The Water Riots of 1903

“De brave, de brave 

De brave, de brave 

Many were sent to eternity 

In the riots of 1903.”   

(Fijornel)

A large crowd gathers outside the Red House in Port of Spain in protest to the proposed bill.
Photograph—Mr. & Mrs. Peter Stone. (Book of Trinidad)

The southern wing of the Red House prior to the Water Riots. Photograph—Mrs. Hélène Farfan. (Book of Trinidad)

THE DAY OF THE RIOT 

The adjourned meeting of the Legislative Council was held at noon on Monday, 23rd March, 1903, His Excellency the Governor Sir Alfred C. Maloney, K.C.M.G., presiding… Admission to  the Council Chamber was from an early hour refused the general public, strong guards of police, armed with sticks being posted at all entrances. In addition to the usually provided accommodation, 150 chairs had been hired and ranged all round the room. As noon approached, some 50 to 60 of these began to be occupied, the large proportion being government officers. In the meantime an immense crowd of the general public filled Brunswick  Square and Abercromby Street, as well as the grounds to the west and along St. Vincent Street and, headed by the Committee of the Ratepayers Association, they proceeded to the main entrance to the building and demanded admission. The doors which had been closed against them were all guarded by strong bodies of police. Lieut-Col. Blake refused to allow anyone to pass.

A ticket to the public gallery of the Legislative Council  (Book of Trinidad)

MASS MEETING AT BRUNSWICK SQUARE  

In the same Friday morning there appeared in the Gazette an official notice in the following terms, with regard to the admission of the public to the Council Chamber on the following Monday:—
‘Public notice is given that, on account of the limited accommodation in the Council Chamber, and the great inconvenience caused when the members of the public are anxious to attend the debates, admission to those parts of the Chamber not appropriated to the use of the members will in future be given by tickets only, in accordance with the practice of the Imperial Parliament…
Tickets will be issued… in the order of application, at the office of the Clerk to the Legislative Council…
Special arrangements will be made for the Press.
(Sgd.) Harry L. Knaggs,
for the Clerk of the Legislative Council.

On the next day, Saturday, 21st March, a mass meeting was convened by the Ratepayers’ Association in Brunswick Square, for the purpose of discussing this ‘ticket regulation,’ which was declared on high legal authority to be illegal…
(22nd March, 1903)

The Red House in flames. Photograph—O.J. Mavrogordato. (Book of Trinidad)

The advanced members of the Association then asked for permission to enter the Council Chamber and were met by Col. Blake, standing one pace in front of the constables, who informed them that he was instructed by the Governor to oppose any attempt to forcibly enter the building. Admission would be, as had been announced, by ticket only. He was backed by an armed squad of police and would oppose force by force; and the degree of violence of the one would be measured by that of the other… The challenge was accepted by one or two members who, partly pressed forward by the surging but orderly crowd, partly advancing with hands and arms  raised high above their heads to show that no violence was intended, came into contact with the Colonel and were forced back… Mr. Lazare then from the top of the steps informed the crowd what had taken place, and begged them to let their protest take a quiet and peaceable form most likely to recommend itself to the English people whom they might depend upon to see that they got ample justice for, the wrongs and outrages that were being heaped upon them… He begged them to refrain from any further acts and merely remain about the grounds of the building while the debate proceeded. The crowd then drew off to the square, where speeches were delivered urging that strict order be observed… In the meantime, the rising temper of the people was not lessened by the discovery that orders had actually been issued to the fire brigade to turn three firehoses upon them should they assemble outside the Council Chamber. Shortly after, the order was given to Lieut. Whiteman to turn on the hose but this he refused to do, saying he was appointed to put out fires, not to drench crowds, and   presently the cheering, the singing of the national anthem, and the lessening of the crowd gave a clear demonstration of the resolution of the public protest. Shortly before noon, all the stores and business places in the town closed as a further mark of protest against the action of the Legislative Council. Immediately after 12, the Governor, accompanied by his private secretary, drove down to Government House, closely guarded by police and, protected by a similar guard, proceeded to his office where there had been stationed another 35 armed constables. Accompanied by the Colonial Secretary, with Captain Dutton, A.D.C., His Excellency entered the Council Chamber and took his seat; at the same moment ten more armed constables entered the room and took up positions with the rest. Amidst every mark of public demonstration against the proceedings and a momentarily growing scene of popular excitement, the Legislature came to order, and the Clerk rose to read the minutes of the proceedings of the previous Monday’s meeting.

