including "Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean," "The Republic of Pirates," "The True Story of Black Bart," "Wars of the Barbary Pirates," and tales of buccaneers, privateers and freebooters. 
August 13, 1892, Colonies and India
London, United Kingdom
THE TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
The Colonial Office has received a report on these islands, which are a dependency of Jamaica, for the year 1891, from Sir Henry Blake, Governor of Jamaica. The general tone of the report is satisfactory, notwithstanding the failure of crops in the spring which occasioned a good deal of distress. At the last census (April, 1891) the total population numbered 4,785 souls, of whom 41 were on board vessels not belonging to the dependency, making the actual population of the islands 4,744, being an increase of 12 on the census taken in 1881 and of 21 on that taken in 1871. The increase was in the female population. Both the white and black population have decreased since the previous census was taken—the former over 25 per cent, and the latter about 3 per cent; while the coloured population has increased by 243 souls, or about 18 per cent. The decrease in the white population may be attributed to emigration to the United States of America. The census returns showed the average annual birth-rate to be 35 per 1,000 and the death-rate 24 per 1,000 of the population—viz., average annual number of births, 166; deaths, 115. This is a decrease of one per 1,000 in the birth-rate and an increase of three per 1,000 in the death-rate on the returns from the census of 1881.
The cultivation of the pita (sisal) plant has made fair
progress, especially in the Caicos Islands, and the reports from the
plantations towards the end of the year were satisfactory. Two
companies, the West Caicos Fibre Company (Limited), at West
Caicos, and the East Caicos Company (Limited), at Breezy Point,
formed for the purpose of raising pita plants and extracting the
fibre, are registered under the companies' ordinance, and there
are several private plantations. A small shipment of fibre was
made to New York within the year from one of the latter, and
the first quality fetched a cent a pound more than the second
quality—an equal price to the best from Yucatan. This speaks
well for the quality of the fibre which can be produced in these
islands, and promises a bright future for the local fibre industry.
The Halifax and Bermuda Cable Company (Limited) having decided to extend the cable from Bermuda to the West Indies and to establish a station at Grand Turk, made application to the Legislative Board to afford certain facilities to the company for carrying out the project, and the necessary ordinance was passed by the board in December. It should, in the opinion of the Commissioner, undoubtedly benefit these islands generally to be brought more in touch than they are at present with other parts, and the cable should not only greatly facilitate business transactions, but should also cause an increase in the shipping, and it is to be hoped, therefore, that a station of the company will be established and in working order at no distant date.
June 17, 1893, Colonies and India
London, United Kingdom
PROGRESS IN THE TURKS ISLANDS
A Talk With Mr. Benjamin C. Frith
. . . Very few people in England know much about Turks and Caicos Islands, and in regard to their geographical position Americans may be justly accused of similar ignorance; but most commercial men in the United States are familiar with the name of the islands, which is there synonymous with salt, so closely are the Colony and its principal industry associated. The quantity of salt annually gathered is no less than a million and three-quarter bushels, and the export in 1890, which fell a little short of that amount, was valued at 30,285l. Sponges are found on the Caicos bank, but are chiefly carried to Nassau for treatment, there being only one curing establishment on the Caicos Islands. The salt industry, therefore, has a practical monopoly of the Coony; Mr. Frith, however, is about to alter this state of things. He recently floated a company which has acquired the island of Caicos West for the cultivation of sisal. But more of this anon. Geographically, the Turks and Caicos Islands are a part of the Bahamas, and they used to be administered from Nassau; but the seat of Government is now in Jamaica. The change was made in accordance with the wishes of the people, who petitioned for it owing to some official abuse. The most important island of the group is Grant Turk, which, like many of its neighbours in the West Indies, claims to have been the scene of the first discovery of Columbus. A representative of this journal, hearing that Mr. Frith was to be found at a well-known London hotel, waited upon him the other morning, and led off with a query as to the future of sisal in the Turks Islands.
"Now I have an opportunity," replied Mr. Frith, " I am glad to be able to point out to whom the credit of introducing the sisal industry in Turks Islands really belongs. Sir Ambrose Shea has been praised everywhere for his exertions to promote the cultivation of that fibre in the Bahamas, and I think it only right that Captain H.M. Jackson, C.M.G., should receive some recognition for his efforts in the same direction in Turks Islands. He used to be Commissioner there, but he is now Colonial Secretary in the Bahamas. I think, with him, that Turks and Caicos Islands are the finest place for the cultivation of sisal which has yet been struck, for from all the information I have gathered at present it appears that this fibre is a sun and air plant, and, of course, the less moisture it has the larger will be the yield. It does not require a rich soil; experience shows that a reddish, sandy, grittish soil is the best for it. Turks Islands possess a soil just of this kind. It may be as well to mention that two companies have been started there, and that, while in other places the industry is being fostered and given every assistance by Government, in this instance the authorities have done literally nothing to advance it. Of the two companies, I can only speak of the details of one—the one with which I am connected. It is a limited company, more private than public, the shares being held by a few friends of mine. We have already over 1,000 acres under cultivation, and, according to last advices, the first shipment was being prepared, the fibres running up to 6 feet in length. The Bahamas have produced nothing over 5 feet at present. This is the first shipment; in the future "we expect to obtain even better results. We are at a disadvantage in Turks Islands. In the Bahamas they will have direct steam communication with Europe, while we shall have to depend on the steamers via New York, which, of course, will hamper us considerably . . . "
"Well, despite this drawback, Turks Islands are always ahead of all the other salt islands in the West Indies. We are always in a flourishing condition. You never hear of anyone starving. We have hurricanes; but we survive comparatively unharmed, and, upon my word," said Mr. Frith, with a laugh, "I believe they do us good. With regard to taxation generally, I think 99 out of every 100 Turks Islanders would agree with me that the Colony is more severely taxed than any other part of the British Dominions, the revenue raised on the exports being about 50 per cent, of their net value. While in other islands there is no tax on the salt industry, as far as I know, we have to submit to a 10 to 15 per cent, royalty, or export tax, as I prefer to call it. And yet, with all this taxation, the authorities will do nothing to better the sanitary arrangements . . ."
