4 97 
y 
E 
i 283. According to the census of 1891, the population was 26,841, 
E or 1,370 less than in 1881. The white population was 330 (or a 
z little over 1 per cent.), with 7,000 coloured and 19,700 . black 
i people. There were 3 nt the original Carib 
escenda f r 
inhabitants still existing on a reservation on the Windward 
Coast. The bulk of the people are peasant proprietors, living 
within a mile or two of the coast. Two thirds of the population 
Ak on the Leeward side of the island, where Roseau, the capital, 
5,000 inhabitants, and Portsmouth, or Prince Rupert’s, 
20 odia Ames north, with about 1,500 inhabitants, form the 
centres of commercial activity. About 90 per cent. are Roman 
Catholics, ait at i leat two-thirds of the population speak a French 
284. Of late years e. numbers of men have emigrated to 
Venezuela and Ca work in the gold mines. It was 
estimated that in 1892 there were about 7 000 Dominicans in 
poverty-stricken condition in Venezuela who wished to return fas 
their native c pag In spite of this, emigration still continues, 
and according to returns furnished by the Administrator, 1,284 
seles left for Foa and Cayenne in 1896. 
285. The. ee: value of the imports of Dominica during the 
year of 1896 w s 57, 262/.; of the wet pee Among the 
gar, 7,047. ; 
13,4537. ; fruit and ae 380. arrowroot 20/.; sulphur 
ore, 7751. ; logwood, 1327. ; firewood, 6917. Apparently no rum 
and no molasses were exported in that year 
SUGAR INDUSTRY. 
286. The products of the sugar-cane sas at present only a 
small share of the total Seaia from Dominica. There are only 
two exclusively sugar estates now in ia, and these, with 
part of a third, are ee Foki as one pr operty. The aggregate 
nder canes is 975 acres, Muac vado LER is produced on 
one of the first to feel the fall in prices. Most of the large 
: estates belonged to absentee proprietors, and both the cultivation 
oh of the cane and the manufacture o its products were oe on 
in a primitive and wasteful manner. As described by Dr. H. 
ate Nicholls, C.M.G., “the sonio muscovado ear was the 
only kind made and the employment of scientific 
“ principles in the achat of a high grade product was 
“unheard of . . the largest ve panal did not tūrn out 
“ on an avera 200 hogsheads of s 
« multiplicity of sma all factories and ihe iria methods 
“ adopted enhanced the cost of production, a the 
“ industry could not stand against depressed pric ” ` Sugar was 
also produced by small settlers, but eventually the ey also had to 
abandon cane cultivation, and much of the land occupied has 
since reverted into bush. 
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