Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/724

 602 ARGENTINE REPUBLIC

Italians, 118,723 Spaniards, 4,916 French, 1,730 English, 16,694 Swiss, 23,450 Germans, 24,785 Austrians, and 280,916 of various nationalities. In 1912 there were 323,403 immigrants, including 165,662 Spaniards, 80,583 Italians, 20,832 Russians, 19,792 Turks, 1,316 English, 858 Asiatics, and 499 Americans. By the Constitution of the Republic, all children of foreigners born in the country are Argentine,

Population of the capital, Buenos Aires, in 1912, estimated at 1,383,663 ; Cordoba, 100,000; Rosario, 180,000 ; Tucuman, 78,695; Mendoza, 60,000; Bahia Blanca, 72,706 ; Parana, 35,857 ; Salta, 40,000 ; Corrientes, 30,000 ; La Plata, 99,766; Santa Fe, 48,600 ; San Luis, 13,994 ; San Juan, 15,262.

Religion and Instruction.

The Roman Catholic religion is that of the State, but all other creeds are tolerated. There are 1 archbishop (Buenos Aires) and 8 suffragan bishops. For the clergy there are 5 seminaries. lu 1884 civil marriage was established in the Reimblic.

Primary education is free (subsidised by the General and Provincial Governments), secular and compulsory for children from 6 to 14 years of age. In the capital and the territories it is under the charge of a national i^ouncil of education, assisted by local school councils; and in the 14 provinces under their respective governments. Population of school age (1911), 1,025,570, of whom 45 per cent, attended school ; of the latter only 13 per cent, could read and write. Of the total population over 6 years of age, 50*5 per cent, were illiterate. There were (1911) 7,183 jtrimary schools, public and private, with 746,725 pupils and 22,456 teachers. The secondary or preparatory education is cont-rolled by the general Government, which maintains 27 national colleges with 10,227 pupils and 1,533 teachers. There are also 62 normal schools with 5,954 pupils and 1,858 teachers. Twenty schools for special instruction (commercial, industrial, artistic, also for the blind, &c.) with 6,848 pupils. There are national universities at Cordoba, Buenos Aires, and La Plata, provincial universities at Santa Fe, and Parana, comprising faculties of law, medicine, agriculture and engineering, with 438 professors and a total of 7,317 students. The university of Buenos Aires in 1909 had 4,364 students ; a school of mines (39 students), a college of agriculture, a naval and a military school. There is a well-equipped national observatory at Cordoba, and another at La Plata, museums at Buenos Aires and La Plata, and a national meteorological bureau at Cordoba.

In 1911 the Government spent 19,241,252 dollars on education.

In Argentina there are 794 newspapers published, 722 in Spanish, 16 in Italian, 6 in German, 10 in English, and others in Scandinavian, French, Basque, Russian.

Justice.

Justice is administered by Federal and by Provincial Courts. The former deal only with cases of a national character, or in which different provinces or inhabitants of different provinces are parties. The Federal Courts are the Supreme Courts, with 5 judges at Buenos Aires ; 4 Appeal Courts, each with 3 judges, at Buenos Aires, La Plata, Parana, and Cordoba, and courts of first instance in each of the provinces and territories. Each province has its own judicial system, with a Supreme Court (generally so-called) and several minor courts. Trial by jury is established by the Constitution for criminal cases, but never practised.