islands. Many species of birds are found, including 12 indigenous to the Caymans. Grand Cayman is divided into six districts: George Town with a population of 2,842, West Bay with a population of 2,433, Prospect (the population figure is included with George Town), Bodden Town with a population of 839, and North Side and East End with populations of 472 and 685 respectively. Cayman Brac is divided into four districts, Stake Bay, West End, Creek and Spot Bay. The total population of these is 1,508. Little Cayman is divided into two districts, South Town with a population of 24 and Jacksons which has no inhabitants.

The Caymans are cool from November to March, the prevailing winds being from the north and temperatures range from 65° to 75°F. From May to October the range of temperature is some 10° higher and during certain periods mosquitoes abound. The rainfall at George Town averages 50 inches a year. The hurricane season lasts from July to November and the islands have occasionally been hit, e.g. in 1876, 1903, 1909, 1917, 1932 and 1944. In October 1952 they narrowly escaped severe damage, catching the edge of a hurricane whose centre passed only 40 miles to the West of Grand Cayman. A meteorological station at George Town operated jointly with the Government of Cuba makes an important contribution to the Caribbean hurricane warning system. During 1956 a combined British and American weather station specifically for hurricane research was established on Grand Cayman.

The last population census in the Cayman Islands was carried out in 1960 and gave the following de jure population figures: Grand Cayman 7,025; Cayman Brac 1,463; Little Cayman 23. Of the total of 8,511 persons, 5,487 were of mixed racial origin, 1,564 were European and 1,460 of African descent. In 1965, 241 births and 63 deaths were registered. Since 1891 a census has been taken five times at intervals which varied from 9 to 20 years.

The official and spoken language of the Cayman Islands is English; the currency is Jamaican Decimal Currency introduced on 8 September 1969.

Education is compulsory for children between the ages of seven and 14. It is provided free in nine Government primary schools and there are five churchsponsored primary schools in which fees are charged.

There are three Government secondary schools (one grammar and two secondary modern). Selection for the grammar school is by examination and 40 children a year are admitted. There is one private secondary school. Enrolment in all schools in 1968 was 2,190, of whom 665 were receiving post-primary education. Recurrent expenditure in 1968 was £89,868.

The Medical Department consists of a Government hospital and dental clinic in George Town and six health centres. Four of these are in outlying districts of Grand Cayman and two in Cayman Brac. Expenditure on medical and health services during 1968 was £57,376. The hospital has accommodation for 34 patients. The Government Medical Officer was previously seconded from Jamaica but from mid-1965 he has been appointed directly by the Grand Cayman Government on recommendation from the Ministry of Overseas Development in Great Britain. A District Medical Officer, to whom a retainer from public funds is paid to relieve the Government Medical Officer, has been in practice in Grand Cayman since 1957 and a District Surgeon was appointed to Cayman Brac in 1963. In George Town there are also a doctor and a dentist engaged in private practice. Tropical diseases are virtually absent from the Caymans.

The chief industry next to the tourist industry is catching turtle which are brought to Grand Cayman before export. Some of the inhabitants engage in

Q*

other fishing pursuits and in agriculture, but the main basis of the economy at present is the fact that Caymanians, who are first-class seamen, readily find employment with overseas shipping companies. Remittances to their families enable a higher standard of living to be maintained than the resources of the islands could justify. Recently some manufacturers of garments, furniture and plastics have had their applications for pioneer status approved by the Legislative Assembly. Trade union legislation is in existence and one union, the Global Seaman's Union, has been registered. The Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce was set up in 1965 in Grand Cayman.

The Caymans are not self-supporting in foodstuffs. The production of food crops and cattle raising are restricted by the nature of the limestone soil. The main export products of importance are turtle and thatch rope. The manufacture of thatch rope was at one time the mainstay of the poorer people, but the industry is declining. Import figures for 1965-68 and particulars of the principal domestic exports are given below:

The trade of the Cayman Islands is mainly with the United States and Jamaica. There is a small co-operative society at West Bay and another at East End. Credit Unions have been established in George Town and West Bay.

