Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/414

 The mixed communes, less numerous than the others, are those in which the native element still prevails, and where the Europeans only form small groups, too weak to constitute a municipality. They are under the control of a civil administrator, who is required to speak Arabic or Berber. In the military districts, certain circumscriptions are also called mixed communes; but here Europeans and natives alike are governed exclusively by military authority, the functions of mayor being exercised by the commander-in-chief. Lastly, in the same districts a number of purely native communes, comprising dwars, ferkas, tribes, and even isolated towns, are controlled by officers of the regular army.

In 1881, there were altogether two hundred and nine communes enjoying full privileges, and this number is gradually increasing by a process of subdivision, the section demanding a municipal constitution as soon as it feels strong enough to support a separate administration. In 1884 there were seventy-five mixed communes in

the civil, and six in the military districts, besides sitet native communes created by the military bureaux. But these so-called native communes are sometimes vast regions, several square miles in extent. Such are those of Ghardaya, comprising the whole of the Mzab, Metlili, and Chaanba territories, with a total area of 26,700 square miles, and of Biskra, which is nearly as large again, stretching from El Kantara for 150 miles to and beyond Tugurt and Temassin, with an area approxjmately estimated at about 45,000 square miles. But as a rule, the larger the commune the smaller the population: that of Algiers, scarcely two square miles in extent, having at once the smallest area and the largest number of inhabitants.

In the European communes the municipal councils are elected by the suffrage of the French citizens, while each of the three Algerian departments is represented in Parliament by one senator and two deputies, elected according to the electoral