238 Tivnehri. 



coincidence that the Ordinance which established its successor seven and 

 forty years afterwards, the New Amsterdam Town Council Ordinance, 

 is also numbered 8. The 1844 Ordinance defined the boundaries of the 



town, which remain as they are to-day — on the north by the Ordnance 

 lands, on the east by Pins. Smithfield and Vryheid, on the south by 

 Pin. Overwinning. and on the west by the river Berbice. This area. 

 about 554 acres, fell to the municipal care of the Board of Superintend- 

 ence, and has fallen now to the not less energetic management of the 

 .Mayor and Town Council which can do without much of it. Not that 

 the town is too bio-, but that it has an uneven keel of social aspirations. 

 For many years a centripetal rather than a centrifugal tendency, as in 

 the case of London, has been in operation : and so it has come to pass 

 that the southern part of the town has put upon itself a sylvan 

 picturesquene88, the middle portion of which, according to some peti- 

 tioners who addressed the Council lately, being a veritable lair for wild 

 beasts and creeping things. What must it have been in the 'forties? A 

 kind of place. 1 suppose, that would have suited good, old Gonzalo down 

 to the ground. If he was eager to " give a thou -and furlongs of sea for 

 an acre of barren ground — long heath, brown furze, anything." he 

 would assuredly have gone a little higher for Stanleytown. 



The Board of Superintendence consisted of seven members, and the 

 qualification of a voter was ownership or representation of any house or 

 tenement rated at the value of S400. Then, as now. " no person who 

 may be in arrears tor Town taxes more than six months shall be eligible 

 to he elected or to serve as a member of the Board or to vote in the said 

 election." Then, as now. monthly meetings were held, but on no fixed 

 day. Then, as now. punctuality was regarded as a thief of time, for the 

 convenience of members would not have been shackled by a clause 

 naming a particular day of meeting. The population of the town at this 

 time could not have exceeded 4.0(H). about half what it is to-day. The 

 chief executive officers included a Receiver of Town Taxes, a Secretary, a 

 a Surveyor of Works and a Clerk of the .Market. It appears that at one 

 time or another this Surveyor of Works — what's in a name ? — not only 

 saw to the kind of work which is performed to-day by the Town Super- 

 intendent, but was also an Inspector of Nuisances : and also he actually 

 collected the taxes which he handed over to the Receiver of Taxes, the 

 cashier of the Board. The Secretary's duties included the taking of 

 • full minutes " (the same words occur in the To \vn Council Ordinance- 

 of all proceedings of the Board, but reference to the minutes shows that 

 they were by no means full. but. properly enough, crisp, business-like 

 epitomes. The functions of the Board were pretty much what the 

 Council's are to-day : but, strange to relate, in none of the Ordinances 

 dealing with the management of the town, not even in the present 

 obsolescent Ordinance, is there any specific obligation to light the streets 

 of the town. The Fire Brigade was a poor thing in those days, if only 

 because there was no water supply. Yet the Board had " the direction 

 of the public fire-engines," and had ' to cause the same to be exercised 

 from time to time, to have all the necessary repairs made, and to keep 



