INAUGURAL MEETING 1897 - 1898 . 
195 
revenue then, taking the population of that country and that of 
Trinidad, the revenue itself was only £825,000 against £618 1,000 
of ours, which was not at all in proportion to what it should be, 
because if it were in proportion the revenue of Jamaica should be 
over a million, and it was below. On the other hand it, Jamaica, 
presented a deficit in its accounts and we presented a surplus m 
ours. The debt of Jamaica was £1,600,000. He had shown 
them that here it was £385,000, and the people of Trinidad 
altogether per head of the population— which was a bad calcu- 
lation because it was not, everybody who paid but he meant for 
summary purposes like this, taking it per head of the population, 
they had a burden of £5 Is. to our £4 9s. J that was to say, that 
if they divided the expenditure of the government plus the debt 
of the country by the number of the people they had per head 
what it cost the Colony to keep up its administration and to pro- 
gress, and that was a difference of 12s. in our favour. But then 
came the point at which Jamaica led altogether, that was to say, 
in the question of schools. There were 930 schools in Jamaica 
as against 192 in Trinidad ; there were 99,000 pupils as against 
27,000 in Trinidad, and they cost £45,000 against our 
Now, that meant that every school here cost the Colony 
and every scholar £1 8s., whereas in Jamaica every school Cost 
£40 and every scholar only 9s. a head. That was the point which 
he commended to their notice. It was a very important point. 
It showed that there was a screw loose somewhere, and wnen 
there was a screw loose, they roust discover where the 
Screw was loose and endeavour to the best o ^ eu a 1 1 ^ 
to make it firm again and to put that in order. Hie 
shipping again, in Trinidad and Jamaica, compute mos 
favourably. In Jamaica they had more steamers than we 
had here. That was quite evident, as there was the open sea 
all round Jamaica, and iiere they had got the gulf wine 1 1 re a 
lake and where there was not sufficient depth of watei an icnce 
big steamers could not come into the gulf as they won o ei 
wise do. The question then arose whether it was not desirable 
or possible, or whether it would not be to the advantage of the 
Colony to find some place where big steamers would come 
without injuring a part of the interests that were centred in 
Port-of-Spain. 
Those were questions that arose from a cursory look at those 
Blue Books which were supposed to be so dry that noboc y w is le 
to read them. But he thought he had said enough in the single 
remark that there were 681,000 acres of land still uncultivated, 
to show them that this Island, steadily progressing as it was, pro- 
vided its finances were properly and judiciously administered, and 
advancing in every branch except the educational branch, he 
