Page 1 Advertisements Column 5

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1988, 25 January 1907, Page 1

THE KINGSTON DISASTER. AN ACCOUNT OK THE CITY. By E. Pullen-Burry. A disaster of as yet unknown magnitude has fallen upon tlio present capital of tlio beautiful and historic island of Jamaica. Some 50 years sinco, for purposes of greater convenience, tlio seat of Government was transferred from Spanish Town to Kingston, and latterly, sinco tlio growth of the banana trade and the general improvement of the island resources, the port lias become the most important in the British West Indies. . . " '•{; Approaching from tlio sea its position is unique, and it would be difficult to find a more charming panorama than that which presents itself to the gaze of the tourist as lie enters the noble harbour. On his right extends a long narrow peninsula, tipui tlio extreme end of which stood the ancient city of Port Royal, that early rendezvous of dissolute, but adventurous buccaneers It was destroyed in 16912 by a great earthquake. To-day the visitor to Jamaican shores notes the white surf breaking on tlio shores, the yellow sands bordered by tropical vegetation, over which lofty palms wave in the breeze, and .between their lofty stems he perceives the bright red roofs of Government buildings and barracks, for Port Royal lias for many years been both a naval and military centre. In 1905.',' however,, owing to new ,regulations; Oomniodoro Fisher hauled down ins flag, the dockyard was closed, and as a naval - depot Port Royal is no longer known. This tongue .of Tund.k extending seven''-miles in a south." easterly direction, causes tlio haiv hour to lie almost land-locked, and after pausing through the narrow entrance the visitor is struck by the noble proportions of the sheet of water thus protected from the Atlantic. There aro no islands, as in the harbour of Auckland, but there is room and depth enough for a whole squadron of our warships. Steamers of 10,000 tons and over come daily alongside the extensive wharves, which, for tlio distance of a mile, extend along the shore, immediately leading into .the heart of the city, md to its principal thoroughfares. To (lie east of the city lagoons and mangroves skirt the harbour, and here alligators are to lie found, but the Englishman who knows Jamaica ; s wary in approaching the swamps, especially those at the mouths of the rivers which empty themselves into the harbour, tlio Rio Cobre and the Rio Grande, for here to-day, as in Vimes past, in the rotting dank tropical vegetation, where mosquitoes and flies abound, is in truth “the white man’s grave” The harbour of Kingston is, perhaps,- from a historical point of view, the most notbwortliy in our colonial dependencies. A couple of centuries ago, before the -onouest of India, it was, outside the British waters, the scene of our greatest mercantile and naval enterprise, where many of our naval heroes were trained. Nelson commanded the British warships at Port Royal, and here, i r 1782, Lord Rodney, with flying pennons, amid general rejoicing, brought his victorious fleet and the spoils of victory, having defeated the combined fleets of Spain and France c tftho highlands of Dominica. Tlio town of Kingston, and especially that part which has been burnt, is not lovely, and sinco it is an ill-wind Which does not blow good to somebody, it may subsequently, when the shock of this disastrous earthquake is over, bo confessed by some of us •who know Kingston, that the destruction has been a blessing in disguise. The streots of Kingston are like those of an American city, all running at right angles to each other. Harbour strfefc, parallel with the wharves, and separated from them a distance of 100 yards, is the principal street of the city, where are to be found the laigo and important 1 shops, warehouses, and the chief public buildings, such as the post office.' the banks, the chief hotels, the club, and a hall used for Government and municipal purposes. About half-a-mile fiom the centre of this thoroughfare, passing tip King street, wo approach the public gardens, opposite stands the parish church, a largo and commodious structure lately repaired, and capable of holding some 2000 persons. Archdeacon Donner is the. rector of tlio parish, and he and the vicar of St. George’s Church, situated also within the area of destruction, are two well-known ‘ and influential members of the community; both of these gentlemen officiate Sunday after Sunday to crowded congregations, both have lived in the island between 30 and 40 years, and have lied much experience and success in their ministrations to the colored populace. The black people of Jamaica, descendants ■of tlio slaves who were emancipated in 1834-8, aro incomparably superior to tbeir brethren in the United States. They are peaceful, law-abiding, and in some parts are fairly industrious; hut the blacks in the country are distinctly in advance —morally speaking—of those which inhabit the towns, and in Kingston more than in any other island town, naturally, because of its shipping and mercantile importance, the worst in the island are to he found living thickly huddled together in the narrow streets which intersect and divide the larger thoroughfares. Many of the rookeries where these congregate and which are the despair of the wellwishers of the race, are within the range of destruction, and for a time their former denizens may be a cause of some solicitude to the powers that rule, but to those who know the island and its people no danger of lawlessness or revolt is to ho apprehended—the white man’s Influence is paramount in Jamaica, a fact which may b<- evidenced in a consideration of its population, which is slightly under 800,000. Of that number there are 14,000 whites only, some 15,000'Asiatics, introduced at different periods for field labor after the emancipation of the slaves. The colored, or halfcaste, element, as distinct from the black, is as one to six- The religious, excitable character of the negro will no doubt. make him regard with superstitious awe the dealings of the Almighty jn this appalling disaster, but his besetting sin is that of pilfering, as the criminal statistics show, and there will be in this time of scarcity and trial groat temptations ib loot the half-destroyed shops." Since the time of General Eyre, who, in iB6O, quelled n disturbance which threatened to assume big proportions, there lias been no troublt worth s{ taking of with the blacks. The country roads of the island, as well as the city thoroughfares, are as safe a 3 those of England, During the last few years one murder a year is recorded by the police authorities, and that has as often been committed by the Asiatics as by the negroes. Thus ii a time of great distress and social upheaval we may he comforted in knowing that our white brethren in tills remote colony are not likely to suffer violence to any great degree, if at all, however overwhelmingly outnumbered they are by the negro population The black is loyal to Great Tliitain. Me learns from newspapers and many sources how bis fellow is floated by Americans, and be has no desire to exchange the Union Jack for tlio Stars and Stripes, even he at times indulges in visionary ideas of a future independence, and preaches the gospel of a Jamaica for the Jamaicans.. The two principal hotels in Kingston are Myrtle Bank, in Harbour street, and Constant' Spring, which lias been burnt. Tlio latter is situated at the foot of the bills which surround Kingston, and at a distance of six miles,' but a good electric car sendee connects it with Harbour street and along this principal highway many bungalows and pretty residences, in well-kept gardens, are to be seen. Both the above-mentioned hotels belong to the Eldor-Dempstor Company, whose steamships fort nightly ply between Bristol and Kingston. At this time of year, thousands of visitors throng tlio hotels, mostly Americans, for Jamaica is a Reviera to the snow-bound New Yorkers and Bostonites, the distance being only four days’ steaming- from either Boston, New York, or Philadelphia. The Americans have large interests in the banana trade of the island, but tlieir principal centre is Port Antonie, on the north of the island, connected by rail with Kingston. Jamaica was visited by a disastrous cyclone in 1903, from which set-back to her commercial activity she was just recuperating when once more the hand of misfortune and devastation has fallen upon her, but as the agricultural products will not he affected by the aaithouake, there seems, no reason 1 1 believe that in a year or two all traces of this, her second disaster in the space of three years, will not