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of the year 1899, the number of certificates of conscientious objection under Section 2 of the Vaccination Act, 1898, dated within the quarter and received by the vaccination officers, and also the number of certificates of successful primary vaccination received by vaccination officers during the periods 1st January to 30th June, and 1st July to 31st December in the years 1898 and 1899 respectively. This return showed that during the year 1899 the total number of certificates of successful primary vaccination received by the vaccination officers was 669,349 as against 500,314 in the year 1898, thus showing an increase of 169,035, or 33.8 per cent. A large number of these were probably cases which had been deferred pending the consideration of the Bill for the Act 1898, or had otherwise fallen into arrear, and which now, under the stimulus afforded by the new Act and the action of the public vaccinators and vaccination officers, coupled with an assurance as to the quality of the new lymph, were brought up for vaccination.

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WEST INDIES.

Barbados [No. 326.]-Governor Sir F. M. Hodgson's Report for 1900 shows a revenue of £185,474, and an expenditure of £182,865:

In 1900 there were exported 48,573 tons of Muscovado sugar, as compared with 43,907 tons in 1899, and 1,998 tons of dry sugar in 1900, as compared with 2,312 tons in 1899. So that 1900 shows an increase in quantity of Muscovado sugar amounting to 4,666 tons, while it shows a falling off in quantity of dry sugar of 314 tons. The crop was, therefore, as a whole, better in 1900 than in 1899. There was an increase in the value of exports amounting to £83,634, chiefly in sugar and molasses. The United States took most of the sugar and Canada the molasses. The population is about 193,000.

Leeward Islands [337].-The aggregate revenue for these Islands (Antigua, Dominica, St. Kitts-Nevis, Montserrat, and the Virgin Islands) for 1900 was £119,450, exclusive of Imperial grants, and the expenditure £131,973, or a decrease of £11,312. The Report says:

The erection of central factories as the sole hope of restoring the sugar industry of Antigua, St. Kitts-Nevis, and Montserrat, has been so fully discussed that further advocacy of this most important subject would appear to be but repetition. The antiquated machinery and the obso

lete methods now employed in the manufacture of sugar in these islands should years ago have been replaced by modern factories, but year after year no improvement takes place, the crops become shorter, and hundreds of acres of what were formerly valuable cane lands are now thrown out of cultivation. A very large proportion of the best artisans and labourers has left, and still continue to leave, Antigua in search of employment elsewhere, as now there is no inducement for them to remain owing to the small wages which they receive. The export of sugar for the Colony in 1900 exhibited a decrease of 7,431 tons as compared with the previous year. In Antigua the crop was the smallest, except in the year 1898 (when there was a very severe drought) and in St. Kitts-Nevis the smallest during the last decade.

The Presidency of St. ChristopherNevis was able to avoid any retrograde movement during the year. The hurricane of August, 1899, had so seriously damaged the young canes that the crop of 1900 amounted to only 7,451 tons, against an average of 12,000. Nevertheless, the revenue was well maintained, and, owing to various economies in expenditure, the deficit was the smallest for many years. The ravages of the hurricane were repaired by grants from the Mansion House Fund, the Imperial Parliament, and private donors, and included the rebuilding of five large schools, loans to five estates in Nevis to repair their works, patching or rebuilding of between 2,000 or 3,000 labourers' huts, and the renovation of piers, jetties, and other public buildings.

The year 1900 was one of steady progress and increased prosperity for Dominica. The value of the exports exceeded by £2,666 those of the preceding year, and reached the highest figure attained during the past twenty years. The imports were worth nearly £10,000 more than in 1899, and they exceeded those of any year recorded. It is particularly satisfactory to note that these results were not due to any fortuitous or abnormal inflation in the market prices of the staple products, but may justly be ascribed to a steady growth in the various industries and to the gradual development of the island's resources. The exports of cocoa, in particular, were double those of ten years ago, while the output of limes and their products had increased threefold during the same period. Dominica has, for many years, been the world's chief producer of lime juice, and the area under cultivation of limes is being largely extended. Sugar has fallen to the rank of a very minor product, while the manufacture of rum is now not even sufficient

for local requirements. The export of fruit is assuming considerable proportions, and the cultivation of oranges, pineapples, and bananas is attracting the attention of small capitalists.

The revenue for 1900 was the highest ever recorded in Dominica. Irrespective of the Imperial Grant for botanic services, it amounted to £28,113, being £2,751 in excess of the estimate. The expenditure having been restricted to a total considerably below the revenue, Dominica received no portion of the Imperial Grant in aid of deficits, and the accounts of the year closed with a surplus exceeding £5,000. During the past seven years the public debt of the Presidency has been reduced from £70,900 to £58,800.

