ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



13 



of the number of primary schools, no precise 

 idea of the status of rudimentary education can 

 be derived, the following comparative statistics 

 are transcribed from the report of the Minister 

 of Public Instruction for 1882 : Assuming the 

 population of the republic to be 2,500,000, and 

 the proportion of the children between the ages 

 of six and fifteen to be 20 per cent., we should 

 have: 



Children fit to attend school 500,000 



Actual number attending public primary- 

 schools 99,968 



Estimated number attending private pri- 

 mary schools 100,000 



Estimated number home-taught 10,000 



Total number possessing or acquiring 



primary education 



Total number illiterate . . . 



Total... 



500,000 



Yet these figures attest a notable improvement 

 when compared with those for 1872, in which 

 year but 81,183 children, out of a total of 

 468,987, attended school. 



Finance. Contrary to the almost general 

 rule in Spanish America witness Mexico, Cos- 

 ta Rica, Honduras, and principally Peru the 

 Argentine Republic, while rapidly extending 

 her already considerable railway and telegraph 

 systems, and otherwise facilitating transpor- 

 tation to and from the seaboard, not only ac- 

 complishes this without sacrifice to the nation- 

 al credit, but seldom fails to render such mate- 

 rial improvements subservient to the financial 

 prosperity of the country. Thanks to this sys- 

 tem, and to punctuality in the service of the 

 national debt and in the payment of interest 

 thereon, Argentine bonds, first quoted at a 

 premium in December, 1881, have rarely de- 

 scended below par since that year. 



The budget estimates for 1883 were: reve- 

 nue, $29,576,000; expenditure, $31,224,749, 

 whereby there would be a deficit of $1,648,- 

 749. 



The subjoined tables, which are transcribed 

 from official returns published this year, ex- 

 hibit the branches of the national revenue and 

 expenditure, and the amounts of each, as esti- 

 mated in the budget for 1884 : 



Import duties $20,600,000 



Additional duties 670,333 



Exportduties $3,080,000 



Additional duties 513,000 



Warehouse fees 



Stamped paper 



Licenses \\ 



Direct taxes 



Post-Office ....'..'.'.'.'.'.".'.'.' 



Telegraphs [ ' '_ ' 



Lighthouses, etc 



Sanitary Department 



Forests '//.'. 



"Water- works 



Railways ". ' 



National Bank shares 



Wharfage ' '. ' 



Penitentiary 



Mint '/. 



Sundries . . . 



$21,270,833 



Total 



EXPENDITURE. 



Ministry of the Interior $6,950,714 09 



u Foreign Affairs 871,70000 



" Finance 13,788,93627 



" Justice, Public Worship, and Pub- 

 lic Instruction 4,291,671 40 



"War and the Navy: 



War-Office $6,150,924 72 



Navy Department 2,549,537 88 



8,700,462 60 



Total .$34,053,484 85 



Estimated deficit for 1884 $283,151 



The actual showing of the Finance Depart- 

 ment for 1882 was unusually favorable; for, 

 as Gen. Roca observes in his message to Con- 

 gress in May, of a revenue of $26,763,985.27, 

 but $25,354,996.76 were required for the ordi- 

 nary expenditure of the administration. " The 

 surplus, $1,408,988.51, together with $3,712,- 

 962.54, the proceeds of the treasury notes is- 

 sued under the law of Nov. 3, 1881, the $2,- 

 312,704.16 balance in the treasury at the end 

 of that year, and other funds resulting from suc- 

 cessful credit operations, was applied to reduce 

 the balance overdue on our debt, thus placing 

 the treasury in a position to discharge within 

 a few days all our old accounts." The consoli- 

 dated national debt, according to the Presi- 

 dent's statement, amounted on Dec. 31, 1881, 

 to $82,048,004.50, and to $94,565,787.90 at the 

 end of 1882, in which latter year the principal 

 of the debt was reduced by $3,625,257.13, and 

 increased by new emissions to the amount of 

 $14,283,788.50. Gen. Roca affirms that the 

 reduction just alluded to was a real diminution 

 of the country's indebtedness, while the four- 

 teen million increase represented only the 

 transformation of existing debts or the defray- 

 al of productive outlays on works the yield of 

 which would be more than sufficient for the 

 amortization of the bonds emitted. " At the 

 end of the present year " (1883), adds the 

 President, " the 6 per cent, consolidated debt, 

 with a small portion at 8 and 9 per cent., will 

 have been reduced to $75,418,201.31. The 

 amount paid annually on the national debt 

 (principal and interest) is $8,979,061.51. 

 Should the conversion * which I proposed to 

 Congress last year be sanctioned, we should 

 only require to dispose of 5 per cent, bonds 

 to the amount of $88,727,295.66, at the price 

 of 85 per cent, (the rate taken as a basis by 

 the committee on ways and means), for the ex- 

 tinction of those debts. And if the emission 

 were made without a sinking fund for a term 

 of twenty or twenty-five years, the annual ser- 

 vice would only call for $4,436,364.78. The 

 advantages accruing from either of these plans 

 are apparent, and would enable us to carry on 

 numberless works of public utility without 

 burdening future generations with such debts 

 as have been handed down to us and were con- 

 tracted to defray the expenses of wars abroad 

 and internecine strife." The President referred 

 to the urgent need of a national bank law 

 similar to that existing in the United States. 

 Up to March 31, 1883, there were delivered 

 * See the "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1881, p. 25. 