George Town is a port of registry with a total of 17,248 gross tons on the register at the end of 1968. During that year 186 ships arrived in the port. The islands are not served by a steamship line, but a motor vessel service is maintained between Kingston, Tampa (Florida) and all three islands. There is also more or less regular communication with Central American ports by sailing and motor vessels.

Owen Roberts airfield in Grand Cayman is used by British West Indian Airways, Lineas Aereas Costarricenses, S.A. and Cayman Airways Ltd. There are regular air services between Grand Cayman and Kingston, Miami, San José (Costa Rica) and Panama City. A 3,250 ft airstrip has been contructed in Cayman Brac and a regular service by small aircraft is in operation. A private airstrip has also been constructed on Little Cayman capable of taking light aircraft.

Motorable roads connect all districts in Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac; there is a motorable track in Little Cayman.

In 1967 Cable and Wireless (W.I.) Ltd opened an overseas telephone link, using the Tropospheric Scatter System. The islands now have an excellent internal and overseas telephone service. The Government wireless stations at George Town, Grand Cayman, and Stake Bay, Cayman Brac have been closed. A Committee is considering the cost of establishing a small sound broadcasting and/or television station in the islands.

The Caymans have an allocation of £220,000 for the period 1st April 1968 to 31st March 1970 under the 1959 Colonial Development and Welfare Act. A road improvement programme was recently completed, linking the three main centres of population in Grand Cayman. Other more recently completed works include a new Government House and housing for Government officers. Projects planned include public buildings, road and harbour improvements and improvements of social services.

In recent years 15 hotels catering for tourists have been opened on Grand Cayman and one on Cayman Brac, and improved communications have greatly increased the tourist trade.

Government revenue in 1968 was £696,134 and expenditure was £597,664. There is no income tax, companies tax, estate or excise duty. The principal source of government revenue is from import duties and the sale of postage stamps.

A poll tax of £1 per adult male between the ages of 18 and 60 is collected annually. An ad valorem Customs duty of 20 per cent is levied on most imported commodities, with specific duties on alcoholic liquors and tobacco. There is a preferential tariff on certain Commonwealth goods.

Stamp duties are payable on receipts and specified instruments and documents. The rate varies from a penny on every £50 for receipts to five per cent on conveyances.

HISTORY

Cayman Brac and Little Cayman were sighted by Christopher Columbus on 10th May 1503 during his last voyage to the West Indies, though the islands are shown in approximately their correct position on maps published prior to this date. The Spaniards first called the group Las Tortugas because of the large numbers of turtles they saw in the surrounding waters, but by 1530 they were generally referred to as the Caimanas or Caymanes*. The Caymans were frequently visited by Spanish, English and French ships for revictualling but none of the powers laid claim to the islands or attempted to settle them until 1670,

Cayman derives from a Carib word covering crocodilians in general and there is sufficient evidence that the islands were so named by the Spaniards because of the large numbers of crocodiles (almost certainly the largely-marine crocodylus acutus) they found on shore. Dampier (Voyages and Discoveries, 1676) reported many crocodiles on Grand Cayman, which he carefully distinguished from alligators he had encountered elsewhere during his travels, noting that 'both kinds are called Caymanes by the Spaniards; therefore probably they reckon them for the same'. Incorrect identification probably accounts for later reports of 'alligators' on the islands (e.g. by Dr Hirst in 1910 and by observers during a hurricane in the 1930's). According to Dampier both crocodiles and alligators were commonly used as a source of fresh meat. Slaughter by ships' crews would account for the subsequent disappearance of crocodiles from the islands, which offered only limited areas of suitable cover. Specimens of crocodylus acutus have been taken on Little Cayman at least as recently as 1939 (vide Chapman Grant, The Herpetology of the Cayman Islands, Institute of Jamaica, 1940).

