discretion and impartiality the powers that such changes would confer, there might be less objection to the recommendation made by Sir David Barbour. But the grievance against which this Petition is directed stands as a warning not to increase the temptations to abuse power already afforded to Governors by the existing Constitution.

44. The said Report, while declaring on the one hand that real responsibility cannot be enforced on the Elected Members (paragraph 62), and on the other that if a Governor can secure their sanction to measures involving increased expenditure, he largely reduces his personal responsibility by a nominal transfer of it to the Elected Members (paragraph 55), and while recommending a numerical increase of the official strength in the Council, points out (paragraph 62) that the Government has not placed before the Legislative Council every year a sufficient review of the actual position of the finances, and has not itself always grasped what the financial position really was. In paragraphs 7 and 63 the Report points out that Members of the Privy Council and Legislative Council complain that they have been kept in the dark, and recommends for adoption by the Government a new form of Financial Statement and a system of Budget Reviews by the Colonial Secretary which will afford more information than hitherto and be a permanent record. In paragraph 59 he states that the Privy Council ought to be consulted by the Governor and be taken into his confidence.

45. The Report also points out that in the face of recurring deficits the Government pursued a policy of rash finance (paragraph 6), took an over-sanguine view of the prospects of the Island and the probable progress of the revenue (paragraph 7), lived at a rate which the finances did not justify and which it cannot continue (paragraph 52), expended large sums of borrowed money in works not directly reproductive (paragraphs 3, 43, 44), appropriated unexpended balances (paragraph 45) and specific loans to general purposes, thereby concealing the weakness of the financial position (paragraph 46).

46. Sir David Barbour might have added that every law passed by the Legislative Council of Jamaica for obtaining loans has been introduced by the Government, with the sanction of the Secretary of State, and vests in the Executive, exclusively, as well the power of raising the money as of expending it. Also, that each such Law provides for the gradual redemption of the loan out of the general revenues of the Island. Also, that for a long time past the Elected Members have in point of fact persistently endeavoured to effect a reduction of expenditure, and in the Session of 1898 actually proposed a motion to the effect that the finances of the Colony would not warrant a larger expenditure than £600,000, and the Governor, Sir A. W. L. Hemming, refused to put the motion to the vote. Also, that the programme of retrenchment put forward in 1899 is due entirely to the pressure put upon the Govern ment by the Elected Members.

47. So far as the Elected Members have at any time failed to deal promptly with the condition of the finances after 1890-91 (par. 6), we submit that the concealment from them (admitted by Sir David Barbour) of the true position of the finances is their excuse, but in addition there was a great necessity and desire for a comprehensive recast of the Tariff, which had been in existence for thirty years; measures for which purpose only the Government could initiate, but would not, until last Session, when the Tariff Law, 1899, was passed, although frequently asked to do so.

48. When Your Majesty shall have considered the extraordinary policy of the Government as described by Sir David Barbour, and the fact that as regards raising revenue the Elected Members have no power to introduce any financial measures, and have passed those introduced by the Government, while as regards Expenditure they have compelled the only retrenchment made; that fully half of the Estimates are provided for either by the Civil List or by Special Statutes, and are therefore not subject to review by the Elected Members; that the actual raising and expenditure of loans is done by the Executive; and also that the Secretary of State in 1884 wrote that in regard to "questions of general financial policy Her Majesty's Government would continue to be responsible," we believe Your Majesty will find that no justification has been shown for the abrogation of the Conventions of the Constitution, and for any further limitation of the scant powers of the Elected Members or of the rights and privileges of the Electorate.

49. Indeed, it seems manifest that the affairs of the country have gone wrong under our present Constitution, as they did under absolute Crown Government twenty years ago, because the people of the country have left the task of Government to one class of functionary or another, none of whom, according to Sir David Barbour's report, from the Secretary of State downwards, are to be regarded as personally responsible for the present state of affairs (par. 81); and we submit that the true and only remedy lies in the people

being encouraged to take a greater interest in future in their own affairs, so as to make their influence felt by the Colonial Office, the local Executive and the Elected Members of the Council, in the adoption of a policy that will aid the development of our resources and add to our prosperity and financial independence.

50. The Secretary of State for the Colonies is publicly reported to have informed a Committee of the House of Commons, in discussing the Colonial Loans Act quite recently, that the Elected Members "have made an awful mess of the finances." This assertion is at variance with our quotations from Mr. Chamberlain's despatch of 30th November, 1898, with the report of Sir D. Barbour, and with the facts as known in this Colony. Mr. Chamberlain, however, admits that our Stock stands at par in the English market.

