Life back then

Historical Events - April

1st Inland postal orders come into use in 1905

2nd Wm. W. Cairns, C.M.G. becomes governor, 1874

3rd Port-of-Spain Brotherhood formed with 66 members, 1910

4th Siparia Races, 1913

5th Lt. Gov. Walker arrived, 1860. Princess Marie Louise arrived, 1913

7th Lord Brackley’s Team left, 1905. Sporting Chronicle started, 1907.

9th Presentation by governor to Lt.-Col. J.H. Collens on retirement, 1914

10th Foundation stone of Greyfriars Presbyterian Church laid, 1837

11th J. Bell Smyth died (Eng.), 1905 General Sir I. Hamilton inspects forces, 1911

13th Governor Sir Henry George McLeod arrived, 1840

14th John Joseph died, 1901. First wireless mast erected on wharf, 1913

16th Athletic Sports Scarborough, 1906. Harrison Col. Cricket Team arrived, 1909

17th Gregor Turnbull died, 1879

18th Princess Marie Louise opened New Marie Louise Hall R.V.I., 1913

19th St. Hill’s Cricket Team arrived, 1899

20th John George Haynes died, 1910 Princess Marie Louise left, 1913

21st Klark-Urban Dramatic Co. began

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Performances, 1913

22nd Lord Harris arrived, 1846

24th Edward Everard Rushworth D.C.L. (Administrator) 1866

25th Governor Le Hunte and party left for Bolivar, 1912

26th Governor Moloney and party visited Sangre Grande coal borings,1902

27th Prudentia arrived, first oil tank steamer (loading 1,128,755 gals), 1911

29th James Drennan (San Fernando) died, 1905

30th Conrad F. Stollmeyer died, 1904. Government took over Floating Dock, 1910

Source: Franklin’s Yearbook of 1916

Tobago Chronolgy Part 3

compiled by C.R. Ottley

1841 First steamship of Rlyal Mail Steamship line arrives

1843 Metayer system of sugar cultivation established at Prospect estate

1847 Hurricane sweeps the island

1851 Governor Ross dies as a result of falling from his carriage

1852 Land tax introduced

1854 British troops withdraw from Fort King George

1855 Constitution amended. Privy Council and Executive Council set up

1856 First public hospital built

1871 Franchise estended to all land-owners

1872 Disestablishment of the English church

1874 Single chamber act introduced. Twon houses of parliament replaced by Tobago Legislative Council

1876 Belmanna riots at Roxborough. Police routed. Tobago becomes a Crown colony. Legislative Council abolished.

1885 Barbados separated from federation. Tobago’s headquarters moved to Grenada. Grenadians settle in large numbers.

1889 Tobago linked with Trinidad under a Commissioner.

1899 Tobago made a ward of Trinidad

1900 First telephones installed.

Little Tobago

Long ago, Little Tobago was a preferred hiding spot for pirates. When agriculture and trade started to flourish in this part of the West Indies, the pirates were driven from their rocky shelters of Tobago’s coastlines. Little Tobago, in fact, became a successful spot for planting cotton. As C.R. Ottley puts it in his 1950 Tobago-publication:

“The annual output of cotton surpassed that of sugar for which Tobago had become famous abroad. In the year 1788, no fewer than 1,476,900 lbs of cotton was sent up by brigantines to the mother country. As a cotton producer, it was recorded that Little Tobago outdid all other parts of the island in its yield per acre, even though it contains only 450 acres.”

Little Tobago in the outgoing 18th century had a wooden house for the planter, a Scotsman, and quarters for the African slaves. The dwellers led a self-supporting life, catching fish and growing provisions in a vegetable garden, surrounded by cotton fields.

The cotton industry, however, was to come to an end in Tobago when the United States of America officially seceded from Great Britain in 1783.

“Very soon cotton from America’s extensive fields with unrestricted importation flooded the English market, and because of its competition the cotton industry soon disappeared from both the island of Tobago and its smaller namesake,” writes Ottley.

The Scottish planter and his slaves left Little Tobago. Throughout the 19th century, the islet was - besides an occasional case of leprosy being sent there to end his or her days - uncultivated and unused. Little Tobago was forfeited to the Crown for non-payment of land taxes, and in 1812, an Englishman bought it for £805. He tried to cultivate it, but soon tired of its monotony and left, leaving the island once more to the British Crown.

In Tobago’s declining economy of the 19th century, Little Tobago lost a lot of its value, and in 1898, Sir William Ingram was able to purchase it for only £225.

Sir William’s pet project was the importation of pet birds. In 1909, he spent a whopping £1,000 on twenty-four pairs of Birds of Paradise, which a Mr. Frost got for him from Aru Island, New Guinea. Their owner set them free in Little Tobago, and had a caretaker to feed them and to shoo away the predatory hawks.

Since the splendidly-feathered animals were not able to fly the 1.5 miles to the Tobago ‘mainland’, they remained in Little Tobago. When Sir William died, they started to be neglected, and their numbers dwindled. In 1928, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago took over Little Tobago as well, and from then on the Birds of Paradise started to fare a little better. Little Tobago became an orchard and a bird sanctuary of these spectacular creatures, and visitors were able to see them at the cost of two shilling (48 cents).

In the middle of the 20th century, a hurricane swept over Tobago, and the precious birds were all swept out to the sea and drowned.