The Hon. Sir Henry Alcazar, the leading coloured Barrister and Legislator of the period.
Photograph —Mrs. Hélène Farfan. (Book of Trinidad)

Lt. Emmanuel Lazare

MR. ALCAZAR PROTESTS 

As the Clerk began to read, Mr. Alcazar rose to a point of order…as to whether it was in pursuance of any standing orders of the Legislative Council, requiring all meetings of the Council to be in public that this day’s meeting was held. He referred to the ticket regulation and, without at present going into the question as to whether it was not, as many persons considered ultra vires for the president to make such a regulation, he stood on the point that standing order 4 required all meetings to be held in public and he understood that a number of members of the public had been excluded today from this meeting.
Some discussion arose and the colonial secretary, having inquired what exactly was before the house, Mr. Alcazar formally moved the adjournment of the house.
Mr. Goodwill seconded.
The motion was lost by a vote of 14 against 6, Messrs Fenwick, R.S. Aucher Warner, Marryat and McLelland voting with the officials.
Mr. Alcazar:—I rose to move the adjournment as a protest and to discuss a public grievance, and upon such a motion it was most inappropriate and improper that the officials should have voted. I now give notice of protest against the vote; I beg to notify Your Excellency that I leave this Council and decline to take any further part in its proceedings.
Mr. Alcazar then left the Chamber.
Messrs. Goodwill, Gordon and Leotaud also gave notice of protest against the vote.
His Excellency then read his formal ruling on the question of order as to the ‘ticket regulation,’ that he maintained his right to act as he had done.
Mr. Gordon then rose and said that after what had fallen from His Excellency, he felt it incumbent upon him, with great respect, to follow the course taken by Mr. Alcazar. He could not consent to remain at a Council whose standing orders and regulations could be varied at the irresponsible whim of the Governor.
Mr. Gordon then left the Chamber.
After a pause,  the order of the day was proceeded with the Clerk reading the minutes of the previous Monday’s meeting.

The Southern Wing gutted by fire. This photograph was taken by Mr. H. Stone, Acting Registrar, who, with the help of the firemen, saved the records in the Registrar General’s Office. Photograph—Mr. & Mrs. Peter Stone. (Book of Trinidad)

The debate on the second reading of the waterworks ordinance was resumed… His Excellency rose and proceeded to read a lengthy address to the Council on the history of the bill. During the reading, the crowds around the building outside had been growing more and more noisy and turbulent —the singing of the national anthem, Rule Britannia, the beating of drums, the blowing of whistles and the cries of women carrying flags, were on the increase. Almost all the windows in the lower storey had been broken and, after a while, an accident occurred which acted like a spark upon a train of powder. And in a moment a most regrettable riot had broken out. For some offence, a woman on the Red House lawn was arrested by a constable, who was immediately struck by a couple of stones flung by some small boys. Thereupon the constable released the woman and was at once attacked by her, too. Members of the crowd closed on her and dragged her and the boys away; but the evil was done. In a moment, stone-throwing was widely taken up by the crowd. Stones were pelted in a terrific shower into the Council Chamber through the glass doors and windows. People and police alike fled from the eastern galleries into the Chamber, and the Council came to a standstill. So hot became the shelling that in a few minutes, the whole of the unofficials had to rise and seek shelter, as did the reporting staff also, behind pillars, bookcases, etc. Presently the crowd to the west of the building got wind of the proceedings on the east and at once, without question, started to pelt stories too. Then the entire Council rose and moved for shelter to the inner galleries around the fountain courtyard in the interior of the building. For fully ten minutes was the fusillade kept up, several people in the building being hit. After a while the crowd broke in through the east and west iron gates into the inner courtyard, overpowering and driving back the squads of constables who had been hastily summoned to oppose them, and the whole crowd proceeded to stone the Council and the other fugitives from the Council Chamber who crowded the inner balconies. A suggestion was made to His Excellency to stand forward and state to the crowd that he withdrew the ordinance; but this he declined to do. The Governor, his A.D.C., Major Collens, the Press representatives and others then took shelter in the small vacant office behind the Education Department on the upper floor, the whole party seeking what shelter they could behind presses and bookcases with which they barricaded the doors from the showers of stones and broken glass which assailed the room. It was the Director of Public Works and Mr. Fenwick who were the two members of Council for whom, judging by the occasional cries heard, the most apprehension was to be felt. What became of the latter is not clear but Mr. Wrightson was, with much difficulty, smuggled out of the room by a strong guard of police, disguising himself in a police tunic and helmet. In a similar way was the Attorney-General gotten safely over, and both remained at the police barracks. For the Governor, however, and those with him, for a good while there seemed no way of escape, it being impossible to venture out of the room. Presently, the news came —and was immediately after confirmed by the penetration of the pungent smell of smoke into the room—that the Red House had been fired. The discovery was made from the brigade station opposite that fire was set in the Registrar-General’s Office (under which the Governor and party were imprisoned), the Survey Office and the Hall of Justice simultaneously. Fanned by a gentle breeze, the flames spread so rapidly that in a few moments it was decided by the whole part, including the Governor, to risk the blows from the showers of stones which were still flying, rather than risk the fire. The door into the Council Chamber was opened and the rush of dense black smoke into the room where the party was imprisoned at once justified the wisdom of the decision to move on. At the same moment, a sound of firing from the police immediately followed the reading of the riot act by Mr. A.S. Bowen, in the presence of Colonel Brake, caused a sudden cessation of the stone-throwing. The whole party then ran down the Colonial Secretary’s main staircase into the crowded streets, and the Governor was rushed under a strong police guard right across into the police barracks and kept there till he could be sent privately up Edward Street to St. Ann’s; while Mr. Wrightson, also under a strong police guard and surrounded by a guard of armed   sailors who had been fetched from the warship in the harbour, was rushed to the wharf and sent off in a small boat and kept on board H.M.S. Pallas… Although the riot was checked by the first volley fired and the crowd at once began to disperse, it was noticed that volley after volley was fired, and that, too, quite indiscriminately in all directions… The killed were afterwards found to have numbered 16, while 42 at least were wounded, some of them at quite a distance from the scene of the riot.
(25th March, 1903).

