A WEST INDIA ISLAND. 
479 
four-fifths are pure negroes. G he average annual birth-rate for the 
last seven years has been a fraction under 37 per 1,000, and the death- 
rate about 23i per 1,000. The negroes are a prolific race ; but the 
mortality soon after birth and in early infancy has been great, owing 
to bad nursing -a state of things which, it is hoped, will improve, as 
a training hospital for nurses combined with a lying-in hospital 
was established as a memorial of the Queen’s Jubilee. In 1663 the 
whole population was estimated at 17,272, of whom 7,762 were whites ; 
100 years ago it was estimated at 291,400, of whom 30,000 were 
classified as white ; at the emancipation in 1834 the population was 
371,000, of whom 311,000 were slaves, 45,000 free blacks or of mixed 
blood, and 15,000 whites. From 1861 to the present time there does 
not seem to have been a material change in the number of white 
persons; and the increase in population in that period, of from 441,264 
to 639,491, is an increase of black or coloured people. From 1881 to 
1891 the increase of all inhabitants was about 10 per cent. There is 
little or no immigration, except of Indian coolies to an extent which 
about replaces those who return to India or die on the island. There 
is also little emigration, though during the progress of the work on the 
Panama Canal thousands of able-bodied Jamaicans went there for 
employment, and suffered much from disease and from other causes. 
Many of these men returned to Jamaica with considerable sums of 
money ; but eventually when the works closed a large number, who 
were left on the isthmus without means, had to be brought back to 
Jamaica at the cost of the island. 
Taking P°P u ^i° n 950,000, 1 may remark that, if this colony 
ot Queensland had a population in the same proportion to area as 
Jamaica, we should have about 103,000,000 ; and although, no doubt, 
there is a good deal of land here on which settlement is improbable, 
there are even in Jamaica 365,828 acres out of 2,720,000 which are 
useless, as being swamps, rocks, or inaccessible. There is room in 
Jamaica for a much larger population. Indeed, while in Jamaica the 
population is about 154 to the square mile, Barbadoes supports, 
though with difficulty, no less than 1,098 souls to the square mile. 
I have already said that practically J amaicahas no mineral prod ucts 
ol value at present. The negro inhabitants grow everything in the 
I? 0 , that they want for their own consumption, except salted 
fish, salted meat, and breadstuffs. Of these articles large quantities 
are imported. The total imports in the year 1892-93 were of the 
va ue of £1,941,481, or, say, at Ihe rate of £3 per person per 
™. m ; oo 0f imports, food and drink were of the value of 
£804,583 ; and of the total value 56 per cent, was from the United 
.kingdom, 34 per cent, from the United States, 7 per cent, from 
Canada, and 3 per cent, from oilier countries. 
Ihe value of the exports in the same year was £1,759,806, or at 
the rate of about 54s. per head. Of the articles exported, food and 
drink are of the value of £1,307,543; raw material, £388,866: and 
manufactured articles, only £13,l72. The great market for Jamaica 
is the United States, which takes 54 per cent, of the exports ; while 
the Lnited Kingdom takes 29 per cent., and Canada 2* per cent. 
Ihe principal articles of export and their value are as follow : — 
P ril]ci P a % consists of bananas, oranges, and cocoanuts, 
£ 100,o 04 ; dye woods, £356,752; coffee, £340,565; sugar, £241,683 ; 
