the British Schools, Montevideo, Uruguay. Three scholars are in England at present and five in Montevideo. In addition to these, two children are being educated in England at their parents' expense and five in Montevideo. Total approved expenditure for 1969-70 was £66,284. There is one lending library in Stanley operated by the town council with a postal service designed to bring library facilities to residents outside Stanley. The Government has one hospital, situated in Stanley. It is modern and wellequipped, and has 32 beds for the treatment of medical, surgical, obstetric and tuberculosis cases. The Government medical department employs one senior medical officer, three medical officers (one of whom is in Stanley, one at Darwin in Lafonia and the third at Fox Bay, on West Falkland), two dental surgeons, a dental technician, a matron, three nursing sisters and up to six staff nurses. The Government air service is used extensively for medical transport to and from Stanley. The m.v. Forrest is also at the disposal of the Medical Department for use when the weather does not permit the use of the aircraft. Total approved expenditure on the medical department in 1969-70 was £56,898. The Government runs a broadcasting station at Stanley operating on 536 and 3,958 kc/s, with a power of 5kW and 500 watts respectively. In 1969 there were 711 radio licence holders; the Government also operates a wired broadcasting service in Stanley which in 1969 had 347 subscribers. There is also a Government wireless station on West Falkland to which most of the farms are linked by telephone. East Falkland has telephone facilities similar to those on the West. The Government operates international and inter-island radio-telephone services. Communication between the islands and the mainland of South America is maintained by the Falkland Islands Company's vessel, R.M.S. Darwin, which runs a mail and passenger service 12 times a year to Montevideo. Internal communications are maintained by sea with the Government-owned Forrest, the Darwin and a few small private vessels. There is also a small Governmentowned air service. Travellers also use horses or Land Rovers when moving between neighbouring settlements. The British Antarctic Survey Royal Research vessels call at South Georgia in the Dependencies during the southern summer. There are no roads except in Stanley, although unsurfaced tracks connect most settlements on the main East and West Islands and travel is possible by means of Land Rover or motor-cycles, depending on weather conditions. There is no inland waterway or rail service. Agriculture is limited to a very small acreage of oats grown for hay, while householders in Stanley and the Camp grow their own vegetables. There are no minerals and no manufacturing industries of note. The East and West Falklands are given over almost completely to sheep farming and the principal product is wool. The chief imports are provisions, alcoholic beverages, timber, clothing and hardware. Direct taxation is in the form of income tax, individuals paying a graduated tax ranging from 1s. in every £ of the first £100 of taxable income to 5s. 9d. in every £ exceeding £2,350. Companies pay a flat rate of 5s. 9d. in the £. A profits tax, levied at 4s. in the £ for incorporated bodies and 3s. for unincorporated bodies is payable in addition to income tax but is subject to a rebate or investment allowance of up to 50 per cent. Arrangements have been concluded with the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the United States of America for the avoidance of double taxation. There is no general customs tariff and import duties are confined to spirits, beer, tobacco and matches. The Falklands are said to have been discovered by Davis in 1592 and may have been sighted by Hawkins in 1594. On the other hand it is claimed by some historians that Vespucci sighted the Falklands in 1502. In 1764 de Bougainville established a small French settlement at Port Louis in the East Falkland which was handed over to Spain in 1767 on the payment of a sum said to have amounted to £24,000. In 1765 Captain Byron took possession of the West Falkland and left a small garrison at Port Egmont on Saunders Island, whence it was driven out by the Spaniards in 1770. This action on the part of Spain brought that country and Britain to the verge of war. The Spaniards restored the settlement to the British in 1771, but it was abandoned in 1774. The Spaniards also abandoned their settlement at Soledad (Port Louis) in the early nineteenth century. In 1828 the Buenos Aires Government established a settlement at Soledad which was destroyed in 1831 by the U.S. warship Lexington as a reprisal for interference with American sealers. In 1833 the occupation of the islands was resumed by the British Government. In 1841 a civil Lieutenant-Governor was appointed, who took over the following year from the naval officer then in charge of the islands. In 1843 an Act of Parliament placed the civil administration on a permanent footing and the Lieutenant-Governor's title was changed to Governor. In 1844, following a decision taken the previous year, the seat of government was removed from Port Louis to Port William, where the settlement was named Stanley. A grant-in-aid was appoved in 1841 and continued until 1880. A grant-in-aid for a mail service continued until 1884-85, since when the territory has been self-supporting. The development of the islands has been closely linked with the growth of the Falkland Islands Company, the largest landowner and trading company, formed in 1851. Of the Dependencies, South