ARRIVAL OF THE REGULARS 

A couple of men of the Lancashire Fusiliers, sent for by the Governor, from Barbados, arrived on Wednesday evening by the three-masted schooner Sunbeam, having been towed up from the Bocas by the Iere and Paria. An immense crowd gathered to witness the landing and was at first driven back by the police:—
But on the advice of Supt. Sergt. Peake and a naval guard of 12 men from H.M.S. Pallas the crowd was allowed to reform, and in a most peaceful and orderly manner watched the landing, easily controlled by the sailors.
(27th March, 1903).

ARRIVAL OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION 

The Special Commissioners appointed by the Secretary of State to inquire into the recent riots in Port of Spain, arrived on the H.M.S. Trent on Tuesday morning the 28th April, 1903… accompanied by Mr. H.M. Vernon as Secretary, and Mr. W. Walpole, shorthand writer…The first sitting was held on Wednesday the 29th at the Princes Building, which had been specially fitted up for the purpose. The grounds around the building and to the north on the Queen’s Park Savannah presented a very pretty, if unusual, scene of military activity. A double row of white conical tents were ranged right across marking the encampment of the Lancashire Fusiliers who, to the number of 21, exclusive of another 210, in barracks at St. James, came over from Barbados. In the centre was mounted one maxim gun. The appearances of counsel were:—
For the Government: The Hon’ble Vincent Brown (Attorney-General), Mr. R.S. Aucher Warner, Mr. L. A. Wharton.
For the Ratepayers Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and the United Committee, and relatives of the killed:—The Hon’ble H.A. Alcazar, Messrs E. Scipio Pollard, E.A. Robinson and C.J. McLeod.

THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSION 

The report of the Commission was dated 2nd July, and was at once sent out by the Colonial Office; it was a lengthy document, and was published in extenso in the Gazette. Its findings were:—
1. That the riot is to be attributed to public opposition to the proposed waterworks ordinance, stimulated by falsehoods and incitements to violence of certain speakers and the Mirror newspaper.
2. That there was excessive and unnecessary firing by some individual members of the police force.
3. That two, if not three, persons were brutally bayonetted and killed by the police without any justification whatever.
4. That the Executive Government failed to take adequate measures to correct misrepresentations about the draft ordinance.
5. That there is a regrettable and serious division between a large and influential portion of the community of Port of Spain and the Executive Government regarding public affairs.
6. That there has been most deplorable delay in prosecuting the rioters… and the taking of steps to enable the police who committed outrages to be also prosecuted; but most significantly, they also recommended the reference of the draft ordinance to a select committee.
(July 1903)

Edgar Agostini, K.C.

The Hon. Mr. Louis Wharton, K.C.

