DE VERTEUIL — PORT-OF-SPAIX. 
13S 
should meet, at least, once every quarter, and it meets only 
on an emergency ; and yet there is sufficient employ for the 
Board, if willing to work. The Ordinance concerning build- 
ings and the sale of bread, as I have remarked previously, 
are dead letters : the Ordinance regulating the sale of meat 
is only partially carried into effect : and if mutton, pork and 
goat are exposed for sale at the markets it is because the 
butchers find it more advantageous to sell the meat there 
than to go huckstering it about the town. The 46 and 49 
clauses of the Police Ordinance are not executed : and I 
have heard the police officers excused on the plea that, as 
they should pay exclusive attention to the preservation of 
the public peace, they cannot be blamed for neglecting less 
important duties. Surely, so long as it will be their duty 
to put the Police regulations in force they cannot be excused 
for not performing their obligations. If, however, they 
cannot possibly do that, the Government should take the 
matter into consideration and make the necessary provi- 
sions. In my opinion a comprehensive Police Ordinance, 
rigidly enforced, even in its apparently less important parts 
would, by compelling the people to look to their own com- 
fort and that of their neighbours, do more to improve their 
habits than is usually thought. 
It is much to be regretted that, in a purely agricultural 
country like ours, the people should resort to towns. The 
united population of Port-of-Spain and San Fernando may 
be said fairly to represent 25 per cent, of the whole popula- 
tion of the Island ; and there is no manufacture in either of 
those boroughs. In Port-of-Spain the proportion of women 
to men is as 100 to 75*31.. The increase of population na- 
turally depends on the excess of births over deaths. Th© 
number of births is larger in towns than in rural districts,, 
