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TfRfc TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February 2, 1885. 



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Here again we have an average rainfall of fully 120 

 inches speud ov.r 211 days. The old and famous 

 coffee districts of Matale aud Uva, therefore, are likely 

 to become equally famous as tea districts. In this con- 

 nection we very pleased to learn that tea is likely to 

 be planted on an extensive scale on several Haputale 

 properties very shortly. 



COOLIES IN THE WEST INDIES. 



How the depression in the sugar interest is likely 

 to nffect the indentured labourers in the West Indies 

 who are entitled to return passages, is thus forcibly 

 stated by the Port of-Spaiii Gazette : — 



There are some members of this community, and by no 

 means uninnuential ones, who still cling to the belief that 

 the sugar crisis is greatly exaggerated, nnd that no such 

 commercial stagnation, much less general ruin, as is generally 

 foretold, threatens the West India colonies, or at least 

 Trinidad. We have cacao, coconuts, and asphalt, say 

 these dwellers in a Fool's Paradise, and what does it matter 

 if a few sugar planters, and rich West Indian merchants 

 on the other side are compelled to abandon their proper- 

 tiesor perchance to compound with their creditors ? Others 

 will take their places, and that very soon, and if mean- 

 time cacao, coconuts and pitch, and the local possessors 

 of capital, are somewhat heavily handicapped, matters will 

 soon right themselves and Trinidad become as prosperous 

 as before. Such false views as these have been much en- 

 couraged by the fact that hitherto, both in England and 

 the West Indies, the t( Sugar Crisis " has beeu discussed 

 from a purely financial point of view, and we frankly admit 

 that were it possible to increase our other exports, say four- 

 fold in twelve months, then financially the " Sugar Crisis " 

 might not prove so disastrous in Trinidad. Eut even were 

 this impossible output miraculously rendered possible, it 

 would, though lessening the financial strain, offer not the 

 very slightest solution of the many and great social and 

 political problems, so closely interwoven with the sugar 

 crisis and which are even now pressing only too promin- 

 ently to the front. One of these, perhaps the chief, is 

 what are we to do with our labouring populatiou ? Can 

 we find them work t* and if not, where are they to get 

 food ? Every man who knows anything of the sub- 

 ject will agree with us that if there be no improvement 

 in the price of sugar — (and the overproduction renders 

 such a thing under ordinary circumstances imposs- 

 ible) — sugar estates in the West Indies will be, if not 

 totally at least gradually abandoned, and the commence- 

 ment of such an abandonment will certainly be within the 

 next nine months, it may be sooner. Will the cacao and 

 coconut planters and pitch exporters be ready then to 

 take over the indentured coolies? Will they pay the re- 

 turn passages of those of them who are entitled to such? 

 And what of the thousands of labourers and artisans who 

 are employed on sugar estates ? We need scarcely say 

 that they will not, for the simple reason that, as is well 

 known, neither cacao nor coconut cultivation requires any 

 large number of labourers aud that they are in fact already 

 well supplied. In this view of the case it has been truly 

 said that immigration which has hitherto proved so great 

 a blessing to Trinidad, will, if the sugar industry be 

 destroyed, become a lasting curse. With our hospitals 

 and asylums crowded to overflowing, our gaols so full as 

 to be dangerous to health, and evidences everywhere that 

 there is not full employment to he had for the labouring 

 population already in the colony and that in the near future 

 the whole fabric ou which " wages " depend may crumble 

 and disappear surely it is time that the Government gave 

 some warning to the large number of people from the 

 other colonies who are daily arriving, and apparently in 

 increased numbers for if not this immigration will con- 

 tinue aud so help to swell at a later date that most dangerous 

 of all social elements— an k'le population. 



CATARRH OF THE BLADDER. 



Stinging irritation, inflamation. all Kindey and similar 

 Complaints, cured by "Euchu-paiba." W. E. Smith & Co,. 

 Madras, Sole Agents. 



