GOVERNMENT IN THE PARISHES. 
191 
GOVERNMENT IN THE PARISHES. 
1 . Jamaica is divided into fourteen districts, 
called parishes; and that the people of each parish 
may look after their own needs, the Legislative 
Council has made laws, under which each parish 
manages certain matters affecting itself alone as it 
thinks well. 
2 . If, however, the parish neglects to properly 
rule over the affairs with which it is trusted, the 
Governor may interfere and see that the duties are 
carried out. Through its voters each parish chooses 
from fifteen to eighteen gentlemen to form a 
Board ’. 
3. This name is often given to a number of men 
who act together in the management of any business. 
In this case, as the ‘Board’ is formed to conduct 
parish affairs, it is known as a ‘ Parochial Board ’. 
In Kingston, which has many more people than any 
other town in the island, the Board is styled ‘ the 
Mayor and Council of Kingston’, the member elected 
as chairman having the honourable title of ‘ Mayor ’. 
4 . Kingston is very much smaller than any other 
parish, being only a little over 7 square miles in 
size, while the other thirteen parishes extend over 
very nearly 4200 square miles. St. Elizabeth is 
the largest, with 471 square miles, though Clarendon, 
St. Catherine, and St. Ann are each very little less 
in size. 
