THE KINGSTON DISASTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13391, 21 January 1907, Page 8

THE KINGSTON DISASTER.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE CITY.

BY IS. I'ILLEN-BUIiRY. A disaster of as yet unknown magnitude has fallen upon the present capital of the beautiful and historic island of Jamaica. Some 50 years since, for purposes of greater convenience, the seat of government was transferred from Spanish Town to Kingston, and latterly, since the growth of the banana trade and the general improvement of" the island resources, the poit has become the most important in the British West Indies. Approaching from the sea its position is unique, and it would be difficult to find a more charming panorama than that which presents itself to the gaze of the tourist as lie enters the noble harbour. On his right extends a long narrow peninsula, upon the extreme end of which stood the ancient city of Port Royal, that early rendezvous of dissolute, but adventurous buccaneers. It was destroyed in 1692 by a great earthquake. To-day the visitor to Jamaican shores notes the white surf breaking on the shores, the yellow sands bordered by tropical vegetation, over which lofty palm's wave in the breeze, and between their lofty stems he perceives the bright red roofs of Government buildings and barracks, for Port Royal has for many years been both a naval and military centre". In 1905. howevei, owing to new regulations. Commodore Fisher hauled down his Hag. the dockyard was closed, and as a naval depot Pott Royal lis no longer known. This tongue of land, extending seven miles in a south-eastetly I dilation, causes die harbour to be almost | land-locked, and alter parsing through the narrow entrance the visitor is stunk by the noble proportions ot the sheet of water thus protected from the Atlantic. There are no islands, as in the harbour of Auckland, but there is room and depth enough for a whole squadron of our warships. Steamers of 10.000 tons and over come daily alongside the extensive wharves, which, for the distance of a mile, extend along the shore, immediately leading into the heart of the city, and to its principal thoroughfares. To the east of the city lagoons and mangroves skirt the harbour, and here alligators are to be found, but the Englishman who knows Jamaica is wary in approaching the swamps, especially those at the months of the rivers which empty themselves into the. harbour, the Rio Coble and the Rio Grande, for here to-day, as in times past, in the rotting dank tropical vegetation, where mosquitoes and tiles abound, is in truth the "white man's grave.'" The harbour of Kingston is perhaps, from a historical point of view, the most noteworthy in our colonial dependencies. A couple of centuries ago, before the conquest of India, it was. outside the British water.-, the scene of our greatest mercantile and naval enterprise, here many of our naval heroes were trained. Nelson commanded the British warships at Port Royal, and here, in 1782. Lord Rodney, with flying pennons, amid general rejoicing, brought his victorious fleet and the spoils of victory, having defeated the combined fleets of Spain and France oft' the highlands of Dominica. The town of Kingston, and especially that part which has been burnt, is not lovely, and since it is an ill-wind which does not blow good to somebody, it may subsequently, when the shock of this disastrous earthquake is over, be confessed by some of us ,vho know Kingston that the destruction has been a blessing in disguise. The streets of Kingston are like those of an American citv. all running at right angles to each i other. Harbour-street, parallel with the wharves, and separated from them a distance of 100 yds. is the principal street of the city, where are to be found the large and important shops, warehouses, and the chief public buildings, such as the post office, the banks, the chief hotel, the club, and a hall used for Government and municipal purposes. About halt-a-inile from the centre of this thoroughfare, passing up King-street, we approach the public gardens, opposite stands the parish church, a, large arid commodious structure lately repaired, and capable of holding some 2000 persons. Archdeacon Donner is the rector of Kingston, and he and the vicar of St. George's Chinch, situated also within the area of destruction, are two well-known and influential members of the community; both, of these gentlemen officiate Sunday after Sunday to crowded congregations. both have lived in the island between .50 and 40 year.*, and have had much experience and success in their ministrations to the coloured populace. The black people of Jamaica, descendants of the slaves who were emancinated in 1851-8. are incomparably superior to their brethren in the United States. They are peaceful, lawabiding, and in * some parts are very fairly industrious: hut the blacks in the country are distinctly in advance, morallv speaking, of those which inhabit the towns, and in Kingston more than in anv other island town, naturally because of its shipping and mercantile importance, the worst, in the island are to he found living thickly huddled together in the narrowstreets which intersect and divide the larger thoroughfares. Many of the lookI erics where these congregate and whirl) are the despair of the well-wishers of the race, are within the range of destruction, • and for a time their former denizens may be a cause of some solicitude to the powers that rule, but to those who know the is- : land and its people no danger of lawless- | ness or revolt is to be apprehended —the white man's influence is paramount in Jamaica, a, fact which may he evidenced in a. consideration of its population, which is I slightly under 800.000. Of that number there are 14.000 whites only, some 15.000 j Asiatics, introduced at different periods for field labour after the emancipation of ! the slave-. The coloured, or half-caste, ele- I ment, as distinct from the black, is as one ! to six. The religious, excitable character j of the negro will no doubt make him regard with superstitious awe the dealings of the Almighty in this appalling disaster, but his besetting sin is that of pilfering, as the criminal statistics show, and there will be in this time of trial and scarcity great temptations to loot the half-destroy-ed shops. Since the time of General Eyre, who. m 1860, quelled a disturbance which threatened to assume big proportions, there has been no trouble worth speaking of with the blacks. The country roads of the island, as well as the city thoroughfares, are as safe as those of England. During the last few years one murder a year is recorded by the police authorities, and that has as often been committed by the Asiatics as by the negroes. Thus iii ii time of great distress and social upheaval we may be comforted in knowing that our white brethren in this remote colony are not likely to suffer violence to any gieat degree, if at all. however overwhelmingly outnumbered they are by the negro population. The black is loyal to Great Britain. He learns from newspapers and many sources how his fellow i,-> treated by Americans, and he has no desire to exchange the Union Jack for the Stars and Stripes, even if he at times indulges in visionary ideas of a, future independence, and pleaches the gospel of a Jamaica for the Jamaicans. the two principal hotels in Kingston are Myrtle Rank, in Harbour-street, and Constant Spring, which has been burnt. The latter is situated at the foot of the hills which surround Kingston, and at a distance of six miles., hut a good elect lie catservice connects it with Harbour-street and along this principal highway many bungalows and pretty residences, in well-kept gardens, are to be seen. Roth the abovementioned hotels belong to the ElderDempster Company, whose steamships toitnightly ply between Bristol and Kingston. At this time, of year, thousands of visitors throng the hotels, mostly Americans, for Jamaica is a Riviera to the snowbehind Sew Yorkers and Bostonites, the distance being only four days' steaming from either Boston, New York, or Philadelphia. Tin* Americans have large interests in the banana trade of the island, but their principal centre is Pert Anionic, mi the north of the island, connected by rail with Kingston. Jamaica was visited by a disastrous cyclone in 1903, from which setback to her commercial activity she was jus! recuperating when once more the hand of mi-fortune and devastation has fallen upon her, but as the agricultural products will not be affected by the earthquake. there seems no reason to believe that in a year or two all traces of this, her second disaster in the space of three vears, will not. speedily be effaced, and "prosperity once more visit the colony.