90 



BULGARIA. 



Education. The twenty-sixth annual report on 

 the condition of tin- public schools of the province 

 was laid before the Legislature on Jan. 16, 1898. 

 It covered the year ending June 30, 1897. There 

 were 2-14 schools in operation 4 high. -':> graded. 

 Ji:! common, and 5 ward. There were 384 moni- 

 tors and teachers employed. :i4 more than in the 

 previous year. The whole number of pupils en- 

 rolled was 1.1.798, an increase of 1,338 over 1895- 

 '96. The actual daily attendance was 9,999.61, 

 an increase of 745.36. The percentage of average 

 daily attendance in the city districts was 71.06, 

 in rural districts 58.81, and for the entire prov- 

 ince >:>.2!. The expenditure from the provincial 

 treasury for education proper during the year was 

 as follows: Teachers' salaries, $150,949.22; per 

 ciiiiilii grants, cities, $ 49,687.80 ; incidentals, rural 

 districts. |10,157J&8 ; education office, $10,016.08; 

 total, $220.810.38. The cost of each pupil, based 

 on the total enrollment, was $13.97, and based on 

 the actual daily attendance, was $22.08. The ex- 

 penditure by the Lands and Works Department 

 lor the construction of schoolhouses, furniture, re- 

 pairs, and improvements to school property was as 

 follows : Schoolhouses in rural districts, $10,923.19; 

 furniture, repairs, etc., $4,947.75 ; total, $15.870.94. 

 The total expenditure by the provincial Govern- 

 ment during the fiscal year for all purposes of edu- 

 cation was as follows: Education, $220,810.38; 

 Lands and Works Department, $15,870.94; total, 

 $236,681.32. 



Fisheries. The yield of the fisheries of British 

 Columbia in 1896 was as follows : Salmon, $3,142,- 

 ~,:\-l : halibut (fresh), $113,827; fur seal skins, $501.- 

 093; miscellaneous, $426,347: total, $4,183.999. 

 The capital invested was $2,614,578, and the men 

 employed numbered 15.!C. ) 5. 



nl'JUwARIA, a principality in eastern Europe, 

 tributary to Turkey, created out of a former Turk- 

 ish province by the Treaty of Berlin, signed July 13, 

 1878, giving effect to the independence achieved 

 for Bulgaria through the armed intervention of 

 Russia. Eastern Roumelia, which was made an 

 autonomous province by the same treaty, expelled 

 tin- Turkish officials in' 1885 by the ^id of Bul- 

 garians of the principality, and the union of the 

 two Bulgarias was proclaimed. The Sultan on 

 April 6. 1886, signified his acquiescence in the fait 

 accompli by a firman confiding the government of 

 the province to the Prince of Bulgaria under the 

 title of Governor General. 



The legislative power is vested by the Constitution 

 of 18711 in the Sobranje, a single Chamber contain- 

 ing 1 representative for every 20,000 of population, 

 elected by universal adult male suffrage. The 

 reigning Prince is Ferdinand I, son of Prince 

 AugiM of Saxe-Ooburg-Qotha, born P'eb. 26, 1861, 

 fleet. -d by the (treat Sobranje on July 7, 1887, after 

 the abdication of Alexander of Mattenberg, and con- 

 tinued by the Porte and the powers in March. 1896. 



The ministry constituted on Sept. 7, 1897. was 

 composed as follows: President of the Council and 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Public Worship, 

 Ii. ('. Stoilolf ; Minister of Finance, T. Theodoroff ; 

 Minister of Justice, G. Xgoureff; Minister of the 

 Interior. X. MciielT: Minis!. M-of \\'ar. Col. N. Ivanoff ; 

 Minister of Public Works and Communications, J. 

 MadjarofT; Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, 

 C, VditcholT. 



Area aud Population. The area of the prin- 

 cipality proper is 24.360 sciuare miles; of South 

 Bulgaria, or Ka-tcrn Roumelia. 13,500 square miles, 

 with a population on Jan. 1, 1893, of 992,386. The 

 population of the whole country on that date was 

 3,309,816, of whom 2.504.386 were Bulgars, 569,728 

 Turks, 60,018 Greeks, 51,754 gypsies, 27,531 Jews 

 3,620 Germans, 1,379 Russians, and 91,450 of other 



nationalities. Sofia, the capital, has 47,000 inhab- 

 itants. The number of marriages in 1894 was 

 26,640; of births, 127,516; of deaths, 92,037; excess 

 of births, 35,479. 



Finances. The revenue for 1897 was estimated 

 at 83,425,019 lei, or francs, and the expenditure at 

 83,422,659 lei. The receipts from direct taxes were 

 reckoned at 33,731,145 lei, and customs and excise 

 receipts at 31,080,000 lei. Of the expenditures 

 18,267.992 lei were for the service of the debt, 22,- 

 104,000 lei for the army, 9,188,560 lei for public in- 

 struction, 8.380,876 lei for the interior, and 4,991,940 

 lei for finance. For 1898 the total revenue is esti- 

 mated at 84,516,000 lei, and expenditure at 84,462.- 

 000 lei. 



The debts consist of 42,063,500 lei of the loan 

 contracted in 1886 for the purchase of the Varna 

 and Rustchuk Railroad, 27,440,000 lei raised in 1888 

 and 1889, 83,141,000 lei borrowed under the act of 

 1892. a balance of 11,918.296 lei due to the Russian 

 Government on account of the occupation, and 

 6,785,204 lei due to the Ottoman Government ; total, 

 171,348,000 lei, besides the tribute of Eastern Rou- 

 melia, which never has been paid since the union 

 was consummated, and the Bulgarian share of the 

 Ottoman debt and annual tribute, which have re- 

 mained in abeyance, the powers having omitted to fix 

 the amounts in accordance with the treaty of Berlin. 



The Army and Navy. About 10,000 of the 

 40,000 young men who reach the age of twenty each 

 year are drawn by lot to serve in the army for two 

 years in the infantry or three years in the cavalry 

 or artillery. The infantry arc armed with Mann- 

 licher repeating rifles, and the cavalry with car- 

 bines of 8 millimetres caliber, the artillery mostly 

 with Krupp guns. The nominal peace strength for 

 1897 was 2,807 officers and 40,234 men, with 7,937 

 horses ; war strength, 126,970 men in the first line 

 and 81,996 in the reserve, or 208,966 in all, with 

 38,788 animals and 432 guns. 



The naval force consists of an armed yacht, 4 

 gunboats, 7 sloop gunboats, and 3 torpedo boats. 



Commerce and Production. The Bulgarian 

 peasants own their small farms of 1 to 6 acres, 

 with common rights in the woods and pasture 

 lands. They pay tithes of their crops to the Gov- 

 ernment, still mostly in kind, as under Turkish rule. 

 Wheat is the main crop and the chief export, be- 

 sides which tobacco, flax, and silk are raised, and 

 sheep and goats are kept, furnishing wool, tallow, 

 butter, cheese, and skins for domestic use and for 

 export. The foreign trade is conducted to a large 

 extent by Greek, Austrian, and Roumanian mer- 

 chants. The leading imports in l!S!)0 were textile 

 manufactures for 26,457,000 lei, colonial goods for 

 6,575,000 lei, metals for 8,788,000 lei, timber and 

 furniture for 4,124,000 lei, and machinery for 2,611,- 

 000 lei. The exports of grain were valued at 

 94,089,000 lei ; of live animals, 4,247,000 lei. The 

 amount of trade w'ith different countries in 1896 is 

 shown in the following table, giving values in lei : 



