bags peas, 153 hogsheads tobacco, 578,379 feet white pine lumber, 21,450 feet pitch pine, 17,593 belts shooks, 45,000 staves, 9,500 cypress and 25,000 cedar shingles, 69 horses, and 1,117 mules.

The number of American vessels arriving during the year has been 57, being a decrease from the previous year of 31: this may be accounted for, partly, from the fears entertained of privateering during the early part of the season, and partly from the difficulty afterwards experienced in obtaining American vessels suitable for the trade, such vessels being chartered for government uses. The number of foreign vessels arriving from ports in the United States during the year has been 26, making a total of 83 American cargoes, being about the same as on previous years.

A statement of American imports from the year 1858 to 1862, inclusive, is given in enclosure No. 2.

Notwithstanding the disturbances that vexed commerce and the many difficulties under which the business community of Trinidad were laboring, the colonial government in the month of March enforced an unpopular income tax, in addition to the taxation previously imposed, which, according to official statements recently published, amounted £2 6s. 6d. or $11 16 American currency per head. Now, considering that a large proportion of the population consists of negroes, coolies, and Chinese, who represent no wealth, it will appear that the burden of this taxation falls on a comparative few. From the Royal Gazette, of October 8, 1862, a copy of which is enclosed, you will find that each hogshead of sugar, or its equivalent in produce, pays a tax of £3 10s. 6d. or $16 82; and as, during the past season, sugar was sold as low as £10 per hogshead, the government claim amounted to about one-third of the total value, leaving only two-thirds to repay the planter for the cost of production and shipment.

Report on the cocoa crop of Trinidad for the year ending September 30, 1862.

The cocoa crop of Trinidad for the year 1862, which amounts to 3,875,753 pounds, shipped previous to the 30th September, falls short of the crop of the previous year by nearly 3,500,000 pounds. This is partly accounted for by the fact that last year's yield was far in excess of previous years, and that the season just closed was too dry for cocoa growing. It is also asserted by merchants in this trade that in Trinidad the cocoa tree yields more abundantly on alternate years. This would seem indicated from the present thrifty condi tion of the estates, which promise large returns during the coming season. Prices have advanced from $9 per fanega of 110 pounds, in the early part of the season, to $11 and $11 50 by last quotations. The production of cocoa, requiring but little expenditure for labor and estate supplies during the growing season, gives only a limited trade to the merchants of the towns, and hence the fluctuations of the cocoa market do not influence general business in the same manner as the changes in the price of sugar.

299

3,046

208

3,593

41,654

3,274

7,066

Comparative statement of produce exported at Trinidad from January 1, 1859, to September 30, 1862.

In accordance with instructions contained in circular No. 17, a few days ago I called the attention of his excellency the governor of Trinidad to the twentysecond section of the act of Congress approved July 14, 1862, whereby "the privilege of purchasing supplies from the public warehouses duty free is extended to the vessels-of-war of any nation, in ports of the United States, which may reciprocate the same to the vessels-of-war of the United States in its ports."

In reply his excellency stated "that by the local laws of Trinidad the ships of all nations, whether they be the vessels-of-war or of the mercantile marine service, can purchase supplies out of bond duty free."

NOVEMBER 11, 1862.

As it is generally understood that our government is disposed to encourage the emigration of free colored persons from the United States, with a view to their settlement in countries adapted by climate to their constitution and habits, where their labor may meet with suitable reward, I beg leave, at the instance of influential merchants concerned in the planting interests of this island, to ask your attention to the pressing want that has existed for many years in this colony for such a class of agricultural laborers. Since the days of emancipation this demand has been steadily increasing. Although, out of an area of 2,012 square miles, or 1,287,600 acres, only 53,000 acres are under cultivation, yet it has only been by strenuous efforts on the part of the planters, aided by immigration, conducted at great expense under the auspices of the colonial government, that the estates already occupied have been prevented from ruin. With such a scarcity of population no attempts can be made to extend the bounds of the estates by bringing under cultivation the adjacent territory, which, from its fertility of soil, promises rich returns. At present over a million of acres, covered with virgin forests and abounding in woods valuable to trade, remain unappropriated.

Government, at an early date, sought to supply this urgent demand by introducing immigrants from the East Indies; and by the census of 1861, 13,488 coolies and 461 Chinese were residents within the colony. Most of these are laboring on the estates, under indentures, in accordance with the regulations of ordinance No. 16, of August 1, 1862, a copy of which is enclosed. During the past year there were introduced 1,991 immigrants, consisting of 1,541 coolies and 450 Chinese, at an expense to the colony of not less than £40,000 sterling. Recently, the attention of those engaged in the planting interests has been awakened to the proposed emigration of colored persons from the United States, and a hope is entertained that a supply of immigrants may be obtained from this source, in the event that the United States government should encourage such emigration, or deem proper to remove beyond the limits of the United

States the emancipated slaves who now embarrass our armies or who may yet be made free by the enforcement of the proclamation of emancipation recently issued by the President. The governor of Trinidad has already been requested to correspond with the colonial secretary in London on this subject, and desire him to represent to the British minister at Washington the demand existing for such a laboring population in Trinidad.

