benefited little. The Government managed to pay its debt amounting to 43,786, but crime increased, and sickness became very prevalent. The cessation of the trade was marked, however, by hardly any disturbance; there were no local failures, and in a few months the steamers and their crews departed, and New Providence subsided into its usual state of quietude. This, however, was not fated to last long, for in October 1866 a most violent hurricane passed over the island, injuring the orchards, destroying the fruit-trees, and damaging the sponges, which had proved hitherto a source of profit. The hurricane, too, was followed by repeated droughts, and the inhabitants of the out-islands were reduced to indigence and want. There was an increase, however, in the production of salt. The exports as a whole fell off. Those of native produce, which in 1866 had been 77,604, were reduced in 1867 to 71,117, jind the remaining exports of 1866, amounting to 184,372, were, in 186 7, 156,131. The depression has continued almost to the present time (1875). The public debt paid off during the days of the blockade-running swelled again to a sum of 54,161, 13s. 2d., and the revenue until very lately was steadily on the decline. It was 47,530 in 1870, while the expenditure was 48,598, and in 1872 there was a further decrease of revenue to 37,574, with an expenditure of 39,000. In 1873 there was, however, an improvement. The revenue rose to 44,053, the ex penditure being only 42,737. The improvement in the finances is due principally, it would seem, to the readjust ment of the customs duties. In a recent Blue Book it is stated that the Government in 1873 increased the duties on ale, brandy, gin, rum, and whisky by 50 per cent,; on cigars and tobacco, by 100 per cent.; and on wine by 200 per cent. As regards other articles the Assembly at the same time relieved the general consumer by reducing the 25 per cent, ad valorem duties to 15 per cent. They abolished the export duty on vessels in distress, and they reduced the tonnage and wharfage dues. They also abolished a licence fee, payable hitherto by the men employed as wreckers, and they repealed a special income- tax leried upon public officers. The last colonial report expresses a hope and a belief that the sound financial con dition to which the colony has been restored will continue. The hope, however, hardly seems justified at present by the commercial progress of the Bahamas. In 1870 the imports were of the value of 283,970. In 1872 they had fallen to 201,051, and in 1873 they had increased to 226,306. In like manner the exports of 1873 con trasted favourably with those of 1872, having increased from 136,224 to 156,613. But the increase in exports is due to the development of trade in articles, such as pine apples andoranges, the production of which is uncertain, since a season s crop may perish in a hurricane. The sponge trade is not so prosperous as it should be, the Spanish authori ties, it appears, interfering with the spongers working on the reefs near Cuba; while the excessive duty levied in the United States on salt has almost paralysed the salt-making trade of the Bahamas. The total number of pine-apples exported to the United States and England in 1873 was 422,994 dozen, valued at 38,767. To this must be added the tinned fruit, a branch of industry introduced in 1872. Pine-apples in tins were exported in the follow ing year to the number of 69,165 dozen, valued at 13,018, and cases of pine-apples from the same establish ment to the value of 1712. The exportation of other fruit was of oranges, 2,252,000, valued at 3822; of Bananas, 7172 bunches, valued at 346 ; and about 700 worth of grape-fruit, shaddocks, lemons, limes, and melons. One great and profitable business at the Bahamas has decreased, and is not likely to flourish again. There has been of late years a marked diminution in the number of marine casualties, which in past times threw into the ports of the colony a large amount of valuable property, of which a great part was frequently exported. The erection of lighthouses, the diversion of trade from the southern ports of America, and the increased use of steam, have all tended to this decline of the wreckers trade, and it is said that the people of Harbour Island, at one time the great stronghold of the wreckers, have now all turned their attention to the cultivation of pine-apples. In 1864 the number of wrecks reported was, including complete
and partial, 67, while in 1871 it was but 39.The colony is divided into 13 parishes, although the division is now used for civil purposes only. An Act to amend the ecclesiastical laws of the colony was assented to on the 1st of June 1869, and confirmed on the 7th of October 1869, and the Church of England at the Bahamas disestablished. The population of the islands taken at the census of 1871 was 39,162 (being an increase in the decennial period since 1861 of 3875), of whom 19,349 were males, and 19,813 females. With regard to race, it may be said that the native and coloured inhabitants now enormously outnumber the white colonists. The last return showing the varieties of race was published in 1826 ; the population was 16,033, of whom 45S8 were white, 2259 coloured, and 9186 black; since then the proportion of coloured and black to white has increased. The health of the colony has been improving of late years ; the death-rate of 1872 was only 17 9 in 1000. The total births were 1475 against 704 deaths. The climate of the Bahamas has always borne a reputation for salubrity. The mean of a series of daily observations of temperature for 10 years is as follows:—
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Height of Thermometer in Degrees Fahr. at 9 A.M. Max. Mcd. Jlln January 75 70 66 February 76 71 06 March 78 72 06 April 81 75 68 May 81 73 71 June 88 81 74 July 88 82 75 August 88 81 75 September 86 81 75 October 82 77 November 79 74 70 December 77 73 69
The rainfall is heavy from May to October. During the winter months it is small, and from the month of Novem ber up to April the climate of New Providence is most agreeable. Advantage has been taken of this for many years by the inhabitants of the mainland of America, who can escape by a four days voyage from the icy winter of New York to the perpetual summer of the Bahamas. New Providence has gained a name as a resort for the consumptive, and perhaps justly so far as the Anglo-Saxon race is concerned, but the Africans and coloured races suffer greatly from diseases of the lungs, and the black troops stationed at Nassau have always been notorious for the proportion of men invalided from con sumptive disease. The principal religious denominations are the Wesleyan, Baptist, Church of England, and Presbyterian. The following figures represent approxi mately the number of persons generally attending the churches and chapels of the several denominations : Wesleyan, 7370; Baptist, 7971; Church of England, 4250; Presbyterian, 300. There is no Roman Catholic place of worship in the islands, and the members of that church are very few in number. The constitution of the Bahamas consists of a governor, aided by an executive
council of 9 members, a legislative council of 9 members,
