340 Timehri. 
shares in this colony” was passed. This was the first general Ordinance 
dealing with all the villages. ; 
The late Sir A M. Ashmore, in his memorandum, remarks that this 
‘is the germ out of which the existing more elaborate system has grown.” 
It provided :— 
(a.} That the Governor and Court of Policy may, by Resolution, bring 
under its provisions all estates which, having been purchased in community, 
had been divided, or should in future be divided in severalty among the 
proprietors, and also the means of division for the future.. 
(b.) For the election and payment of an Overseer. 
(c.) For the election of two Commissioners for each village. 
(d.) For the assessing of rates. 
(e.) That all moneys received were to be deposited in the local banks, 
and drawn out by cheque signed by the Overseer and the Commissioners. 
(f.) That the Overseer may require the shareholders to perform what 
work was necessary to be done and in default to cause the work to be done 
at the expense of the proprietors. 
The great defect in this measure was that it did not provide for any 
central administration. 
This measure, however, failed to carry out what it was intended for, 
and ‘this failure the late Sir A. M. Ashmore attributes to the following 
reasons: ‘the lack of a system of provincial administiation by weans 
of which the Central Government could supervise its working, and 
influence the people to co-operate for their own good ; and a reluctance 
on the part of the Government to use compulsion to make the reealei- 
trant minority, always to be found in every community, discharge their 
share of the common obligations.” 
In 1862, the Combined Court voted as a loan from borrowed money 
the sum of $60,000 for the purpose of improving the drainage and works 
of a like nature in order to ameliorate the deplorable con tition of many 
of the villages. This loan was never repaid. 
In 1864, a Committee consisting of the Government Secretary (Mr. 
Walker), a member of the Court of Policy (Mr. Ludovico Porter), 
the Sheriff of Demerara (Mr, Brumell), the Inspector General of Police 
(Mr. N. Cox), and Mr, N. J. Jeffrey, was appointed to “ enquire and 
report, among other matters, upon the condition and deficiencies 
of existing villages, and to consider whether by any improvement in 
the legal constitution or regulations thereof or in their management 
they, 7.¢., the legal constitution and regulations, can be adopted to 
improve the condition of the present villages.” 
The Committee sent in their report in May, 1865. They found the 
villages generally in a most unsatisfactory state, and, in some instances, 
