169,520 acres are under cultivation, or, say, one acre out of every 50 available for the purpose, and of this amount 73,100 acres are in sugar plantations, and 47,050 acres under rice.
Commerce, Shipping, Railways, The chief imports (1914) were flour and textiles; chief exports, sugar, raw gold, rum, rice, balata and diamonds. Registered vessels numbered comprising 41 sailing vessels and 18 steamers. Total tonnage entered and cleared, in 1914 was There are miles of railways, 315 or 316 miles of good roads, and a limited num berof miles of the large canals used for navi gation. Smaller canals, to carry off superfluous water from the plantations, intersect each other in every direction. The heavy rainfall and the flatness of the coast region oblige the planters to maintain these canals to provide drainage, and by means of the larger draining trenches the sugar canes are taken to the mills in punts, There are 73 post offices, 46 telegraph offices, nine traveling post offices, about 559 miles of telegraphs and cables, and telephone services in Georgetown and New Amsterdam.
Money and British gold and sil ver are used. There are 25 saving banks, with 21266 depositors, and two banks with note cir culation.
The governor .is assisted in executive and administrative matters by an advisory council, composed of three colonists and three officials, all appointed by the king of England; in legislative matters by the Court of Policy (seven officials beside the governor, and eight elective members, chosen from inhabitants by constituency of voters qualified by income or property), and a combined court containing, be side the above, six financial representatives. The governor has a casting vote, and can decide any question against the votes of the represent ative members. The colonists are in the ma jority, however, in the combined court, which votes the taxes and public expenditures.
Total revenue for the year 1914 15 was f586,598, derived mainly from customs, licenses, duty on rum, and royalty on gold, Public expenditures in the same year amounted to #622,025.
Population, Schools and The census of 1891 showed: Negroes, 115,588; East Indians (Hindu coolies), 105,465; aboriginal Indians, about 17,463; Portuguese from Ma deira, 12,166; whites of other nationalities, 4,558; Chinese, 3,433; mixed races, etc., 29,376. The total number of inhabitants 1 Jan. 1915 was about 310,000. In 1914-15 the sharing in the government's annual grant (f31,871) were 228 in number. There are three judges, and, in the several districts, a number of magistrates. The criminal law is based on that of England; in civil cases the Dutch law is applied, with certain modifications.
History (including the boundary dispute with Venezuela).— Prohibition of the slave trade checked the agricultural development of the colony, and emancipation of the slaves (1838) ruined many planters, the freed negroes demanding higher wages than the planters could afford to pay. This crisis led to the introduc tion of large numbers of laborers from Ma deira, the East Indies, China, and Malta. Im migrants of a different class began to arrive about 1886 in consequence of the rediscovery of gold; but serious difficulties arose precisely on account of the enhancement in the value of the auriferous regions, some of the most promising of which were located in the territory west of the Essequibo claimed by both Venezuela and Great Britain. The inland limits of the
ish (afterward Venezuelan), the British, the Dutch, the French, and the Portuguese (after ward Brazilian) Guianas were undetermined., In 1841 Schomburgk surveyed the boundary line of British Guiana for the British govern ment, and made two maps; the second or re vised map placing the boundary with Vehe zuela much farther toward the west than first. Subsequently Venezuela and Great Bri tain agreed not to encroach upon the territory. in dispute, pending a settlement of the but both countries offended against the spirit of this compact. The proposal for arbitration in 1887 was met by England's prompt refusal to admit any doubt as to her title to the lands east of the revised Schom burgk line, and, a little later, by the establish ment of British posts, and the declaration that the region drained by the Barima River was hers by right. It is necessary to bear in mind that if England had accepted the views of Venezuela and Brazil as to the boundaries of British Guiana, that colony would have dis appeared from the map. Brazil claimed all but about 12,000 square miles; Venezuela nearly the whole of the old Essequibo colony, the Pomeroon and the unsettled interior districts. When President Cleveland, in 1895, called to the attention of the British government the bearing of the Monroe doctrine upon the ques tion at issue, his suggestion was at first not ac cepted. His message to Congress went much farther. It advised Congress that a commission should be appointed for the determination of the true boundary, and declared in effect that any attempt to extend British territory beyond the true boundary should be resisted by the United States, by force, if necessary. It was a threat of war. Pursuant to the act of Con gress 21 Dec. 1895, a commission was appointed 1 Jan. 1896. ' But before their report was sub mitted a treaty providing for the reference of the matter to a tribunal of arbitration had been signed at Washington (2 Feb. 1897). Arbi trators were Chief Justice Fuller and Justice Brewer of United States Supreme Court; Lord Herschell (and, after his death, Lord Russell of Killowen), and Justice Sir R. H. Collins; and as president, Professor Martens. The tri bunal met at Paris in 1899. The award, given 3 October, determined the boundary nearly in correspondence with the second or revised Schomburgk line, assigning to Great Britain a region about 60,000 square miles in area which Venezuela had claimed. On the other hand, Point Barima, at the principal mouth of the Orinoco, and certain near the headwaters of the Cuyurn, were awarded to Venezuela. The territory of British Guiana, thus defined, extends along the seacoast to Point Playa, and includes the whole valley of the Barima and that of the Cuyuni east of the Wenamu — the larger part, though probably not the best part, of the mining region.