Secretary of Embassy.-Henry Howard, C.B. There are also British Consular representatives at : The Government of Finland and her relations to the Empire have been referred to on page 857; its area and population given on page 860; and its army on page 879. Of the total area 11.15 per cent. is under lakes. According to a law of August 14, 1890, the circulation of Russian paper roubles and silver money has been rendered obligatory. The penal code, elaborated by the Senate, which had to be promulgated on January 1, 1891, has been stopped by the Russian Government till further notice. In 1891 the postal administration of Finland was subjected to the Russian Ministry of Interior. Population. - The gradual increase of the population is seen from the following: Of the total population there were at end of 1890:-Lutherans, 2,334,547; Greek Orthodox and raskolniks, 45,132; Roman Catholics, 461. The chief towns, with population, of Finland are:-Helsingfors (with Sveaborg), 61,583; Abo, 28,946; Tammerfors, 19,041; Wiborg, 17,984; Ulea borg, 12,483; Björneborg, 10,458; Nikolaistad (Wasa), 9,409; Kuopio, 9,050. The movement of the population in 1886-90 was as follows: Immigration in 1890, 52, 272. Emigration, 52,248. In 1888 there were about 1,966,000 Finns, 332,000 Swedes, 4,650 Russians, 1,800 Germans, 1,000 Laps. Instruction. In 1892 Finland had 1 university, with 1,757 students; 1 polytechnic, 130 students; 21 lyceums (16 State), 3,950 pupils; 9 progymnasiums, 1,050 pupils; 23 real schools, 775 pupils; 60 girls' schools, 4,463 pupils; 825 higher primary schools, with 51,689 pupils; 4 normal schools, with 459 pupils. There are besides 7 navigation schools, with 152 pupils; 6 commercial schools, with 247 male and 217 female pupils; 39 evening and Sunday professional schools, with 1,287 pupils; 2 agricultural institutes, 12 agricultural and 17 dairy schools, with 375 male and 175 female pupils; 5 trade schools, with 292 pupils. Out of 470,382 children of school age (from 7 to 16 years old), only 21,523 received no education. There were, in 1892, 61 Swedish and 84 Finnish newspapers and reviews published. Pauperism and Crime. The number of paupers in 1890 supported by the village communities was 79,557 (3.3 per cent. of the population); and the total cost was 2,586,896 marks. The prison population, at the end of 1890, was 1,471 men and 569 women, while the number of sentences pronounced for crimes in 1890 was 1,755, and for minor offences 19,690. Finance. The estimated revenue for 1892 was 59,908,875 marks (15,394,786 marks being left from previous budgets), and expenditure the same (20,377,477 marks being left for the next year). Of the revenue, 5,496,100 marks came from direct taxes; 21,568,000 marks indirect taxes. The chief items of expenditure are military affairs, 7,192,126 marks; civil administration, 8,034,817 marks; worship and education, 6,234,756; public debt, 4,093,507. The public debt on January 1, 1892, amounted to 77,736,801 marks, as against 85,130,944 marks on January 1, 1890; of which 4,150,200 marks internal. Industry. The land was divided in 1890 among 114,582 owners (345 nobles, 2,218 Burger, 111,557 peasants, and 297 foreigners in 1888), and the landed property was distributed as follows:-Less than 12 acres, 34,032 persons (as against 42,592 in 1885); from 12 to 624 acres, 55,055 persons, from 62 to 250 acres, 21,468 persons; more than 250 acres, 4,027 persons. Small farmers, 69,936. The crop of 1890 was in hectolitres :-Wheat, 51,162; rye, 4,518,220; barley, 2,311,684; oats, 5,518,477; sarrazin, 16,053; peas, 143,739; potatoes, 6,068,241; flax, 1,890 tons; hemp, 1,000 tons. Of domestic animals Finland had :-Horses, 262,559; horned cattle, 928,276; sheep, 1,054,027; swine, 194,192; reindeer, 85,859; goats, 15,266; poultry, 299,970. The crown forests cover 14,187,864 hectares. Their maintenance cost 578,763 francs, and the income derived