A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. III. No. 47. 



BARBADOS, JANLTARY 30, 1904. 



Peice Id. 



CONTENTS. 



T a meeting of the Trinidad Chamber of 

 Commerce recently held at Port-of-Spain, 

 an important discussion took place with 

 regard to the establishment of a friiit indiistrj-. 



Mr. Rust moved the following resolution : ' That 

 this Chamber has watched with much interest the 

 efforts of Mr. S3'mington's West Indian Syndicate to 

 inaugurate and establish a fruit industry in this 

 colony, and thinks that the time has now arrived when 

 the Government might be approached with a view 

 to financial assistance being granted to a -syndicate 

 in the shape of a grant-in-aid to defray the initial 

 expenses the fruit syndicate had incurred, as the 

 establishment of the fruit industry in Trinidad is 

 a matter of great importance to the entire community.' 



In introducing this resolution, Mr. Rust referred 

 to the many attempts which had been made to 

 inaugurate a fruit industry, but which had all ended in 

 failure. He said that Mr. Symington had for several 

 months past been indefatigable in his efforts to foster 

 a fruit industry. Mr. Symington's syndicate had 

 received fruit from the country, paying for it on 

 the spot, and made shipments to England. Unfortun- 

 atel}', when sold in the English markets, the fruit did 

 not cover the cost of purchase, packing and other 

 expenses. To obtain a profit from uncultivated fruit 

 was an impossibility. Any eftbi't to be made in the 

 direction of establishing a fruit trade should be pro- 

 moted by the Government, for if they could get a fruit 

 industry well started, they would be able to do as 

 Jamaica had done, in raising an industry which brought 

 hundreds of thousands of pounds to the colony every 

 year. 



He believed the Royal Mail Steamship Company 

 was doing all it could to help and was most anxious to 



