583 HISTORY 



desire to enforce a better collection took the form of making the teachers the 

 collectors, and adding a percentage of the amount received to their salaries. 

 This did not have the desired effect. It did produce a slight increase in 

 the salaries in some instances, .but no noticeable improvement in the character 

 of the schools. On the other hand it imposed a needless burden on the 

 teachers whose function was other than that of collectors of school taxes. 



For a long time there was no training school for teachers in the Colony. 

 Not only did this cause a deficiency in the recruiting of the ranks of the 

 teachers, but it allowed a deterioration of those already employed. The 

 inspector insisted on the necessity of providing a normal school, repeating 

 the recommendation from year to year, imtil at last, in 1892, such a school 

 was established at Nassau. 



Although determined efforts have been made to educate the negroes of 

 the Bahamas, the results have not always been encouraging. But conditions 

 have been adverse; finances have been low; the climate is decidedly against 

 strenuous mental activity; the majority of the population is of a race that 

 is not characterized by vigorous intellect; the people are poor for the most 

 part; and many of the islands are cut off from frequent communication 

 with the outside world of intellectual activity and culture, and even the 

 knowledge of the existence of such things is beyond many of the population. 

 Still the means of acquiring the rudiments of an education are here; the 

 efficiency of the teaching staff has perhaps increased in recent years, and the 

 schools are in a condition that augurs well for the good of the Colony. In 

 1888 the inspector reported that " all parents within the reach of these 

 schools who choose to relinquish small inconveniences can secure for their 

 children the benefits of a sound and useful education." This can with as 

 much reason be said of the schools to-day. 



CONCLUSIOX. 



Within the last two decades the culture of the sisal (fiber) plant has 

 become an industry in the Bahamas. It furnishes employment for an increas- 

 ing number of laborers, and even in the short period in which it has been cul- 

 tivated a substantial income has accrued to those engaged in its production. It 

 remains to be seen whether this new enterprise will afford a more permanent 

 source of wealth than other expedients that were tried before it. There are 

 several other industries through which the inhabitants gain a livelihood. The 

 more important among them are fruit-farming, especially that of pineapples. 