FIRST TRIAL OF RIOTERS 

Punctually at half-past ten yesterday morning, the special sessions of the Supreme Criminal Court, ordered by the Governor to be held for the trial of 22 persons indicted for riot on the 23rd March last, were opened by His Honour Mr. Justice Routledge in Greyfriars Hall, Frederick Street. In addition to the usual strong guard of police sent down to every sitting of the sessions, a feature which excited considerable remark was the presence of 26 rank and file of the Lancashire Fusiliers, under rifles and fixed bayonets, a somewhat unusual show of military ferocity in the precincts of Greyfriars Hall…
The Hon’ble V. Brown, with the Hon’ble L.E. Agostini and Mr. L.A. Wharton, prosecuted, instructed by Mr. A.D. O’Connor and Messrs E. Scipio Pollard and G. Johnson, instructed by Messrs. E. Maresse-Smith and J.A. Lassalle, appeared for the defence…
The trial lasted for a week, and it was on the afternoon of the 30th July that the jury retired at 4.30 after a most emphatic charge by the judge. Ten minutes afterward they returned into court. In the meantime, the square opposite the Hall, and the length of the pavement on either side of the street as well as Knox Street had filled with a dense crowd, composed of all classes of the community… A strong guard of police appeared and took up positions at various points of the Hall while a detachment of Fusiliers with loaded rifles and fixed bayonets were posted about the yard and outside the judges chambers. The jury again retired after further directions… Close upon three hours passed and no verdict had been returned. The closely-packed Court House, which was fortunately lit by electricity, grew more and more filled and all waited anxiously for what seemed likely to be an abortive verdict. At 7.15, the Acting Chief Justice returned into Court and the jury came back. After the usual questions, nine prisoners were unanimously declared not guilty, one prisoner was found not guilty by 7 to 2, and one not guilty by 8 to 1; the jury was not unanimous as to any one prisoners guilt. By a majority of 8 to 1 they convicted another; as regards the other three, they were divided 6 to 3. The judge refused to accept the verdicts, to the fact that after three hours, a majority verdict either way could be taken. The judge held he was only empowered, not compelled, to do so. The jury retired, His Honour intimating that he would take the verdicts or discharge the jury at 9 p.m. He then formally discharged those who had been acquitted, and as each reached the street he or she was received with round after round of cheering. Punctually at 9 p.m. the judge returned to Court and, to the surprise of all, the jury returned a verdict in two more cases, one guilty by 7 to 2 and one not guilty by 7 to 2. In the remaining case that of Lolotte Borde, they remained 6 to 3… The following sentences were passed:—
Joseph James and Lilla Assing, 5 years each,
Abraham James, 4 years,
Octave Romain and Johnnie Blades, 5 years each.
(21st -30th July 1903)

The arrival of the troops. Photograph—Mrs. Hélène Farfan. (Book of Trinidad)

THE TRIAL OF THE FOUR 

It was not until the December sessions that the trial of Messrs. J.C. Maresse-Smith, H.N. Hall, E.M. Lazare and R.R. Mole, on the charge of inciting to riot, was held. Mr. Vincent Brown, with Messrs. Edgar Agostini and L.A. Wharton prosecuted, for the Crown:—Mr. Alcazar and Mr. A.E. Hendrickson, instructed by Mr. H.M. Iles, defended Maresse-Smith; Mr. E. Scipio Pollard, instructed by Mr.  L.J.A. Lassalle, defended Hall; and Messrs. A.E. Robinson and W. Blanche-Wilson, instructed by Mr. T.M. Kelshall, defended Lazare.
The instructions of the Secretary of State to the prosecution of Mr. Mole were not given effect to, it was understood on the strong advice of the local law officers. The trial ended on the 18th December in a unanimous verdict of acquittal for all three accused.
(19th December, 1903).

The H.M.S. Pallas of the South Atlantic squadron brought the British troops to Trinidad.
Photograph—G. Duruty. (Book of Trinidad)

THE NEW WATER AND SEWERAGE BOARD 

One of the earliest victories of the riot was the transfer of the management of the water-works and sewerage system to a Board of mixed official and unofficial personnel; and the Gazette of the 30th September, 1904, records the holding of the first meeting of the new authority, composed as follows:—
Hon. R.G. Bushe (Auditor-General) Chairman
Hon. W. Wrightson (Director of Public Works)
Hon. D. Slyne (Receiver-General)
Dr. C.F. Knox (Acting Surgeon-General)
Dr. G.H. Masson
Mr. Alfred G. Siegert
Mr. L.A. Wharton
Mr. B.H. Stephens
Mr. H.Y. Vieira
with Mr. J.A. Lamy, barrister-at-law (Town Clerk) as Secretary. (30th Sept. 1904).

