Other minor receipts were estimated in the Budget for 1902 as follows: £E. Animal-tax 9,500 Tribute from tribes 8,000 Ferries and fisheries 4,000 Sale of salt 1,530 Stamped paper 1,200 Customs 5,400 Slaughtering dues and market fees 5,200 Road-tax 2,000 Rent of Government lands 1,300 Boat-tax 1,000 All these taxes are familiar in the Soudan. Some of them, especially those small in their results—and there are a good number more of less importance than those named—will probably be abolished as soon as the country is able to stand the immediate loss. But as yet even the most objectionable in principle do not act as restrictions to trade. They only distribute the burden of a very light taxation, so as to make all classes contribute something, and the Government is still so poor that even a few hundred pounds are of very great importance. The Customs are set down as producing only £E5,400, and this demands a word of explanation. £4,500 of this is taken at the port of Suakin, the remainder on the land frontier in Kassala and Sennar. The Customs on the land side, small as they are, show a steady increase; those at Suakin have been constantly decreasing, as trade is more and more diverted to the Nile Valley route. But all Customs duties on goods coming to the Soudan on this side are levied at the Egyptian ports, and retained by Egypt. The duties are 20 per cent. per kilo on tobacco, and 8 per cent. _ad valorem_ on all other goods. In the year 1903 it is estimated that the sum thus retained by Egypt will amount to £E70,000, but this has not been taken into account in calculating the Soudan revenues. As for the profit-earning departments, their profits are as yet invisible—invisible, that is, as far as their accounts are concerned, though visible enough in the increasing prosperity of the country. Still, the actual takings of the railway and the post and telegraphs mark progress. They stand for three years: _Railways._ _Post and Telegraphs._ £E. £E. 1900 38,412 7,900 1901 75,808 9,000 1902 85,000[8] 11,000[8]