CO885(3-4) — Page 116

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

4PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

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surprised when I told him, in familiar langnage, that he, having at last obtained privately a copy of his law, might very well have overlooked the uncour- teous conduct of the Representatives.

I am thoroughly persuaded that a little good- humoured and impartial mediation would have removed all difficulty: but that not being forth- coming, both parties wrapped themselves in silent distrust; and the whole matter dropped for about a year and a half, until Sir John Hindmarsh, shortly before his departure in 1856, suddenly revived the subject of school reform, by urging and approving the immediate appointment of a School Committee consisting of nine members, i.e., two Councillors, three Elders, two Wardsmen, and the two Churchwardens, of whose subsequent proceed- ings I will only say that they show no endeavour a anything like conciliation.

It would answer no good purpose to examine the mutual recriminations of the parties more minutely. The topics of their difference are miserably small points, which any impartial person might have easily adjusted to their mutual satisfaction. Both parties have, as I think, been testy and unbending. I have not heard one word whispered against Mr. Siemens' powerful party in his favour character, and he has a -above 400 out of 500 householders-although he belongs to a family which is not popular.

The Representatives have certainly most fully admitted to me their own laxity in omitting to take measures for collecting the school-dues, whereby both clergymen have, in fact, been deprived of more than a moiety of their income; a deprivation which, in the case of Mr. Siemens* (from whom I hear that Government have withdrawn his salary from the parliamentary vote), has reduced him to absolute destitution; and I have been told, in several quarters, that if it were not for the bread which is conveyed into his house by his adherents he and his family would be starving.

In further illustration of the absence of every vestige of authority to enforce the laws, it was men- tioned to me that a claim of the widow of a late

• Mr. Siemens' dues are in arrear to the extent of 1807.

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clergyman for her husband's share of the school-dues (2401.), was yet unpaid.

very

Mr. Petersen, the first clergyman, is cerely alarmed at the present state of things, and the more so, perhaps, as some movement is medi- tated against himself by the Siemens' party, who want to make out that he (Petersen) has never been duly elected by the inhabitants. I had much unre- served communication with him; but be is the slave of his timidity in everything that he says or does. He is afraid of being assassinated, and is equally apprehensive that the same fate may befall the Governor.

Notwithstanding this most painful state of things, Mr. Petersen could the school is going on as usual. account minutely for every child, and showed me a

list of 903 boys and girls; but as already observed, they do not attend as by law bound to do, and there are no means of enforcing that or any other law.

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Poor.

The Representatives have a sum of 5401. in hand, which is called the " Poor Fund.”

But no one will enter the poor-house; and the two or three desti- tute persons of the whole community prefer living

in rent-free cottages, where; with the sanction of the Commune, they receive some small casual relief from the Poor Fund.

Population.

A few words this subject. upon

At the capture of the island, in 1807, the popula-

tion consisted of 984 men and 1,049 women.

At present there are about 1,060 men and 1,125 females.

How to account for the smallness of the increase of 152 in fifty years, otherwise than by emigration,

I cannot, with all due deference to Von der Decken, imagine.

The present number of fishermen, 298, compared

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-K