Water as a Weapon

What happened in 1903, when an angry mob set the Red House to the torch? A look at the Water Riots by Lenny Anduze from his book "When the Lion Stumbled". It seems as though history repeats itself in Trinidad - this time the other way round, but with the same intentions on all sides!

Looking back at the first Red House, which had been designed in 1844 by Richard Bridgens, Superintendent of Public Works, architect John Newel Lewis, H.B.M., observed that “the building was sober enough, heaven knows”. Its main feature was a carriageway through its courtyard. This was to keep Prince Street open to Sackville Street, and was the only stylish motive in a somewhat austere and boring building.

The original drawings did in fact have an ornate facade, but Bridgens died before he could finish the implementation. His executor asked too high a price for the construction, so the Red House was left plain like it was for several years. As time went by, however, it was decorated somewhat enthusiastically.

This is the story of 1903, when the first Red House was burnt down. The story actually begins a few years earlier, when the Secretary of State for the Colonies closed down the Port of Spain Borough Council, replacing it by four Governor-nominated officials. The official reason was the Council’s debt to the government; the unofficial reason was that the Borough Council was regarded as a “hot bed” of dissent with the Colonial Government, where middle class coloured professionals and “pseudo intellectuals” were in pursuit of their own agendas.

Some of the councillors had made a little money and had risen to “insular importance and sophisticated living”. They had forgot, however, that in the final analysis an “overlord does not have to bargain with his subjects”, as Lenny Anduze puts it in his historical novel “When the Lion Stumbled”.

They had been disenfranchised at the stroke of a pen. The rage at which they saw this as a public humiliation and denigration of their status turned into open hostility to the government, and they vowed revenge.

As Anduze points out, “their discomfort was all the acute because the Colonial Government itself was very efficient in administrating the island. The town’s streets, squares and public buildings were maintained to a high standard, as were hospital services, the post office, treasury and audit offices; the law courts dispensed justice which was put into effect by a disciplined police force and prison service. The country districts were under the control of a warden and all were fully controlled and supervised by the central authority at the Red House in Port of Spain.

“The disenfranchised burgesses knew that they could not claim that it was an incompetent government that had dissolved their bankrupt council, so they sought ways of seriously embarrassing the government, hoping that if the consequent outcry of the population was sufficiently damaging, the Governor would be forced to seek their aid in settling matters. They would then demand the restoration of the council with full powers to manage their own affairs."

Then they discovered that the weapon was already in their hands - actually in their homes - water! It is paradoxical that a tropical island with an average rainfall of about 70 inches per year, often as high as 90 inches, should ever lack water, but a water shortage came about in the towns because the pipes to the houses were connected to reservoirs, built to hold only sufficient water to supply the ‘reasonable needs’ of the population. An ‘unreasonable’ use would run the reservoir dry, and that was the weapon which the disenfranchised group chose to fight the Government.

“In 1900, the Government realised that water was being deliberately wasted and the levels in the reservoir were falling," writes Anduze. "In its checks and surveys, it discovered that leakage in the old mains was not responsible. Rather, taps and fountains were being left running all day and all night; pools were being emptied and filled more frequently than usual; large private plunge baths holding between one thousand and two thousand gallons were in constant used - often emptied more than once each day, and that one house alone consumed 8,170 gallons daily."

The Colonial Secretary, Courtenay Knollys, told the Governor, Sir Alfred Moloney, that something needed to be done against the deliberate wasting of water.

"Sir, there is no longer any doubt that much, if not all, of this waste is deliberate. Taps all over the town are being re-opened as soon as Government officers shut them, and thousands of gallons of clear water can be seen flowing through the gutters every minute," said Knollys.

"But why?" asked the Governor.

"A very deliberate motive, Your Excellency. Since the abolition of the Borough Council, there is a section of the inhabitants doing its best to create unrest in the town."

"Subversive?"

"No, Sir, They keep well within the law; but my information leads me to think that the instigators of the waste water campaign intend to cause trouble for us by depriving the town of water."

"With the hope of gaining what?"

"Of creating a situation where they would be called on to co-operate with the Government when they will state their terms, one of which would be the immediate re-instatement of the borough Council."

"I will not stand for that, Knollys. They had more than one chance to come to a reasonable settlement over the Council and threw it away arrogantly - I will not be defied."

Turning to the Director of Public Works, Walsh Wrightson (after whom Wrightson Road is named), Sir Alfred asked:

"What do you suggest, Wrightson?"

