The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-10-04
LIFE IN BERMUDA.
Roses, Lilies, Onions and No Taxes in
Those Summer Isles.

Those Summer Isles.
Because the Bermuda Islands lie
within $50 miles of New York. they
nave been kept bristling with English
soldiers and sailors, guns and ships.
says the worlds Work.
All these soldiers and sailors have
had to be fed, paid and lodged. and
so the gentle Bermudans have sat COM
fortably at home and prospered by the
vast amounts of money sent by the
mother country
At about the beginning of this CEN
tury it apparently occurred to the
British powers that there was little
likelihood of any war with the United
states, SO ships and men were sent
home to attend to other matters-to
the great loss Of Bermudan revenue.
There are practically no taxes in
these wonderful islands, not even on
the land or for roads-which, by the
way, are superb. The only tax [ could
discover was what is called a. parish
tax, which means that if you go to the
established Church you pay a few
shlllings a year to support it.
The tourist agent speaks of Bermuda
as the Land of the Lily and the
Rose" which is correct enough. since
lilies are grown by the acre for the
bulbs, which American florists force
into Eastern blooms, and of roses there
IS plenty the year around. Really
the onion and the potato extract the
most wealth from the land.
The farmer grows from one to four
crops a year of many of her products
Cultivation is confined chiefly to the
hollows where the soil has accumulate
ed in pockets over the coral beds which
form the islands. This soil in most
places IS not more than ten to eighteen
inches deep, a mellow loan which
looks like finely powdered cocoa
Truck farming is scarcely consider
ed. Potatoes and onions and lily
bulbs are too easily raised and several
hundred and even a thousand dollars
or more profit may be made from
single acre. But with prices falling
and the Texans growing vast quaint
ties of onions Bermuda will eventually
have to turn to other crops.
The working farmer here is the Por-
tuguese. He was imported as a farm
laborer but by thrift and good man
agement has become a tenant instead
of hired man, and now raises GER
tainly half if not more than half the
crops of Bermuda.
The negro is not the problem he is
in our own Southern States. OF the
7,0Uu souls on the islands about go or
10 per cent. are negroes. They are law
abiding and remarkably Industrious
citizens, on the average very we'll edu-
Gated by the colony, and they surprise
stranger by speaking with the &C
cent of an EngliShman, with little or
no negro dialect.
When the Bermudan wishes to build
a house he removes from the site the
top soil which will probably be not.
above ten inches thick perhaps less
Under this is a coral limestone a little
harder to cut than cheese. Instead of
digging this out with pick and shovel
he saws it into blocks, sets it in the
sun to dry and by the time he has
excavated his cellar the blocks are
hard stone fit to be made into the
walls of his house
He mixes a little cement and lime
with his shavings and all his materials
are at hand. These cool stone houses,
limewashed a dazzling white, shine out
through the deep green juniper trees
and stand on the rocky shores above
the wonderful ultramarine blue water
with it's thousand iridescent hues. a
picturesque feature in the panorama
of beauty.
Hedges of oleander which grow to be
veritable trees divide the farms as
stone walls or rail fences do those in
New England and in April the islands,
from the sea. appear to be buried un-
der pink bloom.
No off air Of
cally in the hands of a house of as
sembly. elected by the people and serv- !
ing without pay for a term of seven
years. though they do receive a fee
of eight shillings for carriage hire
there being neither railway, trolley
nor automobile in this peaceful land. |