Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/786

 430 BOLIVIA

regarded as at least nominally Christian. The present population may be estimated at about 2,000,000.

The population of La Paz is estimated at 40,000 ; Cochabamba. 25,000 ; Sucre (the capital), 20,000; Tarija, 10,000; Potosi, 20,000 ; Santa Cruz, 10,000 ; Oniro, 15,000. The seat of Government changes ; in 1892 it was at Oruro ; in 1893 at La Paz ; in 1894, 1895, 1896, and 1897 at Sucre.

Religion, Instruction, and Justice.

The Roman Catholic is the recognised religion of the State ; the exercise of other forms of worship is permitted in the settlements.

Primary instruction, free and nominally obligatory, is under the care ot the municipalities. Jn 1897 the municipalities had 366 primary schools, on which they spent 139,566 bolivianos. There were, besides, 121 private primary schools, and 82 industrial schools, the total number being 569 giving instruction to 36,690 pupils. For secondary instruction there were (1897) 8 colleges, 5 clerical institutions, and 4 private lycees with, in all, 91 teachers and 2,057 pupils. For superior instruction there are 6 universities, at 4 of which medical science is taught. In 1895 there were altogether 506 students. In the clerical seminaries 146 students were taught theology. There is also a military school with 60 ])upils and 9 professors. The primary schools include 70 schools for the rural Indian population, taught by the parish priests, besides 160 schools at mission stations receiving subventions from Tarija, La Paz, and Potosi, and 10,000 bolivianos from the' Government. Three schools of arts and trades have been established under the direction of the Salesian friars. In all the departmental cajiitals there are public libraries, and at La Paz there is a museum.

The judicial power resides in the Supreme Court, 8 district courts, and the courts of local justices.

Finance.

For 1896 the revenue was stated at 3,566,777 bolivianos and the ex- penditure at 4,264,681. For 1897 the revenue collected is stated to have l)een 4,840,300 bolivianos, of which 2,691,723 was from customs ; 406,281 from duty on liquors ; 679,582 from silver and minerals ; 149,003 from rubber export and patents ; 238,890 from revenue and postage stamps ; and 149,000 from nickel money. The revenue for 1898 was estimated at 5,194,593 bolivianos, and the expenditure at 5,713,897. The chief branches of expenditure were instruction and public works, 1,817,490 bolivianos ; hnance, 1,517,483; Avar, 1,519,218.

The external debt, originally 6,500,000 bolivianos, due to Chilian creditors, stood in 1898 at 1,084,555 bolivianos ; to this debt 40 per cent, of the customs collected at Arica is devoted. The internal debt in 1898 amounted to 3,707,541 bolivianos.

The provincial revenue amounts to about 600,000 bolivianos, and is a])plied to maintaining provincial authorities and executing local works.

Defence.

Bolivia has a standing army of 2,000 men. There is also a national guard, in which all citizens are bound to serve. In 1892 a conscription law was passed making military service com^julsory from 21 to 50 years of age, in the line, the reserve, extraordinaiy reserve, and territorial guard. The total number of men in the army and reserve forces is about 82,000. The estimated cost of the army for^l897 amounts to 1,748,697 bolivianos.