'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1863 to December 1864. (Edited by the Secretary.) Volume XVII.' [‎265] (442/524)

TOUR IN COUNTRIES AROUND ZANZIBAR, &C. 265
to believe this that estimate is very much exaggerated. Nothing but
sugar is exported, and the supply of food grown in the island is insuffi
cient for the use of the inhabitants, so that the total produce of the
island may be estimated at a640,000 per annum.
52. Land is freely conceded to intended settlers at half a dollar per
acre, for the first 98 acres, and one dollar is paid for every acre taken
in excess of that quantity. No land tax is demanded during the first
three years of occupation, but after that period half a franc per annum
is charged for each acre. The port is free, and no other taxes are levied,
if I except a nominal one of 25 francs for every dog kept; this, though
law, has never been enforced.
53. The annual expenditure is about 1,50,000 francs, while the
receipts on account of the land tax realize only 9,000 francs, leaving a
deficit of 1,41,000 francs to be paid by the imperial treasury.
54. The approximate population is—
Europeans and Creoles Males 12
Ditto Females 8
Arabs, Comoros and Malagash .... 10,000
Negroes 3,000
Total 13,020
exclusive of troops and Government ofiicials. The proportion of females
to males is as one to five.
. The garrison consists of
80
European iviai me xii tmeij
.. 50
90
_
Total
. 250
56. The labourers on the sugar estates are principally negroes, who
are imported from the adjacent islands and from Madagascar as
engager Whatever name may be given to the system by whic ey
are procured, it is simply and undisguisedly a phase of the s ave tra
Thus a planter desirous of obtaining a suppiy of labourers app ies o
Commandant Supeireur, who appoints a delegate (invaria } a pn a
34 g
to*
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