Dr Rita Pemberton

WHEN THE colony of Trinidad and Tobago was created, two island units with different historical experiences were brought together in a union that was devoid of any mechanism to facilitate integration of the two.

The colony was divided into eight administrative districts called counties, which were subdivided into wards. Tobago, which was administered as a ward in the County of St David, was commonly referred to as “the island ward.”

This led to two inaccurate perceptions of Tobago, which have dogged the island in its relationship with Trinidad.

In the first place, the ward status was not viewed as that of an administrative district in the united colony. Instead, the island was commonly described as “a ward of Trinidad,” and this ward was perceived to be a dependent of the larger and wealthier island.

These inaccuracies, which provided the first of several knots in the relationship between Trinidad and Tobago, needed to be corrected.

These notions were fuelled by the circumstances which led to the union. The demise of the Tobago sugar industry in the 1880s created severe financial problems for the island’s administration. With plantations out of business, there was a sharp decline in revenue, because plantation owners who were the main contributors to the island’s revenue were unable to pay their taxes.

In addition, the decline of the industry resulted in a reduction of shipping and trade, which were closely related to it. This also meant a reduction of customs and excise duties, which constituted an important source of revenue.

The outcome was that the island’s Treasury was unable to meet its administrative costs and there were constant requests for assistance from the imperial government to support strategies intended to boost the sugar industry and assist the colony’s development programmes.

The imperial administration, with its fixation on colonies as providers of profits, was unwavering in its position that it would not take on colonial financial burdens and mandated the island’s administration to implement cost-cutting measures.

The imperial body set the tone by reducing its own costs and, in the process, added to those of the financially challenged island by insisting the salary of the governor, an imperial representative, formerly borne by the imperial authorities, was the responsibility of the colony. This decision was made without any consideration for the island's dire economic circumstances.

The next step was the demotion of Tobago's chief administrator from governor to a lower-paid official, who was called the warden/magistrate. Reflected in this position was another strategy of the imperial authorities to reduce the number of officials employed in the colony by combining responsibilities and reducing salaries.

This system did not make for effectiveness, because the reduced number of officials was overworked and could not carry out their responsibilities with any measure of efficiency.

In addition, due consideration was not given to the island’s geography: t