Georgia was probably discovered by the London merchant de la Roche in 1675 and formally annexed in 1775 by Captain Cook, who in the same year discovered and took possession of the South Sandwich group. A British Antarctic Survey Base has been set up at King Edward Point, South Georgia, where there has been a Government Station since 1909 and the Base Commander is responsible for the local administration of the Island. LAND POLICY All the land in the Colony is held freehold and mostly by a very few large farms. Certain areas are Crown reserves. CONSTITUTION The Government is administered by a Governor aided by an Executive Council which is composed of two ex-officio members, two unofficial members appointed by the Governor and two elected members of the Legislative Council elected by that Council's elected and independent members, and a Legislative Council composed of two ex-officio members, two nominated independent members and four elected members. There is a town council for Stanley. A Court of Appeal was set up on 1st July 1965, to hear and determine appeals from the courts of the Falkland Islands and the Dependencies. HISTORICAL LIST OF GOVERNORS (From 1833 to 1842 the Settlement was in charge of a serving naval officer.) Cawkell, M. B. R., MALING, D. H. and CAWKELL, E. M. The Falkland FISHER, Margery and FISHER, J. Shackleton. Barrie, 1957. LANSING, A. Shackleton's Valiant Voyage. University of London Press, 1963. G GIBRALTAR IBRALTAR is a narrow peninsula running southwards from the south-west coast of Spain to which it is connected by a sandy isthmus about one mile long and half a mile wide. The name derives from the Arabic jabal Tariq (Tariq's mountain), after the Berber leader Tariq ibn Ziyad, who landed at or near Gibraltar in A.D. 711. The territory consists of a long, high mountain known as the Rock and a sandy plain to the north of it, raised only a few feet above sea level, called the North Front. The total area of the territory is two and a quarter square miles. Five miles across the bay to the west lies the Spanish port of Algeciras and 20 miles across the Straits, to the south, is Africa. The Mediterranean lies to the east. The distance to Britain is approximately 1,400 miles by sea. The top of the Rock is a sharp, knife-edge ridge extending for about a mile and a half from the north escarpment, which is completely inaccessible, and then sloping gradually to the south for about a mile, to terminate at the southern extremity, Europa Point, in perpendicular cliffs about a hundred feet high. Its greatest elevation is 1,396 feet. The whole upper length of the eastern face is inaccessible and the steep upper half of the western slopes is uninhabited. The two main sources of water supplies in Gibraltar are the water catchments on the east side of the rock face, which collect rainwater and supply the reservoirs hollowed out inside the Rock, and the wells on the sandy plain to the north. A new 225,000 g.p.d. distiller was erected during 1968 and is already in commission. The climate of Gibraltar is temperate. During the winter months the prevailing wind is from the west, often north-west and occasionally south-west. Snow or frost is extremely rare. The mean minimum and maximum temperatures during this period are 12°C (54°F) and 18°C (65°F) respectively. In summer a warm breeze laden with moisture, known as the "Levanter", strikes the eastern face of the Rock, condenses in the sky above and causes a cloud pall to hang over the city and bay. During this period the climate is humid and relaxing. The minimum and maximum temperatures in the summer are 13°C (55°F) and 29°C (85°F) respectively. The rainy season is spread over the period September to May; the average annual rainfall is 35 inches. The population of Gibraltar is European, of British, Genoese, Portuguese and Maltese extraction. During the long period of British possession of the Rock it has grown into a prosperous and homogeneous community with strong links with Britain. The first post-war census, taken in 1951, showed a total civilian population of 22,848, which by 1961 had increased to 24,075. The estimated civilian population at the end of 1969 was 28,407. The official language is English, though the population is bilingual in English and Spanish. The main religious denominations are Roman Catholic, Anglican and Jewish. The Roman Catholics make up 88 per cent of the population. The Church of England and Jewish communities represent 7.5 per cent and 3 per cent respectively. There are small communities of other religious denominations. There were 557 births and 244 deaths in 1969. Total expenditure on medical and public health services in 1969 was £386,852. The number of beds available in hospitals was 240 and there were 2,987 inpatient admissions during the year. Almost half the male wage-earners in Gibraltar are employed in one or other of the United Kingdom Departments (i.e. Ministries of Defence and Public Buildings and Works) or the Gibraltar Government. In the private sector the largest single source of employment is the construction industry. Commercial enterprises provide employment for a substantial number of clerical workers in shipping offices and trading agencies. Hotels, catering services, retail distributing trades and stevedoring are the other main sources of private employment. There are a number of small industrial concerns such as roasting and blending coffee, canning meat, assembling watches, and manufacturing ice, mineral water, and various items of clothing for local needs and export. * A new index was introduced as from January 1966. |