THE
JAMAICA STREET CAR COMPANY
This
undertaking has proved one of the most successful of local enterprises and the
laying down of the tramway was one of the quickest operations that Jamaica has
ever seen.
When
application was made to the governor and Legislative Council for the necessary
parliamentary powers for laying the line the bulk of the community believed
that this would be one of those still born projects which would not go further
than the obtaining of the bill.
The
inception of the enterprise is due to Mr. Tracy Robinson, an American Engineer,
formerly on the Panama Railway Company, and Samuel Constantine Burke, Esq.
Mr.
Robinson on arrival in Jamaica saw that facilities of locomotion were largely
needed in the city of Kingston and the suburbs, which numbered 40,000
inhabitants, and he proposed if Mr. Burke would raise the necessary capital
they should jointly operate for the purpose of establishing a Tramway. Mr. Burke having investigated the plans as to
expense of laying, equipping and working the line, and the calculations as to
traffic, became satisfied that a Tramway would not only be of great importance
to Kingston but would prove a financial success. He therefore agreed to obtain the necessary
capital and to finance the concern. Six
agreed to find the capital and the Company was started.
The
subscribed capital at the beginning of operations was £6,150 in 1,230 paid-up
shares at £5 per share. It having become
necessary to raise further capital to complete the lines debentures were issued
to the amount of £4,000 bearing interest at 10 per cent per annum, the same
having been first offered to the public at 6 per cent without success.
The
first four miles and 51 chains of the Tramway were completed and opened for
traffic on the 13th November, 1876.
In 1878 the principal line was extended to Half-Way-Tree ; and in the
following year a line was laid down from the Kingston Parade, along East Queen
Street, to Paradise Street. The cost of
the extension of the two last lines amounted to £4,000, which was taken from
the profit arising from the working of the former lines, making the cost of the
then entire line 14,500 pounds
The
length of the line is as follows :-
Miles Chains
From
Railway to Rae Town . 1 34
“
King Street Office to Exhibition
1 63
“
“ “ “
“ Paradise Street 1 36½
“
“ “ “
“ May Pen 1 34½
“
“ “ “
“ Constant Spring 6 13½
____ ______
Total
length 12 21½
The
Shareholders drew no dividends for six years, and having paid off all the
debentures and the other liabilities of the Company they issued new shares to
the extent of £5,850 at £5 per share as a bonus to the original Shareholders,
making the capital £20,000. Since then
shares of the Company have been sold to capitalists at premiums of 10, 13 and
15 per cent.
In
1884 the Directors laid down a line of one mile to May Pen Cemetery on the
Spanish Town Road, and in the early part of 1885 they began the extension of
the Halfway-Tree line to Constant Spring in the parish of St. Andrew, a
distance of three miles from the Halfway Tree Station and of six miles from
Kingston. The cost of these extensions
was met by the issue of new shares, which extended the capital to £28,000.