51. The Railway Contract is made a ground of attack against the application to Jamaica of the principle of self-government. But if the Elected Members of the Council in 1889 were the causa causans of the contract, it cannot be forgotten that the AttorneyGeneral, Sir Henry Hicks Hocking, who was one of the delegates sent to the Colonial Office to obtain its sanction, was the causa sine qua non of the law. Also, that in 1888 the Governor, Sir Henry Norman, did not dissolve the Legislative Council so as to submit the Railway question to the test of a general election. On the contrary, the terms of the contract were deliberately withheld from the constituencies. Also, that the Colonial Office deliberately permitted the experiment to be tried although fully alive to its dangers. Therefore the disasters that have followed, while affording ample ground for condemning the judgment and conduct of the Elected Members who passed the law in 1889, are not an argument for reducing their successors to a position of future uselessness. Several of the Elected Members who took part in passing that law were held responsible by their constituencies and were rejected at the general election in 1894, and have been forced to retire from public life.

52. We humbly submit that the community ought not to be penalised in the manner proposed, and that they will be found willing and able to find the revenue required to meet their obligations, whether incurred in open market or under the Colonial Loans Act, the provisions of which Act, if applied to Jamaica, will prove in effect financially insignificant, but politically disastrous.

53. We crave leave to assure Your Majesty that the abrogation of the Conventions of the Constitution, by increasing the numerical proportion of Official Members in the Council or any other like retrograde step, will not be acceptable to the constituencies, will be regarded as a breach of faith, and will occasion political discontent and turmoil in Jamaica, and thereby further retard the industrial and general progress of the community. At the same time the existing power of the Crown to intervene from time to time on extreme occasions enables the Colonial Minister to safeguard any Imperial guarantee of our finances that may be given, should the necessity arise of accepting such guarantee.

We therefore humbly submit to Your Majesty that no just or sufficient cause has been shown, or exists, for withdrawing or further restricting any of the political rights and privileges graciously conceded to the people of this Colony under Your Majesty's said Orders in Council, as explained in the Conventions published in 1884, and defined in the Imperial Parliament by the Under Secretary of State. And we beseech Your Majesty to issue permanent instructions enjoining the faithful observance by the Government of this Colony of the Conventions of our Constitution.

We also beseech Your Majesty to command that none but a Governor in sympathy with the constitutional rights and privileges of the people of Jamaica be appointed or be permitted to continue to be Your Majesty's Representative in this Colony.

We also beseech Your Majesty to command that none but capable and competent persons, who are in sympathy with the said constitutional rights and privileges of the people, be permitted to exercise the functions of the respective offices of Colonial Secretary, Attorney-General, Director of Public Works, or Collector-General in Jamaica, the holders of which are some of them Ex-Officio Members of the Privy Council, and all of them Ex-Officio Members of the Legislative Council.

We also beseech Your Majesty to command that none but persons in sympathy with the said constitutional rights and privileges of the people be appointed or be permitted to continue to be Nominated Members of the

We humbly pray for such further and other relief in the premises as to Your Majesty shall seem meet, for the furtherance of peace, order, contentment, and progress; and we rely with confidence on the lofty sense of constitutional rectitude, the warm sympathy, and the gracious solicitude for the welfare of all Your people that has marked the whole course of Your Majesty's long and beneficent reign.

And we, pray, &c.

Your Majesty's loyal subjects, as in duty bound, will ever

ADRIAN A. ROBINSON, M.B. and C.M. Ed. Univ.,
President, Jamaica Association,
Mayor of Kingston.

(Countersigned) L. FOSTER DAVIS,

Hon. Secretary.

Kingston, Jamaica.

September 28th, 1899.

No. 5.

SIR,

GOVERNOR SIR A. W. L. HEMMING to MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

(Received November 2, 1899.)

[Answered by No. 9.]

King's House, Jamaica, October 16, 1899.

I HAVE the honour to transmit to you a copy of a letter from the Mayor of Kingston, forwarding a memorial to Her Majesty the Queen from the Mayor and Council on the subject of the instructions contained in your despatch of 22nd August last,* together with a copy of a resolution passed by the Council on the 7th instant.