"That our action be in two parts - the short term and the long term. In the short we should consider cutting off the supply to selected areas of the town for specified hours; these times to be dependent on the rainfall and condition of the reservoirs. As regards the longer outlook, we should begin immediate construction of the pipeline and pumping station to provide an additional water supply to Port of Spain from the Diego Martin valley and install meters for the consumers."

"What effect will the cost of all that have on the water rate?"

"An increase of not more than 1 percent."

"All right, draw up the plans."

"As soon as these decisions were made public, the members of the dissolved Borough Council, angry that their plan to force the Governor's hand was to be contested, formed the 'Ratepayers Association', writes Lenny Anduze. "They held public meetings in Brunswick Square opposite the Red House within sight and earshot of the Governor's private office, calling on the people to resist all the proposed changes - especially the installation of meters.

The more Governor persisted in his plans and in refuting the Ratepayers Association misrepresentations in the daily press, the more abusive theygrew. In February 1903, with the dry season imminent, the Governor ordered the cutting of 80,000 gallons daily used in flushing the gutters, and introduced a bill entitled "The Port of Spain Waterworks Ordinance 1903".

Cycles of Revolt

It has been noted that Trinidad, not Tobago, possesses a cycle of violence. From the time of Governor Sir Tomas Picton, slave insurrection, official violence, torture, public execution, public display of decapitated heads, public whippings (1,500 lashes for desertion) from the army was meted out to both free and enslaved, military and civilian, even to young girls, on through to slave poisonings on the estates.

This happened in a short period from 1797-1805. Then the Port of Spain Riots of 1849 took place, when a British regiment opened fire on a mob intent on destroying the Government building, later the Red House, in protest of a law stating that the heads of debtors be shaved in the same manner as convicted felons. The law was repealed. In the 1890s, the Canboulay Riots and the Hosay Riots took place. This was followed 54 years later by the famous Water Riots, when a mele ensued the burning down of the Red House and 16 people were shot.

Just 35 years later, the country experienced a general strike in which riots swept the city and protesting workers were shot out of hand at various places around the country. In 1970, Port of Spain’s Woodford Square again saw demontrations, riots and shootings. The events of 1990 are well known. This re-occuring cycle of revolt, followed by official reaction, has now become virtually inherited, involving basically the same people for close to 200 years.

In the context of these articles, we will deal with events that led up to the Water Riots of 1903.

Crown colony rule was frustrating for the general populance right accross the board. It was reepressive to the lower classes, mostly black people, and it tended to debar upward mobility confining the children of the ex-slaves to perpetual poverty. It was humiliating to the coloured people and the white middle class, who, notwithstanding the heroic attempts at educating their children and mindboggling and convoluted endeavours to achieve and maintain European cultural moirees and a respectable lifestyle, they were still ouside the pale and likely to remain there.

The upper class French creoles were jealous of the English for their positions and power and smarting at the slights dished out by people whom they considered to be beneath their social standing. They were the grandchildren of the original aristocratic colonists who had, after all, come here first. The Indians were completely out of the equation socially and politically at this point.

In the closing years of the 19th century, opposition to colonial rule became more general and in fact more radical. What was mostly a middle class dissatisfaction evolved into movements that attracted working class support.

Joseph Chamberlain, the Secetary of State for the Colonies, the Govenor’s boss, brushed aside the reform movements and turned down appeals for any form of elected representation in the Legistlature, summing it up thus “Local government (falsely so called) is the curse of the West Indies. In many islands it means only local oligarchy of whites and half breeds - always incapable and frequently corrupt. In other cases it is the rule of the negroes, totaly unfit for representative institutions and the dupes of unscrupulous adventures.” He followed this up by ending the token majority of local unofficials in the Legislative Council nominated by the Governor.

He then moved on the Port of Spain Borough Council. An elected body set up in 1853, it had served as an important forum for local politicians, particularly the black and coloured radicals, and was the only voice through which any national view could be expressed by elected representatives. The conditions placed on the members were tough and they voted not to accept these and, in effect, voted themselves out of existence. Chamberlain ordered a Board of Commissions put in place to run the city. It was felt that this amounted to “the killing of a school to teach people to manage their own affairs.”