from them was 2,170,089 francs. In 1890 there were 222 saw mills with water motors, and 189 steam mills, as against 117 in 1888. They give occupation to 9,704 workers, and their aggregate production was 1,226,065 cubic metres of timber, as against 3,003,354 cubic metres in 1889. The annual produce of pig-iron and iron, in metric tons, for seven years, Finland had in 1890, 6,496 large and small manufactures, employing an aggregate of 59,176 workers, and yielding an aggregate product of 167,042,524 marks (6,681,7017.). The chief were : The total amount of steam engines attained 698; horse-power, 12,018. Commerce. The exterior trade of Finland appears as follows, in thousands of marks (francs) : The chief items of export are: timber (44,784,500 marks in 1891, as against 28,699,000 in 1887), butter and meat (16,267,300), paper, paper mass, and cardboard (8,625,900), iron and iron goods (4,212,100), corn and flour (7,076,600), cottons (4,209,900), leather, hides, tar, and pitch. The chief imports were :-Corn and flour (27,807,400 marks) coffee, colonial goods, and grocery (26,840,000), metals, chiefly iron, and hardware (13,006,400), cotton and other tissues (17,669,000), raw cotton (8,325,500), machinery (6,125,600), chemicals, leather ware, tobacco, colours, and oils. Shipping and Navigation. The number of vessels which entered and cleared the ports of Finland in 1891 was as follows: The Finnish commercial navy numbered on January 1, 1892, 1,711 sailing vessels of 225,639 tons, and 386 steamers, 9,291 horse-power, 25,743 tons; total, 2,097 vessels of 251,382 tons. Internal Communications. For internal communications Finland has a remarkable system of lakes connected with each other and with the Gulf of Finland by canals. The number of vessels passing through the canals of Finland every year is from 15,000 to 19,000 (17,845 in 1891), and the net revenue from the canals varies from 230,000 to 600,000 marks every year (236,502 in 1891). At the end of 1891 there were 1,930 kilometres of railways, all but 33 kilometres belonging to the State. The traffic in 1891 was 2,600,311 passengers and 1,033,620 tons of goods. The total cost of the State railways to the end of 1891 was 145,210,115 marks. The total revenue of the same in 1891 was 12,732,490 marks, and the total expenditure 8,204,907 marks. Finland had 421 post-offices in 1890, and revenue and expenses were respectively 1,547,529 and 1,096,436 marks; united letters, post-cards, and under-wrappers, 9,379,745; registered letters and parcels, 619,954; journals, 7,576,148. The 136 savings-banks had on December 31, 1890, 77,031 depositors, with aggregate deposits of 41,348,856 marks. Money, Weights, &c. The markka of 100 penni is of the value of a franc, 94d. The standard is gold, and the markka, though not coined in gold, is the unit. Gold coins are 20 and 10-markka pieces. They contain 2903225 grammes of fine gold to the markka. Silver coins are 2, 1, 1, and 1-markka pieces. Copper coins are 10, 5, and 1-penni pieces. The paper currency is exchangeable at par against gold or silver. The unit of linear measure is the foot, which is 0.2969 metre, or very nearly equal to the English foot. 1 verst (3,600 Finn. feet)= nearly of a statute mile; 1 tunnland (56,000 square Finn. feet) = nearly 14 acre (0°49364 hectare); 1 tunna (63 kannor)= nearly 44 bushels (16488 hectolitre; 1 skålpund of Eng. lb. (425 01 grammes); 1 centner (100 skålpund=5 lispund) = of Eng. ton (45 501 kilogrammes). Metric measures are now in general use. 94 100 RUSSIAN DEPENDENCIES IN ASIA. The following two States in Central Asia are under the suzerainty of Russia : : BOKHARA. A Russian vassal State in Central Asia, lying between N. latitude 41° and 37°, and between E. longitude 62° and 72°, bounded on the north by the Russian province of Turkestan, on the east by the Pamir, on the south by Afghanistan, and on the west by the Kara Kum desert. |