480 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 
rum, £191,055 ; pimento, £59,284 ; and what are called minor 
products, of which ginger and cocoa form a large portion, £95,263. 
This statement shows that fruit, which is mainly grown by the 
peasantry, is now the staple product of the island. Twenty years 
ago it was hardly known as an export. It is now a valuable factor 
in the prosperity of the people, and, practically, the price comes into 
the pockets of the inhabitants, and does not go towards maintaining 
absentee proprietors in the United Kingdom. It is of interest here to 
note, as bearing on the progressive prosperity of the island, that, while 
in 1SS0-81 there were 76,035 taxpayers, the number had increased to 
113,167 in 1892-93, and there are now 94,172 holdings in the island, 
of which 73,296 are of an area less than five acres, and 9,368 are from 
five to ten acres. I may mention that a negro who holds two or three 
acres or upwards is in fairly comfortable circumstances. 
When we come to consider revenue and expenditure, we find that 
both are on a much more moderate scale in Jamaica, in proportion to 
population, than is the case in Queensland — a circumstance which, to 
some extent, is accounted for by the larger area of this colony and the 
generally higher cost of living and higher wages. 
In Jamaica, in 1892-93, the general revenue, as distinguished 
from parochial revenues and from a small revenue raised for immigra- 
tion, was £713,759; and the expenditure, including £32,905 payment 
to sinking funds in extinguishment of debt, was £707,179 — in each 
case approximately about 22s. per head per annum. Here the revenue 
and expenditure may be reckoned at about £8 per head — a very large 
difference. The debt in the case of Jamaica is equal to about £2 7s. per 
head, with an interest and sinking fund payment of, say, 2s. 4d. a year. 
In Queensland the debt is about £74 per head ; and the annual burden, 
which does not provide any fund for reduction of debt, is not much 
under £3 per annum. A large part of the debt of Jamaica, as is the 
case here, was incurred in constructing railways. The parishes, like 
the divisional boards here, collect revenues which are expended under 
certain laws for local purposes, mainly for roads and poor relief; for 
the former the parishes raised £31,000 in 1892-93, and they raised 
nearly £40,000 for poor relief. Each parish has an elected parochial 
board, which controls all purely local affairs; aud as respects poor 
relief, the law for which is based on the Scotch model, these boards 
are to a certain extent subject to a central board of supervision, but 
only the infirm and those who are absolutely unfit to work are received 
into the poorhouses or given permanent help. 
There is a regularly organised medical service throughout the 
island ; and besides the general hospital, lying-in hospital, lepers’ 
home, and lunatic asylum, there are eighteen hospitals in different 
parts of the island. 
The education of the people was a good deal neglected at the 
period of the emancipation, and was first placed on a really sound basis 
in 1867. The schools, which in 1868 numbered 286, had risen to 912 
in 1893 ; and the number of pupils attending the schools had increased 
in the same period from 19,764 to 99,769. There is still a large 
portion of the population who cannot read or write, but the abolition 
of all fees in the elementary schools in 1892 will no doubt greatly help 
forward the progress of education. The elementary schools are 
connected with the various religious denominations ; and of the whole 
