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 JAMAICA

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JAMAICA

he joined the Society of Jesus at the age of thirty- eight. He was a most zealous, self-denying, hard- working priest, an eloquent and persuasive preacher, and a cultured scholar; yet for years he taught the poor school for boys (St. Joseph's), until his health broke down. He died in 1S91. The number of Catholics in Jamaica in 1S72 did not exceed 601X); the greater portion of them lived in Kingston, where there were two churches. Seven chapels supplied the wants of the sparsely scattered rural Catholic population. There were about 400 cliildren, boys and girls, attend- ing the convent schools and St. Joseph's in the capital. In August, ISSO, a cyclone passed over the east end of the island, destroying nearly all the wharves in Kings- ton. The Catholic churches and schools were wrecked, but were soon replaced through the generosity of the faithful in England and the United States, and the efforts of Father Thomas Porter, S.J., vicar Apostolic from 1877 till ISSS. After some forty consecutive years of priestlj' labour. Father Joseph Dupont, S.J., died in 1887. To perpetuateliis memory, the citizens of Kingston, irrespective of creed or class, erected a mar- ble statue in the Parade Square of the city. The statue was overturned and broken by the earthquake of 1907.

Bishop Gordon. — Before his arrival in Jamaica, the Right Reverend Charles Gordon, S.J., D.D., who succeeded Father Porter as vicar Apostolic, had been consecrated Bishop of Thyatira in partibus infixielium. He set about supplying the most pressing needs of the mission. Efficient elementary schools were started. In 1891 Holy Trinity church was improved, a tower, the Lady chapel, a sacristy, and baptistery being added at a cost of 812,500. Finally a hall to afford recreation and instruction for Catholic men, and for the meetings of the church guilds and sodalities, was completed in 1905 and named " (jordon Hall " after its founder. The hall and the church were both destroyed by the earthquake of 1907. Dr. Ciordon also brought the Salesians into Jamaica, placing at their disposal a large property, Reading Pen, near Montego Bay, to be used for an agricultural college. In 1894 the care of the Jamaica mission was transferred to the Maryland-Xew York province of the Society, from the English province which had served it from the year 1855. In 1905 Father John Joseph Collins, S.J., was appointed administrator Apostolic of the vicari- ate, and in 1907 he was raised to the episcopacy as Bishop of .\ntiphellos in partibus infideliitm and Vicar Apostolic of Jamaica.

Education. — One of the first subjects to which the friends of emancipation turned their attention after the abolition of slavery was the education of the predial population of the West Indies. In Jamaica, however, there had been verj- little progress. The grant which had been made by the imperial Parlia- ment was discontinued in IS-l-l, and all that was done for elementary education in Jamaica was the grant of $15,000 per annum by the legislature for the next twenty years. A training college for educating teachers was established in 1870. In 18.50 some Spanish Jesuits, who had been banished from New- Granada by the Liberal revolutionary party, arrived at Kingston and opened what was called the Spanish College and what is now St. George's College, a school of higher education for boys of the middle and upper classes. Most of the refugee priests left Jamaica shortly afterwards for Guatemala, but the work they inaugurated was carried on by Father Simond, S.J. The college was closed aliout 1865, and opened again in 1S68. Many prominent men in the island of all denominations have been educated there. In 1870 it ceased to be a boarding establishment. On the coming of the .American Jesuits, the college was trans- ferred to Winchester Park, in the suburbs of Kingston.

Elementarj' education for Catholics had been left very much in abeyance up to Bishop Gordon's ar- rival in 1889. The convent primary school had not YIII — 18

more than 150 children, St. Joseph's school for boys not as many, and some half-dozen schools in various parts of the island, with a fluctuating attendance of under one hundred, were all that represented Catholic elementary education in Jamaica. The advent of the Sisters of Mercy from the parent-house, Bermondsey, London, in December, 1890, soon gave an additional impetus to Catholic education. Fifteen years later there were in all some two thousand children attend- ing the various schools of the Sisters of St. Francis, and considerably over one thousand in the schools of the Sisters of Mercy. In addition, there are two orphanages at the Con\ent of Mercy, as well as two industrial schools (under CJovernment), and a high school for girls. A house of mercy has also been established for the protection of young women.

Recent Ei^ents. — The historj' of the colony from 1S50 till 1865 might be described as a political tem- pest in a teapot. The Assembly and the Executive were at a dead-lock. Trouble was brewing in the country. During 1864 a severe drought had greatly impoverished the people, and the American Civil War had increased the price of imported bread-stuffs. Agitators had called on the coloured population to assert themselves, and the cry of "colour for colour and blood for blood " was raised. -A. partial rebel- hon, hmited to the parish of St. Thomas, broke out among the black population in 1865. Some magis- trates and officials were butchered at the beginning of the outbreak, but martial law was proclaimed, and the rebellion was quickly suppressed by methods which a Royal Commission pronounced later to have been unnecessarily .severe. The chief agitators were hanged, after which Go^•ernor Eyre was recalled by the British authorities and was succeeded by Sit John Peter Grant, during whose term of office (1865- 74) a number of important reforms were introduced. He brought an order in coimcil abolishing the Legislative Assembly and establishing Crown gov- ernment. The new legislature was designated the "Legislative Council of Jamaica" con.sisting of the Ciovernor, six official members, and three non-official members. A privy council was also provided; a new revenue system was established; the police were organized; and other useful departments — judicial, public works, and banks — were re-arranged or founded. In 1871 the State, or Anglican, Church in Jamaica was disestablished. The seat of the civil government was transferred from Spanish Town to Kingston during the same year. The Rio Cobre irrigation works completed at a cost of .S650,000 have in recent years converted the lowlands of the parish of St. Catherine into a huge banana plantation. In 1868 the cultivation of cinchona as an economic industry was started by Government; and the rapidly increas- ing banana trade between Port Antonio and the United States has been the salvation of the island finan- cially during the last twenty-five years.

In Nov., 1875, a cyclone occurred, followed by another in Aug., ISSO". The advent of Sir Henry Norman as governor to the colony in Dec, 188.3, v,-as signalized by the establishment of a revised constitu- tion (promulgated by an order in council of Queen Vic- toria), consisting of a governor, a privy council, and a legislative council. The first is appointed by the sovereign for five years, and holds office during the sovereign's pleasure. The pri\'j' council consists of the senior military officer (not being below the rank of lieutenant-colonel), the colonial secretary, the attorney-general; and such other persons, not to exceed eight, provisionally appointed by the governor, subject to the approval of the sovereign. The legis- lative council consists of the president (the governor), five ex-officio members, ten nominated members, antl fourteen elected members (one for each of the four- teen parishes).

In 1890 the Jamaica Government Railway was sold