the total number requisitioned being 187. O f these
49 were designated to enter the service, 3 absented
themselves from the lot-drawing, but 47 recruits were
taken, and two were discharged by purchase.
The houses and public buildings of the Semipolatinsk
province, standing midway between Central Asia and
Siberia, partake of the characteristics of both.f The
cost of public buildings in 1881 to the civil authorities
was ,£301, which sum must appear to an English eye
to have been made to go a long way; for it included
the erection of offices in Pavlodar and a guard-house
on the Zaisan-Kokpety road; repairing the courthouses
at Pavlodar and Karkaralinsk ; the prisons of
Semipolatinsk, Pavlodar and Usk-Kamenogorsk, and
the lock-up at Karkarali, besides pickets on several of
the steppe-roads. Building operations, however, were
carried on to a much greater extent by the military
engineering department, the total expended being
^3,2264 The buildings of the province suffered
* The number actually drawn consisted of 45 fit-for active service, 2
non-combatants, 3 who entered the service under special regulations,
. and 2 entitled to short service. The remaining 45 were not so entitled.
Socially, the 47 (of whom only 14 could read and write) consisted of 1
upper-class citizen, 4 merchants, 30 bourgeois, 11 peasants and 1
other; or, again, taken by religious professions, they consisted of 31
orthodox, 1 dissenter, and 15 Muhammadans. The number of married
was 14. Besides the foregoing it should be observed that, during the
year, 125 were sent into the militia of the province.
t Of 30 orthodox religious buildings in 1881, 14 were of stone and
23 of wood; of other religious buildings, 2 were of stone and 24 of
wood. There were in the provinc’e 52,472 inhabited dwelling-houses
of stone so called, of which, however, 20,055 were of daubed c la y; and
21 7IQ of wood. There were also uninhabited 142 stone and 619 wooden
houses making the total number of buildings throughout the Provl“ c®
to be 2,6:4 stone and mud and 22,338 of wood. This number included
the Kirghese winter quarters, comprising 64,208 buildings, namely,
12 372 of wood, 31,781 of stone, and 20,055 of clay.
t The more noteworthy of these works were the building of two stone
commissariat magazines for corps in Semipolatinsk (¿1,200), the conheavily
in 1881 from 71 fires— an increase of nearly
50 per cent, on the previous year. The destruction
of 3 J5 houses and yourts (270 more than in 1880)
and 2 forests involved a loss of ,£15,426— an excess
° f .£ 13,64! over the preceding year.*
The health of the people was cared for throughout
the province by a staff of 18 physicians and 49 assistant
surgeons, of whom 13 and 37 respectively were
military ; and by 7 midwives. The medical establishments
were 9 in number, there being under civil
jurisdiction in Semipolatinsk two hospitals, one being
free ; and under military jurisdiction, 6 hospitals and a
“ rest.” t
version of a coach-house into a stable for the horses of the mounted
mountain battery in Usk-Kamenogorsk (¿201), the construction of a
wooden equipment-store at Zaisan Post (¿259), and the construction of
a wooden stable for the horses of the We st Siberian light battery at
Zaisan Post (¿307), etc. A s connected with these expenditures in the
province may be noticed the following sums received and expended
during the year in its four principal towns :—
Semipolatinsk
Ust-Kamenogorsk
Pavlodar
Kokpety
ice from 1880. Receipts. Expenditure.
£ ¿ ' ¿
■ 3.595 2,791 2,456
. 2,096 982 I >°45
• 1,463 724 698
908 I 53 99
¿8,062 ¿4,650 ¿4,298
* Of the 71 fires, 10 took place in winter, 36 in spring, 18 in summer,
and 7 in autumn, their alleged causes bein g: from faulty construction
of chimneys, 7 ; from carelessness, 28, which includes the burning of
2 forests; from lucifer matches, 5 ; and 31 from causes unknown. It
would appear that throughout the province the only towns that have
anything like a fire brigade, are Semipolatinsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk, and
Pavlodar, the former two spending thereon in 1881 the sum of ¿456,
whilst the fire-extinguishing paraphernalia of the six .towns in the
province amounts to 2 under-officers, 25 workmen, 25 horses, 14 pumps,
16 hose, 36 summer and 24 winter vehicles, 29 tubs, 44 pails, 12 ladders,
53 hooks, 29 axes, and 25 screens or sails.
t The military hospitals were: at Semipolatinsk, for 58 beds ; Zaisan
Post, 58 beds ; Ust-Kamenogorsk, 22 beds ; Pavlodar, 6 b e d s ; Karka