These were not significant issues, however, to attract mass support. The young but vigorous Trinidadian Workingman’s Association was much better able to do rally people around their causes, and so too was th Pan African Association led by a London-based lawyer called H.S. Williams. The next and sigificant link was forged by the creation of the Rate Payers’ Association, comprised mostly of professionals and businessmen. This group of taxpayers sought to act as a counter balance against arbitrary measures taken by the government, particularly in the distribution of water in the city. These groups acted, more or less, in an organised manner. The grassroots, however alienated, poor and easily manipulated, were moved by the rhetoric of Rate Payers’ Association’s principle speakers, Emmanuel Lazare, Moresse-Smith and others. Those speakers urged them to assemble in Woodford Square, outside the Red House, on the day when the new Ratepayers Ordinance was supposed to be read. The purpose was to seek to prevent this reading. The Ratepayers’ Association’s radicals made a strenuous effort to excite the assembled crowds against the Government. The outcome was a major riot during which the old Red House was completely burnt down. Much of recorded history was forever lost in this fire. Soldiers were called in, and 42 people were wounded, 16 lost their lives.

Fire, Riots and Disasters

In the years of the Spanish conquistadores, it was cannibalism, tribal warfare, yellow fever, malaria and terrible acts of piracy that plagued the settlers. But as the population grew, so did the catastrophes.

1699 - The Arena Massacre

In 1688 missionaries from Cataluñia in Spain set up a mission in central Trinidad which they named ‘San Francisco de los Arenales’. Eleven years later, three priests at the mission oversaw some Amerindians from the neighbourhood building a new church. Since the work was proceeding slowly, the priests threatened to report the Amerindians to the governor. These threats made the apprehensive Amerindians hysterical, and rather than face punishment they attacked the priests, clubbing them to death, and threw their bodies in the foundation of the new church. Afterwards they ambushed the visiting party of the Governor, killing him and several others.

The Amerindians at the mission fled eastwards into the dense forest. They were pursued by Spanish soldiers of the Cabildo at San José (St. Joseph, then the capital of Trinidad), and the Amerindians were caught at the Cocal on the east coast. In their pride, the Amerindians resorted to suicide rather than submitting to punishment: some of the women drowned their children in the streams of the Nariva Swamp, and others threw themselves into the sea at Point Radix. After the two massacres, 22 of the Amerindians were brought back to San José , where they were tried and hung.

1727 - Failure of the cocoa crop, death of the cocoa trees, witchbroom

26 years after the first slaves were landed in Trinidad, and the island began to reap its first successful cocoa crops, the greatest desaster possible struck: the whole cocoa crop was lost due to a blight that prevented the cocoa pods from growing and ripening. Six years later, in 1733, the misery into which the colony was thrown due to this failure is reflected in a rapid decline of population: only 162 adult inhabitants were registered in Trinidad, of whom only 28 were ‘white’, that is, landowners and cultivators. The public revenue in that year amounted to the ridiculous sum of $ 231.00!

1808 and 1895 - Port-of-Spain is destroyed by fire

“At about 10 pm on March 24th, 1808, a certain Doctor Shaw (apothecary) in Frederick Street, was reported to have started the famous fire of Port-of-Spain by dropping, when not quite sober, a brand of fire on some wood shavings in an out-house,” says H.C. Pitts in his historical notes. The ensuing fire destroyed three quarters of the city, which miraculously only caused two deaths.

Some 90 years later, in 1895, people were again lucky to escape with their lives. While literally the whole town was watching a cricket match at the Queen’s Park Savannah, fire broke out on the premises of Messrs. James Todd & Sons at about 4.30 in the afternoon. The fire brigade was slow to arrive, and the fire spread quickly and the heart of the town was consumed by the fire.

Only two years later, another fire broke out around 4 am on a Sunday morning, and many people were caught asleep. It originated in the Hotel Guiria on the corner of Almond Walk (now Broadway) Marine Square, and rapidly spread with a strong wind blowing.

1817 - Trinidad ravaged by epidemic of yellow fever

1818 - San Fernando destroyed by fire

1848 - A wake turns riot (From POS Gazette, 3.10.1848)

“On Thursday last, the 29th September, one of those infamous admixtures of superstition, debauchery, profanity and riot, so peculiarly the disgrace of Trinidad, known as a ‘wake’, took place in the yard of a residence in Port-of-Spain. It occurred in consequence of the death of a man who, in extremis, was kicked out of the house by the woman with whom he cohabited, and was brought here expressly to die; which the poor wretch did in two days. At 7 pm the riot began with psalm singing over the corpse, and by 9 o’clock at night the yard was literally crammed with women and girls of very doubtful character, a host of drunken sailors, and all the lawless ruffians of Port-of-Spain, yelling in chorus, dancing in circles, and clapping their hands together. The uproar was fearful, the saturnalian orgies being further enlivened by every variety of swearing and prfance language. To such a height at last were these revels carried that at last the police were sent for; but on arrival they were utterly powerless to quell the disturbance.”

