins are paid for an- 

 nuities, making with the sinking fund of 3.2.~>0.- 

 000 guilders a total annual debt charge of :!."">. 11S.- 

 040 guilders, the interest on the funded debt be- 

 ing 31.205.921 guilders. The total value of real 

 property in the Netherlands is estimated at 

 3,096,000.000 guilders, and personal property at 

 i..si;4.000,000 guilders, making the national wealth 

 1<I..->OIMKHM)00 guilders. 



The Army. Conscription has been partly 

 troduced into the Netherlands, though the main 



