sum total for the whole province of ¿3 2 ,18 7 ; in
addition to which there remained in arrears ¿807, or
¿ 5 3 6 less than in the preceding year. Besides this
there were rates raised for local purposes to the
amount of ¿239.
The different kinds of excise duties collected
■ amounted to ¿28,738, made up of ¿26,478 for wine
duty, ¿1,968 for licences, and for tobacco and stamp
licences ¿292, amounting in all to ¿8,367 less than in
1880. This decrease was attributable to the alteration
of the excise on salt, otherwise the returns would have
shown an increase of ¿2,465 as compared with 1880.
The lands in the province paying rent to the Treasury
consist of three portions near the capital— 503 acres in
all— bringing in an annual rental of ¿ 1 2 , and for
timber felled ¿792, or ¿ 19 2 more than in 1880.
An important extent of land, chiefly on either side
of the Irtish, belongs to, or is occupied by, the Cossacks.
The quit rents of these holdings are paid into
the Cossack fund.*
Besides the taxes just mentioned there are the
vollost, or local rates. In 1881 the Kirghese paid
¿14,958, to the expenditure of which I shall allude
hereafter. In the peasant vollost, of 1,111 souls,
¿2 7 5 were expended thus : for the maintenance of
* From this source there was collected in 1881, rent for land, £302;
rent of mills and works, ¿205 ; licences for fishing on Zaisan lake,
/ 3 7 a ; and £92 also were paid into the Cossack reserve fund a.s salt
duties. The total, £978, is little more than half what it was in the
previous year. In the eastern part of the province is situated the
B alag ach Steppe, a locality specially favourable to husbandry, that is
readily rented by agriculturists in the capital, in the surrounding
Cossack villages, and by peasants of the Alexandrovsk vollost, who
have no arable land. In this district and the mountain land generally,
the annual rent is 4d. per acre In 1881, 32,000 acres were let, but on
account of the failure of the harvest the rents collected amounted to
¿400 only, as against ¿50.9 the year before.
the communal administration, ¿ 7 7 ; for the maintenance
of the school, ¿ 30 ; pay of the parish clergy,
¿ 5 2 ; and for yemstchiks, or postilions, ¿ 1 1 6 . In the
Cossack stanitzas the expenditure for public purposes
is covered by the receipts obtained from various lands,
from the tolls of ferries, etc.*
Besides the payment of money, the inhabitants of
the province are placed under certain personal liabilities
as to obligatory duties. Military service is
not imposed on the Kirghese ; but they are bound to
keep roads in repair (generally compounded for, however,
by public convention, and not done in person),
to furnish, on payment, fuel, tents, and sheep to military
bodies on the march, and also to let on hire tents and
horses to functionaries travelling in the steppe on
public service.!
The Cossacks pay no taxes, but in lieu thereof they
undertake military and other kinds of service on
special conditions.!
The administration of the military liability of the
other classes is shown thus : The calling up began on
the 15th October and ended 31st December (O.S.),
* A t the beginning of 1881 there was a balance in hand of £1,729 ;
besides which ¡£1,751 were subsequently received, and ¡£1,431 expended,
leaving a surplus towards 1882 of ¡£2,049, ° f which £'848 was
in cash, and £1,201 on loan.
t In 1881, 282 tents were thus supplied' to troops, and food was
requisitioned to the extent of 21 homed cattle and 1,052 sheep, to the
value of £176. Some of the tents were furnished without payment, by
Kirghese wandering along the line of march, hut the majority were
paid for from the vollost fund.
Î In 1881, 3 officers and 147 Cossacks, or 027 per cent, of the male
Cossack population (11,795), were called to active service, in the 3rd
cavalry regiment, whilst of the other classes liable to military service,
the number entering the army constituted -49 per cent, of the male
population. The other liabilities of the Cossacks consisted of the
furnishing carts (2,503 were supplied without payment) and 3,483 days’
work at road mending.
VOL. I. 8