, 1888-03-07

To The Honorable Colonial Council.
Gentlemen,
We th- undersigned Merchants,
BnH ghe $, and Other inhabitants of the Is
land Of 81. CyOiX. do hereby beg to lay the
following bfare the Honorable Colonial
Council, trusting he Honorable Council
Will give sane it, .ull attention and sym.
patty.
Il has long been a great want to the
business men Of Christiansted, that we
have no direct communication with the
outer world, a wanj which Gay by day is
more felt, and which places importers here
il a moss ultarOrablp position forcing
chem TO import heir good via st. Thomas
or i ederihstrd thereby mourning heavy
extra eXprI srS ; which not alone is Of dis.
advantage to MrrcIlanIS, but from which also
CONSUMERS suffer. Bur not alone Merchants
feel greatly the vans OF direct steam com
municati0n with foreign countries, but
Also the Planters in The jurisdiction Of
ChristiaHated are placed at Il great inc0n.
ypnioucp am ,aiIl feel he said want, be.
ing deprived Of the facilities derived from
djIecl steam COMMUNICATION With foreign
markets, the advantages Of which are evil
dent. Il AL lition to jla great want itself,
the p|oaitoA OF both Merchants and Plant.
IT. III Ills III tNNiitll]ll bNCOillC@ NOISt Wy
FEEDER Sted being in CONSTANT steam com
munic ton with the United States and
Europe, whereby the Merchants there are
in a position to reduce prices on goods to
such an extern, thai our consumers fluid it
10 their advantage in a large measure to
purchase in FrrderikSte0, whereby trade
is steadily being drawn from this place,
70 the drtGimelt of the community. 1t is
not because tO"eign Steamers are not will
ing to make ChiiStlansted Il pOr 0tCall, that
W. are deprived Of this advantage; in
reality ser,ra ines Steamers have arriv-
ed uf he harbour bound here, but the rea.
son is the difficulty, if not impossibiIity, of
larger steamers enteling our harbour. 1t
is this difficulty, that the unl, resigned beg
to Call the attention Of the Honorable
Council to, and to request its aid in re.
moving the difficulty
We consider that Il deepening Of the
Channel to the Harbour sufficient to adj
nit large ste lmrrS would be Of so materi.
al IA benefit t. this jurisdiction, and even
30 the Whole Island, that there is all reason
to make an effort to obtain this, and we
are deeply impressed with the conviction
that an amount sufficient to execute this
work, which we cannot think will be SO very
eno"mous, viii be pr0rurabIe, andthNexpense
thereby incurred will be Of little cOnSe-
queuce compared with the great benefit
derived from the achievement of the work.
In recommending this matter to the most
earnest consideration of the Honorable
Colonial Council, which we trust will make
it its aim to interest Government for the
matter, We trust that the Honorable C0un-
ell viii give the matter az quick despatch
as possible, seeing the great consequence
it has for our community.
Christiansted, st. CrOix, 9th January
1888.
Here follow ~ Signatures.
3rd Member for I hristlanSted( Stakemdnn)
in introducing the Memorial would firstly
beg TO remark that on the list he had been
named as 2nd Member for Christians ed
instead of Bird Member. The Memorial
had hten handed 0 him with the request
t. hand it in to the Council and from
thence to The Government, in order to OBJ
tain the intoI nation necessary for arriving
at a conclusion on the matter. The mean
ing is that the Council would forward the
memorial, with its recommendation, to
the Honorable Government, asking that
the Government will interest i self for that
matter so that We may obtain information
as to how much the deepening in ques.
fion would coStaud aS tn whether the man ia