islands are composed of corraline limestone and are usually long and narrow, each rising from the shore to a low ridge, beyond which lie lagoons and swamps. The highest point, in Cat Island, is 206 feet above sea level, but Grand Bahama barely reaches 40 feet. Since the rock is permeable there are no streams and the water supply has to be derived either from shallow wells or from rainwater collected in catchments and cisterns. The shallow soils found in small pockets in the limestone rock afford limited cultivation and suit a variety of sub-tropical vegetables and fruit.

The warm waters of the Gulf Stream render the winter climate agreeably mild and frosts are never experienced. Temperatures during this season average 21°C (70°F), and summer temperatures, although modified by the sea, vary between 27° and 32°C (80° and 90°F). Most of the rain falls in May, June, September and October and thunderstorms are frequent during the summer months. The total rainfall is comparatively slight, averaging 44 inches per annum, but it varies between the islands from 30 to 60 inches.

Censuses are taken every ten years and the population at the last census (1970) was 168,812. A large proportion, some 60 per cent (101,503), of this population resides in New Providence, and Freeport, the country's second largest town, in Grand Bahama has a population exceeding 15,000. The average population density of the islands is only 31 persons per square mile. Abaco, Andros, Eleuthera, Exuma and Cays, Harbour Island and Spanish Wells, Long Island all have more than 3,200 inhabitants. On 31st December, 1972 the population was estimated at 189,000. The birth-rate in 1971 was 28.8 per 1,000 and the death-rate 6.3 per 1,000. Religion is predominantly Christian, the main denominations being Baptist, Anglican and Roman Catholic. English is the official and spoken language.

The climate is healthy and tropical diseases are absent. Preventive needs are met by child welfare and ante-natal clinics. Immunisation against smallpox, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and poliomyelitis is given in all these clinics, and is a requirement for primary school entry. The Ministry of Health, through the Department of Environmental Sanitation, also has health inspectors to advise on hygiene and sanitation. Curative needs are met by the Princess Margaret Hospital on New Providence which has 450 beds, full supporting services and full-time consultant specialists in medicine, surgery, anaesthesia, paediatrics, chest diseases, pathology, radiology, obstetrics, gynaecology and ophthalmology. Serious cases from the Family Islands are brought into this hospital by air. A mental hospital and rehabilitation unit of 230 beds and a geriatric hospital of 140 beds are also situated on New Providence. Altogether there are 13 medical officers on the Family Islands and some 50 clinics where there is not a resident doctor; doctors from New Providence visit the clinics regularly on a Flying Doctor Service. On five Family Islands there are Government run cottage hospitals, and on Grand Bahama there is a hospital under Government control. Under the Education Act 1968, education is compulsory and free between the ages of 5 and 14. There are 212 Primary and Secondary Schools, two teachertraining colleges and one technical school. There is a Department of Extramural Studies of the University of the West Indies in Nassau. There are about 400 students studying overseas on Government scholarships. There is one reformatory school for boys under the Industrial School Act and one for girls. Literacy is estimated to be 90 per cent. There are 5 public libraries in Nassau and 36 village libraries on the Family Islands.

The main seaports are Nassau (New Providence), Freeport (Grand Bahama) and Matthew Town (Inagua). The total number of vessels entered in 1971, excluding yachts and sail craft, was 6,199 representing an estimated increase of 1,879 vessels in the overall figures for 1970. Nassau has direct passenger-cargo connections with the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the West Indies and South America. The country is served by Saguenay Shipping Ltd., the Royal Mail Line, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, the Royal Netherlands Steamship Company and a number of other lines.

