30 £16500 Refunded to J. Stewart 33 Repairing Houses Lieutenant-Governor Young Contingencies Balance 201 £21925 The expenditure of the past year thus ap300 pears considerably to exceed that of any former 40 year, the total amount being £13759 6s. 54d.; this great increase was contemplated by the House of Assembly at its last Session, and an £13759 issue of Treasury Notes was made to meet the 8165 expenditure which was occasioned by the appropriations for the erection of the new Government House, Academy, and other Public Buildings, together with a larger amount than usual for the service of Roads and Bridges, and for additions to the Wharfs at Charlotte Town and George Town, but in making such additional appropriations a Revenue to redeem that issue of Treasury Notes was anticipated, and will be derived under the Act levying an assessment on land. There is a very great deficiency in the amount of revenue derived from Imposts, which can only be accounted for from a falling off in our Exports, occasioned by the failure of our agricultural produce for the two last years, and from the advanced prices of foreign articles. MONETARY SYSTEM.-SHIPPING. 443 MONETARY SYSTEM*.-Accounts are kept in £. s. and d., and the currency that of Halifax, which is formed upon the basis of estimating the dollar at 4s. 6d. thus becomes equal to 5s. currency. The guinea is 17. 3s. 4d. and the other coins in proportion. The coin in circulation was supposed to amount in 1826 to 7,000. The paper currency (Treasury notes) in circulation at the same period in 57. 27. 17. and 10s. notes, was 2,8907. at present it is about 20,0007.; there is no banking establishment in the island which is a great drawback to the progress of its agriculture. COMMERCE SHIPPING.-I have no early accounts of the trade of the colony, but it is known that the French when in possession of the island carried on a considerable fishery from its shores :-The following document has been given me at the Board of Trade,† and like many others in this volume have never before been printed. Years. SHIPS, INWARDS FROM-YEARS ENDING 5TH JANUARY. Great Britain. British Colonies. Foreign States Total Inwards. * Weights and measures as in England. I ain under obligation to Mr. Porter, of the Board of Trade, as also to the intelligent librarian of the Colonial Office, Mr. Mayer, and to Mr. Woodhouse of the Plantation Office for many valuable documents. 444 SHIPPING OF THE COLONY. Years. SHIPS OUTWARDS TO Great Britain. British Colonies. Foreign States Total Outwards. Comparatively speaking, there is also a good deal of shipping built in the colony;-during the year 1833 there were 32 vessels launched and registered-many of them small, but in the aggregate showing a tonnage of 4,006. The number of vessels employed in the foreign and coasting trade belonging to the island in the same year was, foreign, five vessels— tons, 1,169; men, 45; coasting, 124 vessels, tons, 6346; men, 359. During the year ending Dec. 1832, there were transferred from the island to other ports 32 vessels, with a tonnage of 3,202. * I have received the following account from the Custom House, after the above table was prepared. 19 No. Tons. Men No. Tons. Men No. Tons. Men No. Tons. Men 3880 171 20 3793 178 16 3251 151 19 3360 159 6 415 29 1 35 4 2 178 11 251 10522 653 287 14224 770 344 14214 850 368 18069 1065 United } British vessels 2 169 12 States Foreign ditto 2 3 26 Total.... 277 14782 849 318 18680 990 363 17699 1016 390 21668 1238 |