1849 - Debtors have to become skinheads

If you owe money and can’t repay it, you will get your head shaved, and you will have to do ‘gaol work’ in prison dress. Well, that new regulation didn’t go down well with respectable Trinidadians at all! Multitudes of them gathered in front of the recently opened government building (later on the Red House) to protest against such medieval measures.

After the Council had already abrogated the gaol clause - under the pressure of 3000 demonstrators in front of the government buildings - riots spread through the city and various estates in the neighbourhood and as far as Oropouche. Residences of the Attorney General, the gaol keeper and the stipendiary magistrate were attacked. Three women and a young boy were wounded in the riots, the boy and a woman subsequently died.

1854 - Cholera Epidemic and Small Pox

In December 1853, cholera had broken out in Nevis and spread quickly to Antigua and St. Kitts. Inspite of the call for quarantine regulations, the highly contageous disease spread to Trinidad in 1854.

Before the vaccine against small pox was invented, people felt protected from the desease when pitch was burnt in barrels at the street corners in Port-of-Spain. To the populace, it seemed that the authorities ‘were doing something’ against the spread of small pox - even though the thick clouds of pungent smoke might have been done more harm than good...

1881 - Carnival Riots

The canboulay parades had been frowned upon by the English authorities ever since slavery had been abolished. In 1881, the were forbidden altogether. People being people, however, still gathered in the mas camps in east Port-of-Spain, Belmont and Newtown, and when they started the processions with lighted torches just after midnight on Monday morning, it came to a serious and bloody confrontation with the police. Eventually, the governor promised to confine police to the barracks, because he was just afraid that the lighted torches (cannes brulées) would lead to fire in the city! And to everybody’s amazement, he did just that and the revelleres were free to enjoy themselves throughout the following day.

1884 - Hosay Riots

Only three years after the Carnival riots, police and East Indian immigrants got into a fight in San Fernando on the 30th October.

Hosay had been originally a Muslim festival, introduced by Indians who were part of the Shiah, a Muslim sect. It commemorates the death of Hassan and Hussain, both grandsons of the prophet Mohammed. The ‘tadjahs’ signify the tombs of the two brothers.

In Trinidad, Hindus joined into Hosay. The procession was also a time of drinking and feteing, and spurned on by the rhythms of the tassa drums and the heat of the rum in their blood, it often came to fights amongst the participants. In 1881, a man called Harracksingh was killed in one of those fights, and the authorities imposed severe regulations on it in 1884. It was feared that the Hosay celebrations would turn into agression against outsiders, that is, non-Indians. It was a nervous year on the whole, with Carnival disturbances in San Fernando and Princes Town, where the riot act had to be read and the police fired upon an attacking mob, resulting in two deaths and two or three people wounded.

The Indians, however, maybe in ignorance of the regulations still gathered in the annual Hosay processions in the usual manner, which had grown into a parade of thousands of people from the Naparima plantations.

Even though it had been strictly forbidden for the various parades from the plantations to enter San Fernando, and even though Hosay participants knew that police in San Fernando had been reinforced by soldiers and armed to the teeth, the revellers still came, dancing, swirling and drumming, and armed with formidable hakka sticks as well.

The police guarded the entrance to San Fernando at Bushy Park and Mon Repos entrances, and read the riot act to the oncoming revellers. WHen they did not disperse, shots were fired, and a general melee ensued, which left ten dead and 83 wounded.

1903 - Water Riots

It started with a peaceful demonstration in Brunswick Square, organised by the Ratepayers Association. They demonstrated against the passing of a proposed waterworks ordinance, which - much like today - introduced fixed water rates, calculated by number of faucets in the house and not by actual consumption. People found this unfair, since poor people would have to pay the same water rates like wealthy households with a much larger water consumptions.

While the Legislative Council was debating the new ordinance in the chambers, the atmosphere in the crowd outside was growing more tense. People sang the National Anthem, Rule Brittannia, beat drums, blew whistles, and waved flags, and after the first stones were thrown and most of the downstairs windows were broken, the situation quickly went from bad to worse.

In the terrible riot that followed, the old Red House was completely burnt down, and with it much of our recorded history was forever lost. 42 people were wounded by shots and bayonets, and 16 lost their lives.

After the water riots, the Red House was rebuilt to its present state, and the new building was to enjoy many peaceful decades until 1990, when the attempted coup again set it on fire.