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REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.

431

Revenue and Expenditure.

The financial estimates are voted by the Storthing for the term of three years. The budget, for the period commencing April 1, 1869, and ending March 31, 1872, provided for an annual revenue of 5,092,000 specie-daler, or 1,130,220/., and an expenditure of nearly the same amount, distributed as follows : —

Revenue

Expenditure

Specie-daler

Specie-daler

Customs .

3,050,000

Civil list

147,003

Duty on spirits

. ! 570,000

Storthing

47,017

,, barley

225,000

Council of State .

189,970

Stamps

77,000

Home department

480,775

Mines

. ! 178,000

Church and Justice

487,557

Post office

365.500

Army ....

1.115.500

Telegraphs

. j 124,500

Navy and Post

1,172,815

Miscellaneous 1

e-

Exchequer and Customs

1.222,949

ceipts . Total

. j 502,000

Miscellaneous expenses Total

61,831

5,092,000

5.052,000

£1,130,220

£1,121,800

The public revenue of Norway, in recent years, generally was above the expenditure. There exists, nevertheless, a small public debt, dating anterior to the union with Sweden. It amounted, at the end of August 1859, to 7,688,000 specie-daler, or 1,750,000/., and had become reduced, at the end of August 1869, to 3,000,000 specie-daler, or 674,900/., and, by the operation of a sinking fund, will be extinct before the year 1872. The charge for interest and redemption of the debt amounted to 553,662 specie-daler in the financial period 1866-69.

Army and Navy.

The troops of the kingdom are raised partly by conscription and partly by enlistment. By the terms of a law voted by the Storthing on the 20th April, 1866, and which came into operation on the 1st of January, 1867, the military forces are divided into the regular army, with reserve, the Landvaern, or militia, and the Landstorm, or final levy. Enlistment furnishes the soldiers of the regular army, but, should this prove insufficient, recourse may be had to conscrip- tion, to which all young men, past the nineteenth year of age, are liable. The term of service in the regular army is seven years ; however, the young men raised by conscription have but to go