A number of works of public utility were carried out in Dominica during 1900. The Roseau Hospital was provided with a proper drainage system, and its exterior was painted. The police barracks were re-roofed, and the men's quarters somewhat improved. The roof of Government House and out-buildings were partly re-shingled. The jetty at Portsmouth was re-constructed. A new school-house was erected at Dublanc. A section of sea wall was built at Point Michael. Four miles of road leading to Roseau were thoroughly re-constructed, and rendered fit for wheeled traffic. About four miles of road were also constructed in the interior, at the cost of the Imperial Grant for opening up the Crown lands.

During the year 1900 there was a marked influx of Englishmen possessed of moderate capital, many of whom either purchased estates already in cultivation or selected blocks of Crown lands that are being rendered accessible by the new Imperial Road. Over 2,000 acres of the new lands in the interior were sold during the year, and there is reason to believe that a great future lies in the possibilities of the vast areas of virgin soil known as the Layou Flats.

In Montserrat the early part of the year saw the restoration of the estate works, churches, and public buildings destroyed by the hurricane of the 7th August, 1899; 22 estate works were rebuilt by loans advanced by the Imperial Government, and ten schools, two police stations, the gaol, the public market, and the poor-house were restored by Imperial Grants.

The cultivation of the lime estates destroyed was also re-commenced.

The Imperial Department of Agriculture established a station of six acres and two district plots at Harris Village and Olveston, from which many thousands of plants were distributed among the sufferers by the hurricane.

The want of steam communication with the Virgin Islands is much felt, and it is difficult to see how any well organised scheme for the development of these islands can be carried out in its ab

sence.

Trinidad and Tobago [Cd. 788].-The revenue for 1900 was £812,303 and the expenditure £696,880 gross, but the true totals

were £698,939 and £659,079 respectively. The margin of taxable capacity is said by the Acting-Colonial Secretary (Mr. H. C. Bourne) to be considerable. The Report says:-

The value of the sugar crop was £68,000 below the average for the past five years, and £157,000 below that of the last quarter of a century. Cocoa, on the other hand, exceeded the past five years' average by £188,000, and that of twenty-five years by £386,000. Asphalt showed far the largest output on record, being £40,000 and £102,000 respectively in excess of the averages for five and for twenty-five years. The area under cocoa cultivation is nearly twice that under sugar, and is extending daily. Cocoa is not, like sugar, a manufacture, and a given quantity of it represents a far less expenditure on wages than in the case of its rival; but it can claim to maintain a much larger number of peasant proprietors, and even the large estates are for the most part owned by residents in the Colony. The cocoa crop of last year exceeded that of 1899 by 1,100,000 pounds. This increase was due partly to extended cultivation and partly to a favourable season. The average prices obtained were lower, London prices varying from 68s. to 75s. per cwt., a fall of about 5s. from those of 1899. But it paid to ship cocoa when in 1896 the prices had fallen to 45s., and the cost of production, apart from rent and interest on capital, is generally estimated at not more than 27s. a cwt. Though the world's production of cocoa is being greatly extended, its consumption is also increasing rapidly.

Cane- farming by peasant proprietors appears to be extending. Of the general condition of the islands Mr. Bourne writes:

sess

A visitor to the Colony unacquainted with the people is apt to form a wrong impression of their condition. A well-todo peasant proprietor, who may poscocoa and other property worth several thousand pounds, will, when at his work, wear rags of which an English tramp would be ashamed, while his wife will walk bare-legged to market with a basket of vegetables on her head. There is, however, one characteristic of the people which the stranger cannot fail to appreciate on first meeting them-their extraordinary cheerfulness and hospitality. The solitary traveller can visit the most remote parts of the island with greater security from unfriendly interference than in any county in England.

Tobago is an interesting study. The island, whose early history is outlined by such names as Bloody Bay and Englishman's Bay, was reduced to the verge of bankruptcy on the failure of the sugar

industry, but the people retained their cheerfulness. Money may be never seen, but the necessaries of life are never wanting. At the beginning of 1899 the fiscal union of Tobago with Trinidad was completed; and the former is now one of the dozen districts or wards of the Colony. Much more than the revenue of the smaller island is now being expended upon it, and there is no indication of

revival.

Among these is an increase in the price of land.

The number of visitors both from England and from the United States increases year by year, and when the contemplated extension of the road system has made travelling in Trinidad more easy it will have solid claims as a winter resort. From January to March the climate is delightful.

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