Vol. XV. No. Sol. 



THE AGRICUlTUKAL NEWS. 



Reciprocity. 



The second publication is of very direct interest 

 to West Indians. It is entitled 'Canada and the West 

 Indies', and consists of a report on the possibilities of 

 trade under the preferential tariff" agreement, by Mi-. 

 Watson Griffin, Special Trade Commissioner, who 

 visited these islands in 1914. In his letter of trans- 

 mittal Mr. Griffin acknowledges the useful information 

 nnd assistance rendered by the Island Governments, 

 jnerchants and planters, and by Dr. Watts, C.M.G., 

 Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture. The critical 

 ajuestion, 'Is the trade of the British West Indies 

 worth going after^ is dealt with in Chapter 1, and 

 ]\Ir. Griffin answers in the aftiniiative, laying great 

 stress upon the fact that the West Indies are each 

 year developing their resources more and more. He 

 ;ilso points out that there is the north of South Ameri- 

 can trade in Trinidad and British Guiana. As 

 regards the effect of the preferential tariff', little can be 

 said at present owing to the short time it has been in 

 force. It is, however, of some significance that the 

 people of the Colonies that joined in the trade agree- 

 ment spend more per head on imported articles than 

 Jamaica and the Bahamas, who st(Jod apart from it. 



The greater portion of the report, which runs to 

 ITo pages, gives a description of the resources of and 

 conditions in the West Indies This information is 

 very sound and to the point, and clearly indicates that 

 Mr. Griffin did not derive his facts from books, but 

 from the close questioning of the best local authorities, 

 both official and otherwise. 



Possible Improvement of Freight Facilities. 



The shortage of merchant shipping due to the 

 renuirements of the Admiralty, which has comman- 

 deered a large portion of the available tonnage, with the 



■consequent increase on the already exorbitant freights, 

 has been attracting considerable attention in shipping 



•circles both at Home and elsewhere. The subject is 

 reverted to editorially in the West India Committei' 

 Circular for January 27 last, in course of which refer- 

 ence is made to a letter published in the London Times. 

 In this Sir Alfred Booth, the Chairman of the Cunard 

 Line, has pointed out that the tonnage entrances into 

 ports of the United Kingdom in 191.5 were •S,395,52N 

 tons, of which .5,728,2.59 were British, against 12,084 518 

 tons, including 8,.S47,.584 British in 1913, under peace 

 conditions. Therefore, under war conditions the 

 British tonnage entrances have fallen 31 per cent., the 

 foreign 37, and the total tonnage entrances 33 per 

 cent. In other words, these figures mean that during 

 the last three months the carrying power of si.\ty-seven 

 ships had to do the work of each 100 ships employed 

 in times of peace, and of these sixty-seven ships 

 remaining available, forty-six were British and twenty- 

 one foreign. Thus, Sir Alfred goes on to point 



■ out: 'We can therefore only regulate the employment 

 and freight of 46 out of every ()7 of the ships that are 

 now bringing in our imports — that is, we can control 



the movements and freights of less than one-half of the 

 shipping we employed in times of peace.' 



In the House of .Commons on Januaiy 19^ 

 Mr. Runciman, in reply to several questions that were 

 put to him on the same subject, stated, inter alia, that 

 the Government were now taking steps to co-ordinate 

 more closely the demands for tonnage for military and 

 naval purposes, and for munitions and food for ourselves 

 and the Allies; to secure further economy in the use of 

 re(|uesitioned tonnage; and to increase the amount of 

 tonnage available. It may be noted also, that the Time^ 

 is conducting a campaign in favour of the exercise of 

 greater control over all British ships, and there is good 

 reason to believe, the Circular concludes, that early 

 steps will be taken to restrict the importation of 

 luxuries such as motor ciirs, etc., which would material- 

 ly relieve the situation, setting free as it will a certain 

 amount of tonnage for indispensable foodstuff's, which 

 have recently risen considerably in price. 



British Honduras in 1914. 



In Colonial Reports— Ann\XA\ No. 8(i8, there is 

 presented a report on the Blue Book of British 

 Honduras for the year 1914. From this it is seen 

 that the trade of the Colony declined in value to the 

 extent of .'i;412,412. This decline is attributed entirely 

 to the war. At the beginning of the year everything 

 pointed to an exceptionally good trade year: and for 

 the first seven months of the year imports increased 

 by over 8 per cent, against the figures for 1913; but 

 from August onward they declined steadily, and at the 

 end of the year were 21 per cent, below the figures for 

 the corresponding period in 1913. The total value 

 declined to the extent of .'*204.9(i2. Similarlv, from 

 January to July, exports increased .54 per cent, over the 

 figures for the same period in 1913, but from August 

 onward they decreased steadily, and show a decline of 

 40 per cent, cm the figures for the same period in 1913. 



Among the chief artieles exported, shipments of 

 bananas, coco-nuts, and chicle (Sapodilla gum) call for 

 special mention, the increase over those for 1913 being 

 considerable. On the other hand, there was a great 

 decrease in other commodities. Of the total coco-nuts 

 exported, it is explained that nearly 3,000,000 were 

 foreign imports re-exported. Two-thirds of the total 

 chicle exported was not the product of the Colonv. 



Xo fewer than thirty Ordinances were passed by 

 the Legislature during the year, amongst them being 

 Ordinance No. 24, which enables the Governor to 

 provide holdings for agriculturists who agree tb grow 

 food or other crops thereon during the war, and further 

 enables the Governor to hire land for that purpose. 



Included in this report is a table giving a com- 

 parative return of the rainfall in Belize for the ten 

 years 190.5-14. This shows that the average rainfall 

 far the period was 9o'80 inches: the maximum (13093 

 inches) occurring in 1911, when rain fell on HJ(i day.s; 

 and the minimum ((i3-7(! inches) in 1910, rain tailing 

 on 124 days. But 1907 had the smallest number of 

 days (80) on which rain fell, and 1913 the largest ( h)7,l« • 



