Parish councils

The decree of 18 July 1835 created parish councils (juntas de paróquia) in the Madeira archipelago. They were actually set up in some parishes, but in a great many parishes they never functioned. We do not know whether these administrative bodies did any good in some of the localities where they were elected. We believe that their operation was wholly useless and fruitless, and we have found no trace of their parish administration. It can be said that they were short-lived and that their activity here in Madeira amounted to nothing at all.

After the promulgation of the Administrative Code (Código Administrativo) of 1886, which retained the old parish councils and granted them wider powers, an attempt was made, in compliance with the law, to set up these administrative bodies in Madeira.

The parish councils would have been installed and would even have carried out their administrative functions, had petty parish-pump politics not seized the welcome opportunity to stir up old hatreds and carry out the most reprehensible reprisals. A sustained and stubborn opposition then arose to the operation of these administrative bodies, and it soon degenerated into serious violence and the most deplorable excesses.

Above all, it was the fear that the parish councils would have to levy taxes, and could not function without doing so because they had no revenues of their own, that roused popular indignation. A general outcry soon went up across the whole island against the ‘Juntas de Parreca’, or simply the Parreca (popular name for the 1887 parish councils and the riots against them), as the people called those administrative bodies.

A revolt then spread like wildfire through the whole district. It did not always show itself in public, but it lay latent in people’s minds. We know of no other event that produced such intense and widespread indignation here, except perhaps the plague epidemic of 1907. We are convinced that, even today, if ill-intentioned people were to raise the question of the Parreca as a banner of revolt, they would once again succeed in stirring people up and might well cause serious disturbances of public order (1921).

For this reason nobody has thought, or thinks even now, of electing parish councils. For us they are bodies that exist only in the pages of the Administrative Code. A long period of thirty years has already passed, and another of equal length will pass, without their becoming a true reality for this archipelago. And truth obliges us to say that they would bring no benefit to the people – given what some rural municipal councils, and even those of district capitals, have done, as we well know.

The situation of Madeira at that time was quite critical. Sugar cane had almost completely disappeared, and the vineyards produced little and were also gravely threatened. The departure of shipping from our port and the ills afflicting the whole country made the archipelago’s economic situation even worse. The ground could not have been more fertile for public indignation to take root at the idea of new taxes being levied. The installation of the parish councils, cleverly but maliciously exploited by unscrupulous political schemers, was the fuse that lit the fire, which soon spread everywhere.

In many parishes (freguesias) of Madeira very grave events took place, and at times public order broke down. In some of them these events took on a character of open hostility towards everyone who held a position of authority or performed any public function, not excepting the most eminent and most respected people who lived there. It was a time of real terror, and many found themselves forced to leave their homes and seek safe refuge in Funchal from the excesses of the rebellious populace.

In the municipality (concelho) of Sant'Ana, and especially in the parish of Faial, the population rioted and committed many outrages: the parish priest and some of the most respectable people of the locality were humiliated, ill-treated and even beaten.

In Ponta do Sol (‘point of the sun’) the people came down to the town (vila) in a threatening mood and would certainly have committed the most reprehensible excesses had the troops not barred their way. The soldiers were attacked and threatened with being violently driven off with stones, and they had to use their carbines; five of the populace were killed and others wounded.

In the parish of Caniço (‘reed’), the disturbances provoked by the supposed meeting of the parish council (junta de paróquia) also reached the gravest proportions, with the most tragic consequences. On 22 November 1887 a considerable number of the parish’s inhabitants invaded the parish priest’s house, on the pretext that the parish council was meeting there. After a thorough search of the whole dwelling and of all the church buildings, which they occupied entirely, together with the surrounding area, they remained there for many hours in a threatening and hostile attitude, and it was feared at every moment that this attitude would break out into a terrible storm.

At nightfall a force from Funchal commanded by Captain Luís Maria dos Reis arrived near the parish church of Caniço. He at once sought to have the church cleared, which he achieved only with difficulty. The troops were then violently stoned, and a soldier fell dead, struck by a large stone thrown from the church roof. The armed force, which had acted with every caution, found itself thus attacked; it defended itself and repelled the assault, and four of the populace fell, pierced by bullets, while many were wounded, some of them mortally.

From the mainland came contingents of the 5th Caçadores (Portuguese light infantry) and the 16th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Cibrão, to support the military forces quartered here, and they gave good service.

The events found an echo in the mainland press and in the highest circles of power. Our representatives in the Cortes (Portuguese parliament) and some Madeirans living in Lisbon impressed upon the central government that the events in Madeira had their origin chiefly in the distressing situation in which the island found itself. The revolt, they argued, was in essence a vigorous protest against the neglect to which the public authorities had abandoned the archipelago.

The government immediately adopted various measures and later took some far-reaching steps with regard to public works, the suspension of coastal shipping dues, etc.

By decree of 31 December 1887 the government appointed a large commission, chaired by Colonel of Engineers Manuel Raimundo Valadas and made up of various official bodies of this district and some landowners and merchants. Its secretary was Dr Gaspar Malheiro Pereira Peixoto, secretary-general of the civil government of Funchal.

Colonel Valadas showed the greatest zeal in carrying out the thorny mission entrusted to him. Wishing to find his bearings and to produce useful work, he heard everyone who approached him and took into account the suggestions of the press, of the administrative bodies and also of private individuals. He made a detailed study of the underlying causes of the district’s situation and, within the commission, which met countless times, he sought through discussion and close examination of the issues to reach practical and definitive conclusions on the serious matters the commission had been called upon to resolve.

The chairman of the commission wrote and submitted to the government a long and illuminating report, which is said to have been a valuable piece of work containing precious information on the causes of the revolt that had spread through Madeira and on the measures it would be advisable to adopt to overcome the crisis afflicting the district. The central government was urged to publish this report, but it never allowed it, consenting only to let Madeira’s representatives in parliament examine it at the offices of the Ministry of the Kingdom (Ministério do Reino), where it was kept. It was said at the time, and the press echoed it, that the report contained references to matters and persons that it was thought inadvisable to make public.

Colonel Valadas and the contingent of 250 infantrymen arrived in Funchal on 11 January 1888.