Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1153

 INSTRUCTION — PRODUCTION AND INDUSTRY 7D7

male and 300 female pupils. All males under the age of 25 years are supposed to be able to read and write. There is a theological seminary and a gymnasium or college for boys at Cettinje, and a girls' high school with 44 resident pupils maintained at the charge of the Empress of Russia.

Justice, Crime, and Pauperism.

A Judicial Code founded upon the Code Napoleon has been prepared, and is being gradually put in force.

There are district courts in four or five of the principal towns. In rural districts justice is administered in the lirst instance by the local knezes, but the ' Veliki Sud,' or supreme court at Cettinje, has jurisdiction, Ijoth appellate and concurrent, over the whole principality, an<l in the last resort there lies an appeal to the Prince in person. There are no judicial statistics, but crime in general is rare.

There is no regular provision for poor relief. The Government, however, annually undertakes a certain number of public works, such as roads, bridges, kc. , at which the indigent are invited to labour, being paid mostly in grain, procured for that purpose from Russia. Russian charity also does much.

Finance, Defence.

No official returns are published regarding the public revenue and expen- diture. Reliable estimates state the former at 600,000 Austrian florins, or about 50.000/., derived chiefly from land and cattle taxes, the salt monopoly, and customs duties. Montenegro owes to the Lander Bank of Vienna a sum of one million florins (80,000/.) borrowed at 6 per cent.

There exists no standing army, but all the inhabitants, not physically unfitted, are trained as soldiers, and liable to be called under arms. The Moslem inhabitants of Montenegro are exempted from military service on payment of a capitation tax. The number of trained men is put at 35,870 infantry, and 856 artillery. About 25,000 men are in the fiist class. In 1896 military barracks were constructed at Cettinje ; a battalion of 800 men occupies them for 4 months, when it is disbanded and another takes its place. Regular drill and military instruction are superintended by Montenegrin officers who have been educated in Italy.

There are about 100,000 rifles in the country :— 20,000 Werndl, 10,000 Kruka, 10,000 Snider and Peabody-Martini, 30,000 Berdan rifles presented by Russia in 1895, and 30,000 repeating rifles, presented by Russia with 1,000,000 cartridges in 1898. The artillery consists of 2 siege guns, 2 bronze Russian 12-pounders, 6 Gatlings, 12 steel and 6 bronze Ivriipp guns, and 24 mountain guns, kept at the central depot of Spuz, and at Cettinje.

Production and Industry.

Agriculture is of the most primitive kind. The cultivated land is mostly the property of the cultivators, the Croatian sj'stem of domestic comnmnisra being generally prevalent. In some districts, however, the land is split up into diminutive peasant-holdings, while in a few the metayer system is met with, but large estates nowhere exist. The principal crops grown are maize, tobacco (500 tons in 1895), oats, potatoes, barley, and buckwheat. The vine is cultivated successfully in the Tchermnitchka Nahie, and the district of Podgoritza, and the olive about Antivari and Dulcigno. The uncultivable area consists, in the east, of mountain pasturage and forests of beech, oak, &c. , which, owing to the want of roads, are valueless; and, in the west, of bare limestone sparsely sprinkled with brushwood and stunted sciiib. There are no sea-fisheries. Good trout fishing is to be obtained in the rivers. Any small manufactures that exist are only for local consumption Live stock of all kinds are reared : there are 500,000 sheep and goats ; 60,000 cattle ; 8,000 swine ; 3,000 horses.