Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/743

 AUSTRIA 621

The metrical system of weights and measures is now legal and obligatory in Austria-Hungary, The old weights and measures were : —

The Centner [mdzsa) =100 PA"^c^ = 56 06 kg. =1231 lbs. avoirdupois.

,, Eimer{ak6) . . =56-59 litre = 12-49 wine gallons. ,, Joch (hold) . . =5,754-64 square metre = 1-43 acre. ,, Metzen {mero) .=61 -49 litre = 1 -7 imperial bushel.

(The Ivlafter (ol) o/t^oorf = 6 82 cubic metre = 240 cubic feet.)

„ Meile {mertfold) =1 _ 7 .og.Q ^^,^^^ _ f 8, 897 yards, or about 4

24,000 Austrian feet] ' ''^^^ ^ ""^^'^^ " \ miles.

AUSTRIA. Constitution and Government.

I. Central Government.

The political representation is twofold — (1) for all the Austrian provinces (Reichsrath) ; (2) for each separate province (Landtage).

The Reichsrath or Parliament consists of an Upper and a Lower House. The Upper House (Herrenhaus) is formed, 1st, of the princes of the Imperial family who are of age, 15 in number in 1911 ; 2nd, of a number ol nobles — 81 in the present Reichsrath— possessing large landed property, in whose families by nomination of the Emperor the dignity is hereditary ; 3rd, archbishops, 10 in nnmber, and bishops, 7 in number, who are of princely title inherent to their episcopal seat ; and 4th, of any other life-members nominated by the Emperor, on account of being distinguished in art or science, or who have rendered signal services to Church or State— 159 in 1911. (Under law of January 26, 1907, the number of these members must not exceed 170, nor be less than 150.)

Under the Electoral Law of January 26, 1907, the Lower House (Abgeord- netenhaus) is elected on the basis of universal, equal, and direct suffrage. Entitled to vote for a deputy are all Austrian male citizens over 24 years of age who have resided for at least a year in the place of electiou. The efectoral districts are in most provinces composed, as far as possible, of uniform nationality, and are divided from each other, according to their character, as urban (industrial) or rural. In general there is only one deputy to be elected for one electoral district ; but in 36 districts of Galicia, two for each. Ill these y6 districts the principle of the single vote is followed, in- asmuch as eacli qualified elector has only the rigl.t to one vote, though two deputies are to be chosen. The candidate who receives more than half the number of votes recorded is regarded as the first deputy, and the one who receives more than a fourth of the votes, as the second. For the deputies of these electoral districts, there are elected, at the same time, substitutes who, in case of failure of the deputy's mandate, enter the House, so that for one of these districts a new election is held only when the mandates of both deputies fail. By this system the national minorities in those parts of Galicia which^ have a mixed Polish-Ruthenian population have their representation assured.* In Moravia, the population entitled to vote is divided, as in elections for the provincial Landtag, according to nationality, so that German and Bohemian electors choose their deputies separately. In Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Carniola, Moravia, Silesia, Voraiiberg and Bukowina, under provincial laws each elector is obliged to- appear at the election for a member of the Reichsrath, and present his electoral ticket, the penalty for neglect of this obligation being a fine of from one to fifty kronen.