The principal airports are situated at Nassau, 12 miles from the town (runway 11,000 feet) and Freeport, Grand Bahama (runway 8,300 feet) from which international services are operated; and at West End, Grand Bahama (runway 8,000 feet) and Rock Sound, Eleuthera. There are 55 smaller airports and landing strips designed to facilitate services between the family Islands. This service is operated by Bahamasair, the national flag-carrier. There are more than 260 miles of roads on New Providence maintained by the Ministry of Works, 125 miles of asphalt roads on Eleuthera, and 130 on Grand Bahama. Roads are under construction on Andros Island and on most of the smaller islands where previously only rough tracks existed. There are more than 550 miles of paved roads in other Family Islands. There is a considerable mileage of privately owned and maintained roads, mainly on New Providence. There are no railways in the territory.

The headquarters of the Government-owned broadcasting service, operated by the Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas, is located in Nassau. It operates on two frequencies of 1,240 and 1,540 kc/s and its call signs are Radio New Providence and Radio Bahamas respectively. Radio Bahamas' Northern Service on Grand Bahama is testing on a frequency of 1,060 kc/s. Commercial broadcasting began in 1950, although a broadcasting station has existed since 1936. There is no direct television but a Community Antenna Television system is operated in Grand Bahama. New Providence viewers are able to receive television direct from Florida.

The principal crops include fresh vegetables, tomatoes, pineapples, bananas, citrus fruits, avocados, mangos, egg-plant, squash and sisal. The quality of local stocks of pigs and sheep is being improved by the importation of pure-bred animals, and the Government is encouraging the establishment of beef and dairy herds.

Total exports for the preceding years are as follows:

Nearly all the territory's requirements are imported and include foodstuffs, meat, hardware, building materials, clothing, machinery and vehicles, fuel, oil and manufactured goods of a wide variety especially for the tourist industry. The c.i.f. value of imports including imports of crude petrol in recent years are as follows:

There are four canning plants mainly engaged in canning tomatoes and pineapple. Most of the output is consumed locally. The exploitation of forest products is confined to the yellow pine* forests on Andros and Abaco. Straw products are manufactured as cottage industries and the raw material for this work is chiefly obtained from palm fronds and sisal fibre.

Electricity production in recent years was (million kWh): 1963, 113; 1968, 248; 1969, 273; 1970, 289; 1971, 320.

Apart from a tax on real property of 0.5 per cent on the assessed market value of the land and structure there is no direct taxation or death or estate duties. Government revenue is derived chiefly from import duties, excise duty, casino tax, airport departure tax and landing fees, stamp duties, post office services, vehicle tax, company registration fees, bank and trust company fees, immigration fees, hotel occupancy fees, wharf and port dues and other miscellaneous fees and charges. The following figures show details of recurrent revenue and expenditure:

The amount of Public Debt outstanding at 31st December 1971 was B$59,254,673 and B$33,862,646 contingent liability in respect of two Statutory Corporations.

*pinus caribaea.

The prosperity of the Bahamas depends very largely on the tourist industry, which now accounts for 60 per cent of the Government's revenue and for half the country's foreign exchange earnings. The industry has developed rapidly since the late 1940s as the following figures show:

In 1972 the Bahamas received nearly 1.5 million visitors, more than any country in the Caribbean and more than double the number in 1965. The main tourist centres are Nassau, which received over 60 per cent of the visitors in 1972, and Freeport on Grand Bahama, but there has also been considerable success in opening up the Family Islands to tourism.

The absence of any direct taxation, coupled with economic and political stability, has attracted considerable foreign investment and much of this has been used to finance the hotel and resort development, together with related public utilities and communications, essential for a modern tourist industry.

These conditions have also enabled the Bahamas to become one of the world's leading financial centres, and international banking, including Eurodollar and Trust business, is now the second main industry. Over 300 banks and trust companies of one kind or another now operate in the country. The Bahamian dollar has a fixed parity with the US dollar and the rate of exchange, like many other currencies, fluctuates against the floating £ Sterling. In 1973 the Bahamas became the 123rd Member of the World Bank and the 126th Member of the International Monetary Fund.

