By starving the administration it would be possible to make this deficit a great deal less, and, on the other hand, it would be very easy to make it a great deal more. A country which has been going steadily, even rapidly, backwards for so many years affords unlimited opportunity for capital expenditure. Indeed, a large part of its ordinary expenditure is really capital, so far as it is incurred for permanent buildings, railways, telegraphs, and all the other machinery, not only of government, but of elementary civilization, which were all entirely wanting. The item of public works bulks very large in the civil expenditure. It is inevitable that the expenditure should increase with the development of the country, but it is a satisfactory symptom that it is not increasing so fast in proportion as the revenue. The civil expenditure, too, goes up, while the military expenditure goes down. In the following table only the net expenditure on railways, etc., is included: EXPENDITURE. _Civil._ _Military _Total._ (including Gunboats, etc.)_ £E. £E. £E. 1899 230,000 281,000 511,000 1900 271,000 282,000 553,000 1901 330,000 222,000 552,000 1902 350,000 193,000 543,000 1903 380,000 193,000 573,000 The richer provinces in the Soudan might prosper very much faster if they were allowed to devote the whole of their own revenues to the development of their own resources. But, of course, the whole receipts have to go into the common purse, and then be doled out again in the interests of the country as a whole. Naturally, there is a tremendous fight every year between the Mudirs, who are responsible for the provincial budgets, and the central Treasury. Two provinces stand out prominently in the matter of profits—Kordofan and Dongola. Dongola had pride of place at first, but then Kordofan passed in a stride, through the revival of the gum trade. But Dongola is still a good second, in spite of her railway difficulties, through the date-tax and the land-tax. Two-thirds of the whole amount raised by this latter tax is supplied by her. Halfa Province, or, rather, District, also shows a good profit by means of the land and date taxes. The Ghezireh Province, the kernel of the Soudan, makes a favourable appearance. Sennar just pays its way. The others all show a deficit. Khartoum, of course, stands in a different category, as also Suakin. But Berber and Kassala may soon be expected to redeem themselves. Fashoda is as yet very undeveloped, and naturally the Bahr el Ghazal, only just occupied, comes well at the bottom of the list. That this order of financial merit will be maintained unchanged is most unlikely.