2. I have but few remarks to make on these documents.

3. I desire to point out with respect to the statement in paragraph 3 of the memorial that the information furnished to you by me as to the number of electors who voted at recent elections in the districts of St. Mary and St. Elizabeth was "incorrect in fact,' that the figures given in my despatches have been verified by comparison with the returns sent in by the Returning Officers under sections 26 and 30 of Law 21 of 1884, and are found to be absolutely correct, with the exception that in the case of St. Elizabeth I informed you that 877 electors voted, whereas the actual number according to the Returning Officer was 876. The number of electors on the register being 1,767, your statement in paragraph 37 of your despatch that less than fifty per cent. voted is

correct.

that

4. Mr. Dixon, the Member for St. Elizabeth, has recently endeavoured to show your calculation is wrong by adding to the number of voters the number of spoilt ballot papers, viz. 33, and thus increasing the votes to 909. I do not think it is usual thus to include spoilt votes.

5. With regard to the question of polling stations, I have to observe that these were originally fixed on the recommendation of the Returning Officer in each Electoral District, and on the occasion of each election the Returning Officer has the opportunity of suggesting the appointment of additional polling stations. As a matter of fact, I am informed that the electors have no further to go to record their votes than they have to go regularly to market, or to the Court Houses to have their cases tried.

6. On the question raised in sub-section (3) of paragraph 3 of the memorial, I annex a copy of a memorandum by the Attorney General, explaining the alterations which have taken place in the law of registration and its present position. During the session which stands adjourned, a Select Committee of the Legislative Council, consisting of the Attorney General, Collector General, and the members for Hanover, Portland and Manchester, reported that they were unable to make any practical recommendations with a view to the introduction of automatic registration.

I have, &c.,

AUGUSTUS W. L. HEMMING,

Governor.

* No. 3.

SIR,

Enclosure 1 in No. 5.

The MAYOR OF KINGSTON to the COLONIAL SECRETARY.

October 11, 1899.

I HAVE the honour to forward herewith memorial from the Mayor and Council of Kingston on the subject of the instructions contained in the despatch of the Secretary of State for the Colonies to His Excellency the Governor dated the 22nd August last, and to ask that His Excellency will be so good as to cause the same to be transmitted to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies for submission to Her Majesty the Queen in Council.

2. The memorial is accompanied by two copies, and I also have the honour to enclose copies of resolution passed by the Council on the 7th instant for transmission to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

I have, etc.,

ADRIAN A. ROBINSON,

Mayor.

TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

The Humble Petition of the Mayor and Council of Kingston, Jamaica.

MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN, AND OF JAMAICA LADY SUPREME.

THE Mayor and Council of Kingston, Jamaica, in Special Meeting on this the 9th day of October, 1899, having carefully examined the "instructions" contained in the despatch of the Right Honourable Joseph Chamberlain, M.P., Your Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies addressed to His Excellency Sir Augustus W. L. Hemming, Governor of this Colony, under date the 22nd August, 1899, humbly approach the throne in the name and in the political interests of those of Your Majesty's subjects whom they represent, to loyally and respectfully protest against the injustice and tyranny contemplated in the said "instructions," and especially against those contained in paragraphs 34 and 39 inclusive of the said despatch by which it is proposed to seriously aggrieve the people of this Colony by curtailing the political advantages which they now enjoy in matters parochial and colonial under the Constitution granted by Your Majesty.

1. The misrepresentations which have furnished the only excuse for interference with the present powers of the Parochial Boards system (as read in paragraphs 35 and 37 of the despatch) are in strong contradiction of the real facts; and the hollowness of the pretext that "It will be necessary for the Colonial Government to take powers for more complete supervision of their (the Board's) administration in future" is exposed by the incontrovertible fact, that under the conditions at present existing, the control by the Government is so "complete" that not a farthing of the Parochial Funds (except with respect to roads) can be expended without the knowledge and previous consent of the Governor. Sufficiently ample powers are already vested in and exercised by the Governor to remedy wrongs which may be committed by the Parochial Boards in any other direction. To introduce any other restrictions on the Boards would have the effect of divesting them of representative power altogether.