Strenuous measures are being taken to develop the country's agricultural, fishery and mineral resources and, thereby, to broaden its economic base. To improve agriculture, which is mainly concerned with producing fresh vegetables, fruits and meat and dairy produce for a rapidly expanding domestic market, some 450,000 acres of high agricultural potential have been reserved exclusively for farming purposes, and a concerted effort is being made to improve the circumstances of the small farmer. Active measures are also being taken to conserve and develop the country's 800,000 acres of forest and to create, with United Nations assistance, a modern fishing industry. Aragonite, of which there are large reserves, limestone and salt comprise the country's known mineral wealth and all are being commercially exploited.

Foreign investment has been particularly attracted to the Freeport development on Grand Bahama which began in 1955 with an agreement between the Bahamas Government and a private company financed by American, Canadian and British capital; and which since its inception has benefited from the provision of additional incentives in the form of guaranteed tax holidays and the duty-free import of construction materials and operating equipment (since 1970 similar

*It was decided in 1971 that the transit element should be deducted from the number of arrivals to give a more exact figure for the number of visitors to the Bahamas. This was to comply with the regulations of the International Union of Travel Organisations.

incentives have been made available throughout the Family Islands of the Bahamas). There are modern port and bunkering facilities at Freeport which are among the best in the world and an international airport, an international holiday resort and a commercial centre. It is also the country's leading industrial centre, with large cement and pharmaceutical plants and a major oil refinery, which is now producing a daily crude oil throughput of some 500,000 barrels. Foreign investment and the considerable invisible receipts from the tourist industry have given the Bahamas a favourable overall balance of payments, which has enabled the country to finance much of its development from revenue. Substantial land sales continue in many of the Family Islands for the erection of holiday and residential homes and for the creation of tourist facilities on a considerable scale.

HISTORY

San Salvador, so called by Columbus, or Watling's Island, the Amerindian name being Guanahani, one of the islands composing the Bahama chain, was the first land discovered by him on his voyage in 1492. A few years later all the Carib inhabitants were transported to work in the Cuba mines. It does not appear that the Spaniards had any settlements on any of the islands of this group at any time. Early in the 17th century the islands were well known to the settlers of Bermuda and the Carolinas. They were included in the Royal Grant of Sir Robert Heath, the Attorney-General of England, of the 30th October 1629. By 1640 the islands had become a well-known place of resort by the inhabitants of Bermuda, and on the 9th July 1647 the Company of Eleutherian Adventurers was formed in London for the purpose of making an organised attempt at a systematic colonisation and development of the islands. William Sayle, a former Governor of Bermuda, was the moving spirit of this venture, and associated with him were a number of influential city merchants and Members of Parliament. On the 31st August 1649, on the petition of Sayle and others, Parliament passed 'An Act for the Adventurers for the Eleutherian Islands' which constituted Sayle and his associates the 'Proprietors of the Islands'. Notwithstanding the Royal Grant to Heath in 1629 and the Cromwellian Act of 1649, Charles II, on 1st November 1670, granted the islands to six of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, namely, the Duke of Albermarle, the Earl of Craven, Lord Berkley, Lord Ashley, Sir George Carteret and Sir Peter Colleton. Before the Royal Grant of 1670 the inhabitants of the islands had organised the settlement, instituted a form of government which included an elective House of Assembly, and chosen Captain John Wentworth as their Governor. Wentworth applied to and received commissions from the Governors of Jamaica. The Lords Proprietors appointed Hugh Wentworth as their first Governor on 24th April 1671, but he did not take up the appointment. They then confirmed in office John Wentworth, the popularly elected Governor, on the 26th December 1671. A regular system of government was established including a parliament, the lower house of which was elective, and this was continued with several breaks until the civil and military government of the islands was resumed by the Crown on the surrender of their rights by the Lords Proprietors on the 28th October 1717. Thirteen Proprietary Governors were appointed between 1671 and 1715. The settlement on New Providence was sacked by the Spaniards on several occasions between 1680 and 1684. In 1684 nearly all the inhabitants were driven away,

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