, 1881-12-31

ANS"AN2 t'CDhittIOA'
We find a comparative statement of the
Census Of st. Croix to be as follows.
1860 %, 1874.
1870 -. 100.
1850 1880.
Any politician or statician, on being
shewn figures such as these would imme-
diatcly ask what wars, what pestilences,
what talnineS had occurred in ST. Cr,ix
during the past decade to induce such an
in0rlinate and Iamentable state of affairs,
as a decrease in population of 10 per cent,
and on being told that we had had neither
wars, nor iainineS, nor peStilenceS, would
then suggest emigration as having been
the cause, and, here again, he would be
told that we had had no emigration.
II the politician or Statician pushed us
still further for reply, we should probably
say "Oh, infant morality is the cause.
You see, the negroes are a careless goddess
lot Of people without morality of any kind,
and consequently they neglect their child
zen, who die off wholesale. In former
times the children were cared for by the
Estates anl4did we'll enough, while any
deficiency Of labour was made up by the
purchase OF fresh slaves from time to time"
And here, Struggling our shoulders and
saving it was a bad business, we should
probably drop the subject.
So important however is the subject
that If we continue to ignore it, in Il few
generations the fertile and beautiful Island
Of CroiX will be reduced to the present
state OF ST. john, and the Danish West
Indies save perhaps for the harbour of st.
Thomas practically blotted out Of the map
OF The world.
1t is idle TO scribe the evil complained
M FN 4l.. g, 7slAt,.r,4,, ~ 4ln, lI~,, ,A,4Ian,
for though thls is certainty II cause, it is
but a secondary cause. If we turn to the
last census returns of Grenada, we find the
increase for the corresponding decade to
have been l25 per cent. an increase which
Is alluded to III the accompanying Report
OF Mr.. Garraway as undoubtedly Small',
and we are not to suppose that the negro
mothers Of Grenada were originally q
Whit different from the negro mothers Of
St. CgoiX. The recent census sounds in
deed a warming note to which it is the
imperative duty of all vested in autho-
rity to give ear,
1t is plain that the Danish West Indies
are not thriving as they should, and it
would seem OF vital Importance that due
and proper inquiry should be made into the
matter with a view to amelioration.
Is the Mother country too far distant to
be aware that II afording us the generous
aid she does, she is bestowing her money
on wIat at present looks like a losing
concern !? Have Danish statesmen never
compared the status of this island with
that Of its neighbours Are the Directors
OF the Factory and those Merchants of
Copenhagen who hold so great an interest
in this Island, and, at the same time
possess 50 much influence at home, un-
aware Of it's decadence
These and many other pertinent ques-
tons might well be asked. Side by side
with the very complete census returns
Of Grenada, our own returns look bald
enough, and it is to be hoped some addi-
ti0nal deta Is are yet forthcoming at the
hands Of our officials. DR.. Luthardt, the
eminent Professor of Theology, states in
one of his Lectures that "no special study
of social sc ence is needed to perceive the
Importance of marriage as deciding the
whole state of national life" and il is more
than probable that a return of the iIlegi-
innate births in st. Croix compared With
those of the n~eighbouring Islands would
afford us lessons both instructive and
humiliating, and disclose the root and
source of the islands decay.
In Grenada, out of a total of AZ 403 in-
habitants no less than 5000 are registered
as ''cotters' owning their own little plots
of land, and she has increased her popu-
lation during the past decade by 121 per
cent, in addition to affording labOur for
the Vene zuelan gold fields.
Why should this state of things exist in
onn icI,n6 nn6 rnE in thu nfhor4