WEST INDIES. 



General's Department, $19,450; Customs De- 

 partment, $54,355 ; Inland Revenue Depart- 

 ment, $78,890 ; Post-Office, $36,780 ; Judicial 

 Establishment, $186,780; Medical Department, 

 $257,285 ; Constabulary, $246,993 ; Prisons and 

 Reformatories, $150,000 ; Education, $117,000 ; 

 Harbor - Master Department, $15,000; Regis- 

 trar-General's Department, $14,000 ; Govern- 

 ment Printing-Office, $18,000 ; Public Gardens 

 and Plantations, $16,000 ; Immigration Depart- 

 ment, $10,500; besides sundry other paid offi- 

 cials all over the island. 



In 1882 there was raised by actual taxation 

 $2,415,315, or an average of $4.10 per head of 

 population. Then the people protested so loud- 

 ly against the system, that a royal commission 

 was sent out from England to investigate the 

 grievances. The commission spent about two 

 months in the island, and early in 1884 pre- 

 sented their report, from which it appears 

 that the debt of the island was about $6,763,- 

 000 ; that the Government had wrongfully 

 converted trust funds for educational and 

 charitable objects to its own use when in 

 financial difficulties, and used sinking funds to 

 pay loans; and that the commissioners felt 

 called upon to condemn the conduct of the 

 officials. 



Every department was pronounced more or 

 less inefficient and extravagantly managed, and 

 the educational system a disgrace. The com- 

 mission recommended a remodeling of the de- 

 partments, thereby effecting a saving of $185,- 

 000 annually in salaries. They also recom- 

 mended that the Mayor and Corporation of 

 Kingston be elected by the tax-payers, and 

 that the gas- and water-works, markets and 

 slaughter houses, all Government institutions, 

 be turned over to the new corporation. 



In November, 1883, a deputation consisting 

 of the leading members of the West India body 

 in London waited on Earl Derby, the Colo- 

 nial Secretary, and represented strongly the 

 outrages perpetrated by the Crown Govern- 

 ment. The earl promised that he would in- 

 augurate a new departure in which the people 

 were to have substantial responsibility and 

 practical control in matters of finance. In the 

 mean time public meetings had been held in 

 Jamaica, in which the policy of the Crown Gov- 

 ernment was so vigorously denounced that the 

 home Government became alarmed and tele- 

 graphed to Gen. Gamble, then acting Govern- 

 or, that "the representative element would 

 be introduced." In December, 1883, Gov. 

 Norman arrived at Kingston and assumed of- 

 fice, and soon after promulgated the scheme 

 of Earl Derby, which consists in allowing the 

 people to elect a minority to the legislative 

 councils, instead of the Governor nominating 

 them, the Governor always having nine votes 

 to the people's eight, which he can use to carry 

 any measure he pleases. As soon as the people 

 understood the case, they became intensely ex- 

 cited and indignant, and public meetings were 

 held in all parts of the island, denouncing what 



they called a fraud. While the people were 

 looking to Parliament for a new Constitution 

 and representative government, even more 

 pressing considerations diverted their atten- 

 tion to the ruinous condition of the sugar- 

 planting interest. When, in the summer of 

 1884, Jamaicans learned that a Hispano-Ameri- 

 can reciprocity treaty was being negotiated at 

 Madrid, they canvassed various remedies, and 

 finally free access for the sugar of Jamaica to 

 the Canadian market was sought. But this 

 could only be obtained by annexation, and 

 after considerable semi-official negotiation to- 

 ward that end, in London and in Ottawa, tin 

 scheme fell through. 



The Jamaicans then revived the idea of reci- 

 procity with the United States after the Spanish- 

 Cuban plan. As early as March, 1884, West In- 

 dian sugar-traders had been urging Lord Derby 

 to include the British West India colonies in 

 the " favored-nation " clause of the treaty of 

 1815 with the United States, or to allow the 

 colonies to enter into reciprocal commercial 

 relations with America under a special treaty. 

 Lord Derby replied that there was no prospect 

 of negotiations to that effect leading to any 

 result, and that the Government was not pre- 

 pared to allow the colonies to enter into such 

 agreements with America. The subject was 

 again put forward in December, but upon the 

 rejection of the Nicaragua treaty by the United 

 States Senate, the matter was dropped. 



In 1884 four lines of steamers were running 

 between Kingston and New York. The lively 

 competition reduced the freight on flour to 25 

 cents a barrel, and other freight in propor- 

 tion. 



The American West India and Pacific Tele- 

 phone Company began operations at Kingston 

 in 1884. 



Trinidad. The area of Trinidad is 1,754 

 square miles; population, 154,281. The island 

 is the most southerly of the Windward group, 

 and, next to Jamaica, the largest and most 

 valuable of the West India islands belonging 

 to Great Britain. It lies immediately off the 

 northeast coast of Venezuela, separated only 

 by a narrow strait. The Governor is Sir S. 

 Freeling; the American Consul at Port of 

 Spain is Mr. J. Fowler. 



The extensive sugar and cocoa plantations of 

 the island are worked by East India coolies, 

 of whom there are 60,000 on the island, all 

 Buddhists. Their great holiday, the Mohur- 

 rum, or Hoosay feast, is celebrated on October 

 30. They then build pagodas from papier- 

 mache", fill them with gifts, and carry them to 

 the sea-beach. In consequence of the sugar 

 crisis on the island, the hours of work had been 

 increased, and the daily wages reduced from 

 35 cents to 30 cents. Discontent was percepti- 

 ble, and the Governor deemed it advisable to 

 forbid the celebration, in spite of the remon- 

 strances of the coolies, who insisted that their 

 religion prescribed it, and that before they left 

 India they had been expressly guaranteed the 