A desire is also expressed by influential merchants interested in estates to know if, in the event of such an 'emigration being allowed, the United States government would permit a private agent, acting for respectable business houses of this island, to collect and ship such emigrants at such ports on the Atlantic coast as may be under the control of the United States, and may be hereafter designated a contract being previously made with each emigrant, binding him or her to a term of service not exceeding three years, with the privilege, if dissatisfied, of buying off the unexpired time at the end of one year, by the payment of a sum of money equal to the amount paid for the passage of such emigrant to Trinidad-the parties represented in this colony giving bonds to any person the United States government may designate, or to the agent general of immigrants acting under the colonial government, to furnish such laborers with a free passage to Trinidad, and on their arrival to supply constant employment, at the rate of wages paid unindentured laborers, and to provide, free of charge, suitable lodgings and provision grounds, and, when sick, suitable and sufficient medicines and nourishment, medical attendance, and hospital accommodation.

An ordinance enacted by the governor of Trinidad, with the advice and consent of the legislative council thereof, to amend and consolidate the laws with regard to immigration.

Be it enacted by his excellency the governor of Trinidad, with the advice and consent of the legislative council thereof, as follows: I. The several ordinances mentioned in the Schedule A to this ordinance shall be, and the same are hereby, repealed, save and except so far as regards any appointment of agent general of immigrants or other appointment made under the said ordinances or any of the same, and save also and except so far as regards all existing engagements to labor, and the payment of any duties now due and owing to her Majesty, and all fines and penalties incurred under the said ordinances or any of the same, all which engagements to labor may be enforced, and all which duties, fines and penalties shall and may be sued for and recovered in the same manner as if this ordinance had not been passed.

II. All entries heretofore made in the general register of immigrants by the agent general of immigrants shall be valid, and all engagements to labor, assignments of services and certificates heretofore made and granted, and all matters and things done heretofore under or by virtue of any or either of the said ordinances shall be and continue in force in the same manner as if this ordinance had not been passed.

III. Throughout this ordinance the following words and expressions shall have the meanings hereby assigned to them, if not inconsistent with the context or subject-matter, that is to say: words importing one number or one gender shall mean respectively both numbers and both genders; the expression "her Majesty" shall mean her Majesty, her heirs, and successors; the expression "agent general of immigrants" shall include any sub-agent of immigrants appointed or to be appointed by the governor; the expression "emigration agent" shall include any person appointed by the governor to act as emigration agent or sub-agent; the word "immigrant" shall mean all immigrants already introduced or who may hereafter be introduced into this colony at the expense of this colony or of the imperial government, or for whose introduction, although the same may be under private contract, the colony may hereafter pay bounty;

the expression "Indian immigrant" shall mean any immigrant who shall have been introduced from the British possessions in the East Indies; the word "indenture" shall include all contracts of service declared to be valid by this ordinance; the expression "indentured immigrant" shall mean any immigrant under such indenture who shall not have completed his industrial residence, or who, having completed his industrial residence, shall have been indentured for a further term of industrial residence; and the word "employer" shall mean the proprietor or manager or other person having the direction of or the chief authority upon any estate, plantation, or farm on which any immigrant shall be employed.

IV. The governor may, from time to time, by proclamation, name the ports or places from which immigration on bounty into this colony shall be permitted, and the rates of bounty payable on the immigrants, and the conditions under which such immigration may be carried on.

V. If any laborer arriving in this colony from Madeira, the Azores, the Canaries, or the Cape de Verd Islands, or from any part of Europe, or of the West Indies, or of the United States, or of the British provinces of North America, or from any port or place from which immigration on bounty shall have been permitted by such proclamation as aforesaid, shall, before his arrival, have contracted with any person to perform service in this colony, such contract shall, when approved and countersigned by the agent general of immigrants, and subject to such alterations as the said agent general may, with the consent of the parties, have made therein, be valid in this colony for the full period named in such contract, not exceeding three years; provided that, except as hereinafter mentioned, no such contract shall be so approved and countersigned unless the same shall purport to have been signed with the names or marks of the contracting parties, and attested by some notary public or British consul, or by some other person approved by or acting under the authority of her Majesty's government, who shall declare that the parties entered into it voluntarily and with a full understanding of its meaning, nor unless the agent general shall be satisfied that the immigration has been carried on in accordance with all existing regulations of the imperial and of the colonial government.

VI. All written contracts for the performance of any labor or service of agriculture in this colony which shall be made by or with the authority of the emigration agent in China with any Chinese immigrant shall be binding on the parties thereto for the period named therein, not exceeding the period of five years, to be computed from the day of the landing of such immigrant in this colony, and every such contract shall be signed with the names or marks of the contracting parties, or of persons lawfully acting on their behalf, and shall be attested by the emigration agent at the port of embarcation, who shall declare that the immigrants, parties to such contracts, signed the same voluntarily and with a due understanding of their effect, and every signature purporting to be the signature of any such emigration agent shall be held to be genuine, without any proof thereof; but every person disputing the genuineness of any such signature shall be at liberty to prove that such signature is not genuine, and every such contract shall conform to the following conditions, viz:

1st. Every such contract shall bind the immigrant to do the same proportionate quantity of work as may from time to time be allotted to the unindentured laborers working on the plantation on which he shall be employed, and for such work shall secure to the immigrant at his election either the same rate of wages as may from time to time be paid to such unindentured laborers, or else wages at the rate of four dollars per calendar month, with sufficient food.

2d. Every such contract shall bind the employer to furnish to the immigrant, free of charge, suitable lodging, and, when sick, suitable and sufficient medicines, and nourishment, medical attendance and hospital accommodation.

3d. Every such contract shall authorize the employer to deduct the sum of