, 1874-12-05

with the last honorable Speaker that the
military force is of great use, and he would
not advise to do away with it. But an inten-
ton of doing away with it could not be made out
from the contents of this Draft, as It Is stated
In the accompanying remarks, and by figures
it can be shewn, that the mill airy force al
though reduced, still, by being collected in
one place will be more efficient. 1t will not
be only in the one place where the garrison
is that such efficiency will be obtained the
present detachments at KingShill and Frede-
riksted are too small, and just from that reason
they cannot now be of real benefit in case of
emergency. He would admit that the numeri-
cal strength Of the force, as proposed in the
Draft, might appear inefficient in certain
cases but still there would be a great moral
influence connected with the presence of the
military force, and this will not be weakened
by this proposal; on the contrary, the moral
influence will become greater. But it would
not do, after the number of men has been re-
duced, still to divide them on 8 stations, be-
cause the chief objection to the present organi-
sation of the military force Is that it is too
small in the several stations; to make these
divisions still smaller, would be to make
them sill more inefficient. AS far as it
has been said that Kingshill is the central posi-
ton, and hence a more recommendable military
point than Basend, be would say that he was
certainly aware that In the Centre and West
erh Districts Of the Island the best properties
are situated and the most of th0 crop is grown
but then the proprietOrs there have also an
interest in Bassin not only an account of the
public buildings being there and the Colonial
Treas lry's funds being kept there, but also
on account Of the Banks, as he supposed he
was not mistaken when saying that every
man having superfuOus cash money,
deposits it in one or other of the Banks.
When, further, it has been stated that it
would be easier to bring the military to any
point, when located at Kingshill, than as
ChriStiansted, he would observe that It might
in the latter case be done quicker than is per-
haps thought. He would not enter into de-
tails, but merely call attention to that ere
long time we may see q telegraphic line
through the Island even IF it should not be
established by the present Company, be was
sure it would not cost so much to establish
such a line for expense of the Treasury, be-
tween Christiansted, KiEgshiIl and Frederik-
sted, with sub-statIons or alaSm- stations, so
that every man without any special technical
knowledge of the thing, might give the alarm,
and thus save much valuable time. AS far
as regards the point made that the men would
be tired before arriving at the places where
they are required, he had intended to provide
that the Authorities shall be entitled in such
cases to make use Of private c0nveyances, GER
t6inIy for payment, to carry the men with as
little delay as possible and without fatiguing
them this expense would not be very great;
end when previously he had stated that 6 hours
would be sufficient to bring the force to any
point, he mighs now say that scarcely half
tat time would be required with the use of
The wire and cOnveyances He was tempted
to ask, when last was the military force called
out in any Of he Districts, and was it ofspecial
use in such a casel He believed it was very
long ago and he would ask this the more so,
as this Draft is based on a strong feeling Of
The population being very quiet and peaceable;
in fact, he had been surprised to find our Ia
bouring population so quiet and he believed
that honorable Members would agree with him
that even in the last years, when not only the
estate, proprietOrs have had hard times, but
also the labOurers too, in so far as their provi-
sion grounds have been bare, and in so far as, in
some few isolated instances that had come to
his knowledge, the ordinary rations Of meal etc.
KAYE not been forthcoming in proper time on
account of circumstances over which the pro-
prietor had no c%ontrol, -nothing has occurred
to disturb the peace or interfere with public or
der tn. labourers saw that their employers
were doing all that they could to secure them
their due. and that was suficieht This is q