The evening times., 1900-01-25
MIGRATION TO SIBERIA
The Aid Given by the Government
to Russian Settlers.
An Absence of Credit Except at Ruin
GUS Rates of Interest a Great Hard
pitfalls Along the Railway-MaBy
Fail to Reach Their Destinations.

| Richard I. Greener. commercial agent a
Vladivostock, has written to the State De
partment as follows;
The Khrestianin settlements in the
Amur territory are situated as follows: Or
the vast Iowland plain which is bounded
on the west by the River Zeya. on the east
by Boory, on the north by the River Beer
moy, and on the south by the River Amur
The coast line of the River Amur is occu-
pied by Cossacks and Chinese Russian sub
iects. The most northern settlement on the
River Zeya is situated 143 miles from its
source. The most easterly settlement from
Zeya is situated on its tributary, the
| Boondoond
On the right high bank Of the River
Zeya there are nine settlements; on the
Amur, above the outlet of the River .Zeya,
four: on the a nur below theaZeya, there
| are also four settlements. Beside these,
there are four more settlements on the land
belonging to the Cossacks of the Amur
militia.
The government consists of the military
! governor Of the territory, the district Off
GER the immigrant officer, the assistant
attorney of the district court the district
| treasurer, and the village police COM
missary, who is also the justice of the
peace.
There are sixteen churches in the set
Notwithstanding one Unitarian church,
nine chapels, and one house of prayer
and twelve public schools.
There are seventy mine grain elevators
/ at present Each settlement has its own
elevator, with the exception of those set
/ Elements which have been recently formed
/ In four of the principal settlements twelve
/ fairs are held annually; in three, they have
weekly markets
| ''On January I. 1897. there we're 6 593
families numbering 44.943 persons, namely,
| 29,97S males and 70 965 females, including
| l0,314 males from the age OF sixteen to
/ sixty, who are obliged TO pay taxes and
! are subject 10 military obligations.
According 10 religion they are divided
as follows: Greek Catholics. 1924; Unita-
rians. "A; orthodox and dissenters. 1884
Fifty per cent of the settlements are Little
Russians the rest are Great Russians
The first came from European Russia; the
majority of the second from the provinces
in western Siberia.
The settlement of the Amur territory
by agriculturists began in 1859, with the
establishment of the village of Astrakhan,
on the River Zeya, not far from Blago-
yestchensk.
The formation of the settlements is
shown in the following statement: Deca e
ended 1869. s. settlements; 1879. If set
Elements; 1889, 90 settlements; 1897, 10
sediments total 10 settlements
For the use OF he settlers Of the Amur
territory, there are provided 500. .206 acres
Of land There is proposition to open
lA9,sS0 acres more, or 96j. $50 acres for
the use of 6,953 families instead OF the
$4,000 acres originally provided All the
1 land given TO settlers is counted as grants;
not as their property. The total sowing
acreage in 1897 was 5l.l13 acres: an in
crease of 1924 acres over 1895.
Live stock belonging to the settlers On
January /, 1897, was Horned cattle, 21.-
o50; horses. 22261; sheep, 4.599; pigs.
1889. The average number for each house
was: Horses. ;; horned cattle g.
According TO statistics for the last ten
years, ii is shown that between the start
ing points of Tomsk and Atchinsk. TO the
final point of Blagoyestchensk, 46 per cent
OF the migrants fail to reach destination.
In Tomsk in 1887 and Atchinsk in 1896
there were registered 1868 families for the
Amur territory; Of this number. only . g0I
families reached Blagovestchensk
Personal observation shows that this
loss, which happens annually in the same
proportion. is TO be ascribed, not 10 the
difficulties of the road or the lack of means
TO reach the destination. but TO other
causes. Only those are permitted to go TO
the Amur who have enough TO carry them
through. Migrants have a right 10 a gov
ernment subsidy to about $50 per family.
The real reasons why such large percent
age Of migrants fail TO reach their desti-
nation are:
They try 20 settle along the route in
order TO avoid the trouble and expense of
a longer journey.
They are tempted 10 stop in order to
work on the Siberian Railroad and get good
pay.
They hear bad reports about the condi-
tion of the Amur territory from those re-
turning to Russia.
AS soon as a settler arrives at his des-
tination he is assisted from the govern
ment treasury. This rule was adopted on
March 10. 1896. Up to that time assist
ance was rendered in extreme cases only.
and very little at that. At present, as
sistance is given 10 'Meschians' and Kres-
tians' lowest classes. but not to any 9TH
er class. Government land can be acquired |
by any man who is Russian subject. no |
matter TO what class he belongs; and in |
accordance with the rule of March 10 1896 !
needy settlers Of the Amur territory have |
a right to the following government as |
sistance: Travelling expenses, SO to sSS: |
settling expenses. from $3S to SIS: seed |
for two acres. and timber from the govern |
ment forests.
this rule. they all clamored for assistance. |
Ii became necessary TO inform them that |
no one had right to these grants unless |
he had lived three years in the territory
before he made the application for assist
ance, and then it must be ascertained that |
he was really in need
From January l. to October /. 1897. 951
applications were made for assistance
amounting TO s25, 900. OF this number. $40 |
applications amounting TO IS 600 rero
granted; the rest were refused. as thev
were not in need
The delay in verifying the applications
is remarkable. For instance. on April
there were brought in 531 applications for
seed. They verified only 3S3 From April
l to June / there We're 420 applications:
they verified only 202. OF course, this de-
lay is caused to some extent by the unre-
liability of applicants and the lack of
proper administrative force in the terri
tory and districts.
For the four years 1S94-97 the follow
ing grants of timber were made to All
families: Logs. 137,04S, valued at S16.555;
poles, S1.2I5, valued at $244
The absence of credit in the territory
is felt very greatly by the settlers set
tier who must begin work or an old resi-
dent at whose busiest season a machine
breaks or horse dies is compelled to bor-
row money, no matter what the conditions
are. What these are one may see from
the following:
"A peasant borrowed S26 from one of the
local merchants for three months. binding
himself to pay the merchant at the end
Of the term s51 worth of oats at cents
per Sc pounds less than the market price
at the time of delivery. The peasant also
oound hlmseif not. to take any cash for
sk.ar .l-~