, 1888-06-02

Schools established, anent which he thus
writes =
81 am very anxious to see Reformatory
Schools established, and [ am using nv
best endeavorS to accomplish this end with
the cooperation of the Roman Catholic
Archbishop, and the Bishop of the Church
of England. The success of these Schools
must depend mainly upon the support
which they will receive from the Clergy of
the different denominations and, indeed,
unless the clergy are willing to undertake
their management, I doubt very much
whe Their they will not fail in their object.
ga ~RefOrmatory under State manage.
ment, from which the religious element
is excluded, would lack perhaps the most
essential principle of ~retormatory disci-
pine, while it would be a costly matter to
establish and maintain two or more de
nOminatiOnal Institutions"
AS regards q Political Franchise, this
exists only in the two Municipal Corpora.
tionS of POrt-of.Spain, and San Fernando.
But a petition for the establishment of a
Municipal Corporation in Arima, a town
in the interior of the Island to the North
East, is at present under the consideration
of the Government. But the voting priv.
lege which the electors in the two Corpora
lions possess, is not apparently very high
w valued, as out of I'll registered cleo
tors in Port Of Spain, only 1O3 exercised
this privilege in 1887, whilst in San Fer
nand0 Sc voted ont Of $40 registered eIec-
tors. A Petition nulnerouSly signed, in
favour Of an elective element in tile
Legislative Council, was sent to the Home
Office early last year, and the Governor
writes as follows concerning it
"a movement which eliminated in the
transmission of Petition to the Queen
praying for an alteration in the COnStitu-
ZION Of the Island has resulted in the ap.
pointment of a Royal Commission to con
slider and report what Franchise or com
hination Of Franchises would in their
judgement constitute a reasonbly large
Body Of Electors qualified by knowledge
and education to form III intelligent
judgement on Public affairs and so ensure
the fair representation of all interests III
the Island, and also to consider aud report
the Electoral Districts into which the
Island might conveniently be Divided
This Commission il now Sitt'mg.'
With regard to Trade Statistics, we are
told the vllue of the total Imports tor
1887 was Gt,91S,670, and that of The EN-
ports Gl.S7O,6l2. OF the amount of the to.
tai value Of the Exports, Of the principal
items Of native production, amounting to
81, 1880, no less q sum than E467, 1911, or
over 80 per cent, was represented by Co
Goa, Asphalt, BitterS, and cocoanutS.
Making an allowance for the difference in
the value Of bullion, imported and eXpor-
ted in the years 1886 and 1S67-the value
for 1886 being largely in eXcesS-tle fl
cures as regards Imports are in favour OF
1887 to the amount of 895,57j whilst the
value of the Exports for 1887 was G43,049
in excess Of that for 1886. The difference
in the value OF bullion passing through
Trinidad from Venzuela was G6SO,4l9
more in 1886 than in 1887 whilst the
general imports and exports between Tri.
nidad and that country show a falling Oft,
Of G1O,246 and g26, 722 respectively, for
1887 when compared with 1886. This
large falling off in the trade between Tri-
nidad and the neighbouring Republic dur
ing 1887 was mainly due to the hostile
policy pursued by the Republic towards
England and her colonies. This misun-
Outstanding seems now, however, to be fair
ly at all end, and the commerce between
the two countries will doubtless resume
is former basis. Sir William Robinson
writes thus regarding it:
"AnOther incident in the transactions of
the year which perhaps ought to be men
toned was the settlement by the VeneZetI.
Ian Government Of the long outstanding
claims in connection with the seizure of the
ttHanriettan and ssJOSephine' 1t is to be