2. Considered in itself, the change which Your Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies has ordered the Governor to make in our Legislative relations (paragraph 39 of despatch) to wit-" before the Legislative Council is summoned, to fill up the full number of nominated members and to retain them, using at your (his) discretion the power given you (him) by the Constitution to "declare measures to be of paramount importance" is violent, tyrannical and ill-timed, seeing that at the present juncture, there is neither a deadlock in the Legislative Council nor any dispute between the Government and the people. And its tyranny and injustice are still more to be condemned because it cannot be shown that any act of the Representatives of the people in or out of the Legislative Council has militated against either "Imperial" interests or the local interests of the Colony. The present financial condition of the Colony which is the gravamen of the whole question, is not due to any act or attitude of either the elected members, or of the people of Jamaica, but rather to three principal causes, viz.:

principal staples of the Colony has been destroyed, whilst (2) the Colonial Government has had no policy of amelioration, having contented itself with imposing taxes, tending to make the already poor, poorer, at the same time increasing the indebtedness of the country by "borrowing for works not directly reproductive," and out of keeping with the capacity of the country; and (3) that the Government has been carried on by nominees of the Colonial Office, whose principle was as Sir David Barbour attests "to conceal the weakness of the financial position" and, as Mr. Chamberlain himself adds to evade the pressure of growing indebtedness by a defective system, or by departing from sound and business-like methods. This "instruction" anticipates and provokes a conflict. Considered with reference to its contemplated effects, it is violative of the spirit of the Constitution of the Colony, as repeatedly expressed in the "Conventions by the phrases "arrangement for giving the people of Jamaica a share in the future control of the finances,' "the wishes of the people," "the confidence of the entire community," "substantial power over finances, "a material share in the management of their own local and financial affairs," "assuring the people that all fiscal questions should be reserved as far as possible, for the consideration of their representatives," &c., &c. It is calculated to overthrow a fundamental principle, by denying to the taxpayers of Jamaica a reasonable and appreciable participation in the conduct of their own affairs, and it will plunge the people into a condition of unrest and distress subversive of prosperous government. The measure is particularly aggravating also, in that it does not propose to deny the people of Jamaica something which they never had, but to deprive them of rights and privileges already acquired and enjoyed by them, and which have been exercised with as much discretion by them as by any other people possessing the same, or similar rights and privileges.

3. As to the fewness of the number of electors, who voted in the electoral districts of St. Mary and St. Elizabeth during the recent elections in comparison with the total number of electors in those parishes respectively (which has been urged as proof that the people do not value the franchise (paragraph 37 of the despatch)) the information on which the judgment contained in the despatch is based, besides being incorrect in fact, is misleading, in that it allowed and probably intended it to be inferred, that the comparative fewness of the votes polled on those occasions is attributable to the slight value placed on the franchise "by the community at large," rather than to the real causes which are (1) that the polling stations in all the electoral districts, except Kingston, are so distant apart as to make it burdensome for voters to get to the polls (2) that this burden is aggravated by the physical aspects of the country (3) that no law compels the collector of taxes to register the names of those who, by the payment of their taxes within the time prescribed acquire the right to exercise the franchise, it being an established fact that numbers go the polling stations only to find themselves deprived of a vote and (4) that no political organizations exist in this country as in Great Britain by which voters are urged and carried to the poll. As to the "results" of the elections that is a matter which concerns the electors and the people and no one else.

4. The suggestion of the Secretary of State for the Colonies (paragraph 30 of despatch) to reduce the education vote, under any known or probable circumstances, if carried into effect will work an amount of harm for which no prosperity in other directions will be able to compensate, and will create in the Colony a social danger, both present and future, against which no Legislative action can provide. This measure is inconsistent with the aim of advancing the people in the knowledge necessary to make them good and capable citizens of the empire, and is in accord only with a policy of establishing permanent Crown Government.

In view of all these grave facts, the Mayor and Council of Kingston as one of the Representative Institutions of the country humbly desire to emphasize this their protest against the execution of these "instructions" of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, which instruction is unjust and oppressive, are detrimental to the highest interests of the country, destructive of the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the people, and are calculated, in their operation to reduce the inhabitants of this ancient and loyal Colony to a level below that of free men and British subjects, a position of humiliation and hardship which the Mayor and Council repudiate for themselves, and which they deem it their duty to urge their countrymen to repudiate also.

And finally the Mayor and Council of Kingston humbly desire to protest against the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies' use of the first person singular of the personal pronoun throughout his despatch, and particularly in section 39 thereof, thereby imposing himself upon the people of this island as a Constitutional authority, which he is not, to the exclusion of Your Majesty or Your Majesty's Government..