1920.'] CAGAO PRIZE COMPETITION. 45^ 



The Goverxor's Advice, 



His Excellency in reply thmked the assembly for their kind welcome, 

 and intimated how extremely glad he was to be able to come and see 

 for himself the fertile district of which he had heard so macli. It was- 

 always a pleasure to a Governor or Acting Governor to see the country 

 districts for himself. Mr. Freeman had given them good advice and he 

 would like to emphasize it from the experience of one who had seen a 

 great deal of agriculture in other places— that the peasant proprietors 

 were the backbone of the colony and if they did not put their shoulders 

 to the wheel Trinidad could not progress. The colony looked to them 

 as practical men to make advancement. He would be the last to 

 dispari^ge their practical woik, but at the same time they could learn 

 much from those who had devoted their attention to the more scientific 

 side of agriculture. Therefore, he asked them to lend an ear to the 

 Department of Agriculture and Mr. Mota their Agricultural Adviser^ 

 because the advice they h ad to offer, would present the experience gathered 

 from all over the world, and brought to their very doors. It was to- 

 them ns practical men to make the b( st of what the Department was 

 doing for them. They had lived and are still living in trying times 

 which they hoped would never come again, although perhaps, it had' 

 affected them less than other people in other parts of the Empire. There 

 was one lesson which the times had not failed to teach all of them and 

 it was that no part of the Eujpire in future could with safety depend 

 upon importation for its food supply. The prices of imported foodstuffs 

 were still very high and he saw no prospect of their coming down in the 

 near future ; whi'e at the same time there was no guarantee that the 

 prices of the articles produced here would always remain as high as 

 they were at present. Therefore they must look ahead and both grow 

 and keep in the colony reserves of foodstuffs in case the condition of 

 things should get worse and worse. As Mr. Freeman had already 

 told 1 hem il was not wii^e to plant all their lands in cacao, but they 

 should keep part of it in food crops. He hoped those comi)etitions would 

 be continued and that next year either Sir John Chancellor — who they 

 knew took a keen interest in Agriculture — or himself would be there to- 

 give away the prizes, when he hoped to be able to see that more of 

 them had entered for the competition than was the case in the presenti 

 instance. He thanked them again for their very kind welcome. 



