o_19heefouak9i9v4do11ac41pi7a.pdf

Public works
COLONIAL GOVERNMENTALITY IN THE IONIAN ISLANDS
The other significant expense of Ionian governments was spending for public works.
The 1820s was probably the most productive and certainly the most affluent decade
for Ionian State finances. Public works improved the daily lives of Ionians for the
first time and in novel ways. The construction of efficient and comprehensive road
networks in Corfu and Kefalonia is often credited among the achievements of the
Protectorate and of Colonel Napier, Resident of Kefalonia, personally. Schemes that
provided first the town of Zante and then Corfu with water were essential in improving
living conditions and substituting the centuries-old cisterns. In Zante, Resident
Charles Fitzroy supplied the town with water in the early 1820s, an example
followed by Commissioner Adam in Corfu a few years later. The task in Corfu was
much more formidable since there were no springs close to town (as in Zante) and
water had to be brought from the village of Benitza, around twelve kilometres distance.
The project cost about £30,000, indicating both the magnitude of the work
and the fiscal ability of the Ionian State to carry out this kind of public works, before
the founding of the Ionian Bank and the potential for lending that the British
financial institution brought 57 .
The achievements of Napier, Resident of Kefalonia in the 1820s, include financial
administration and serve as an example of how individual colonial governors could
actually make a difference and how crucial they were in the governance of the Protectorate.
No other Resident demonstrated such determination and efficiency in
managing an island in subsequent decades. One exception perhaps is Baron d’
Everton who served as Resident for twenty years, in Kefalonia after Napier, and in
Santa Maura, although his impact did not equal Napier’s in either island. Napier’s
achievements in infrastructure works and road construction in particular however
were short-lived; soon after his departure Commissioner Adam (apparently out of
personal dislike towards Napier) abolished the system of forced labour for road
construction and replaced it with a tax on cattle, a pointless measure given that very
few cattle were imported to Kefalonia 58 ; this retrograde step demonstrates the ignorance
and maladministration that could result from central government. Nugent,
third High Commissioner, attempted to establish a public fund of about £30,000
that was lying unused for growers to borrow from. His term lasted only three years
and his greatest achievement must be the neat financial administration that led to a
surplus, also a result of reduced military expenditure. The issue of road construction
and maintenance returned to the government’s agenda in 1840 when Douglas
and the Senate passed an Act for the construction and repair of the roads in the
country. The Act called on all those living in the suburbs and the villages to work
on the roads but no more than four miles’ distance from their home 59 . Under
Douglas more public works were carried out; during his term the lunatic asylum,
57 Kirkwall, vol. I, p. 113-4.
58 Kirkwall, vol. I, p. 121.
59 1st Session, 7th Parliament, Act II, 28 March 1840, K.V.
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