VILLAGE ADMINISTRATION AND LOCAL 
GOVERNMENT IN BRITISH GUIANA. 
By THe Hon. Dr. J. E. Goprrey, M.B., C.M., (Ep.), 
SURGEON GENERAL. 
The history of the formation of village communities and their 
administration in this colony is exceedingly interesting and instructive 
The object of this paper is to trace their formatioa from the beginning, 
dating from the Act of Emancipation, and their slow development through 
seventy odd years to the present day. 
It will be seen the many vicissitudes through which they have passed. 
Firstly, the uttter failure of the people to successfully manage and 
control their own affairs: then the intervention of the Government who 
have, from time to time, passed legislative Acts for providing the 
machinery necessary for efficient administration. 
Prior to emancipation, the blacks had no lands of their own, but 
as slaves resided on the property of their masters. The late Sheriff 
Brumell, in his “ Village Law,” says that ‘“ previous to 1838 and even 
to a later date, a traveller might have passed from one end of the 
country to another, without seeing a single house or an acre of land 
which did not belong to the proprietor of the estate through which 
the highway ran.” 
In 1834, the system of Apprenticeship, created by the Act of the 
Imperial Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, entitled “An Act for 
the abolition of slavery throughout the british Colonies, for promoting 
the industry of the manumitted slaves, and for compensating the 
persons hitherto entitled to the services of such slaves” came into 
operation. This created a great change in the feudal relations of master 
and man ; the latter were no longer slaves. This partial freedom did not, 
however, satisfy them. They desired to be absolutely freed, and gave 
much trouble to their employers. 
Four years later, ¢.¢., on the Ist August, 1838 (Emancipation Day), 
by virtue of Ordinance No. 23, entitled ‘* An Ordinance to terminate 
the apprenticeship of preedial labourers of British Guiana,” all preedial 
labourers became absolutely freed and discharged of and from the then 
remaining term of their apprenticeship. These freed men, who had, 
during their apprenticeship, and after, accumulated considerable sums of 
money, banded themselves together and purchased abandoned plantations 
from their former masters. Brumell, in his “Village Law,” says “the 
way in which these purchases were conducted showed great union 
among the people and great confidence in each other. The negotiations 
were usually carried on by two or three headmen selected in some 
instances from two or three hundred shareholders or persons who had 