when Jamaica was ceded to the British Crown by the Treaty of Madrid and the Caymans similarly came under British rule. They were subsequently colonised mainly from Jamaica, though some English and Scottish seamen shipwrecked on the Cuban coast also made their way to the islands, which, owing to their remoteness were for long a favourite refuge for fugitives of one kind or another. By the end of the 18th century the ruthless exploitation of turtles had so far reduced their numbers that their virtual extermination in Cayman waters became inevitable, and the Caymanians, who had few other resources, were obliged to go further afield in search of new turtling grounds. They first turned to the uninhabited cays off Cuba but by 1839 their operations had been extended to the Nicaraguan and Hondurean coasts (vide Thomas Young: Narrative of a( Residence on the Mosquito Shore, During the Years 1839, 1840 and 1841). All Green Turtle exported from the Cayman Islands today are caught in these waters. The islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman were permanently settled only in 1833, when several families from Grand Cayman established themselves on Cayman Brac. They lived in isolation until 1850, when, then numbering 36, they built themselves a boat. As late as 1877 there was no administrative connection between Grand Cayman and the two lesser islands. In 1877 a Justice of the Peace was appointed in Cayman Brac but not until 1887 were any more formal links established.

The islands were favourably located for trade with passing shipping in the days of sail, and Caymanians achieved a considerable reputation as builders of small schooners; but as the 19th century advanced the islands became more and more cut off from the outside world, a state of affairs which lasted effectively until the 1940s and the era of air transportation. The result was extensive emigration to Nicaragua and the settlement of the Bay Islands (at one time British but now part of Honduras) and later emigration to Florida.

CONSTITUTION

When Jamaica achieved independence on 6th August 1962, the office of Governor of Jamaica, and consequently also of Governor of the Cayman Islands, disappeared. The 1959 Constitution was accordingly amended by Order in Council to provide for the assumption by the Administrator of most of the powers and responsibilities formerly exercised by the Governor. The Executive Council consists of two official and three unofficial members, with the Administrator presiding. The Legislative Assembly consists of the Administrator as President, two or three official members appointed by the Administrator, two or three nominated non-official members appointed by the Administrator and twelve members elected on a constituency basis by universal adult suffrage. The appointments of the official and nominated members to the Legislative Assembly are made in pursuance of instructions given to the Administrator by Her Majesty through a Secretary of State. The Assembly elects a Deputy President who presides in the absence of the Administrator. It also elects two of the three unofficial members of the Executive Council. During 1962, the 'Membership' system of Government was introduced, under which the three unofficial members of the Executive Council assume a special interest in a range of subjects and advise the Government in the subjects with which they are associated.

On the 6th August 1962, all Acts, Ordinances, rules, regulations, orders, and other instruments made under or having effect by virtue of the 1959 Order in Council had effect as if they had been made under or by virtue of the 1962

Order, e.g., the Jamaica Laws which had been applied to the Cayman Islands became in effect Laws of the Cayman Islands.

LAND POLICY

All land is individually owned. There is no restriction on alienation to nonnatives.

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

President: The Administrator

Appointed Members: 2-3 official; 2-3 nominated

Elected Members: 12 representing six electoral districts and elected triennially

BILLMYER, J. H. S. The Cayman Islands. Geographical Review, Vol. 36,
No. 1, 1946.

CARR, A. The Windward Road. Robert Hale, 1957.

DOUGLAS, A. J. A. The Cayman Islands. Geographical Journal, Vol. 95,
No. 2, February 1940.

HIRST, G. S. S. Notes on the History of the Cayman Islands. Jamaica, 1910.

FALKLAND ISLANDS AND DEPENDENCIES

T

HE Falkland Islands are situated in the South Atlantic and lie some 480 miles north-east of Cape Horn. The numerous islands of which they are composed cover 4,700 square miles. The Dependencies now consist only of South Georgia, 800 miles east-south-east of the Falklands, and the South Sandwich Group, some 470 miles south-east of South Georgia. Those territories south of latitude 60° S. which were formerly part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies, namely the South Orkney Islands, the South Shetland Islands, and the Antarctic Peninsula together with the sector of the Antarctic continent lying between longitudes 20° W. and 80° W. were constituted a separate