SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS IN WEST INDIES 389 



A summary of the agricultural and commercial conditions 

 in the several Colonies forms Part iii. of the Report. This 

 deserves the careful attention of those interested in the pro- 

 ductions of tropical countries. The details are too voluminous 

 to be discussed here. 



The British West Indies, in the larger sense in which they 

 are dealt with in this Report, cover an area of 109,836 square 

 miles or a little less than that of the British Isles. The popula- 

 tion is estimated at 2,300,000. The annual total trade (imports 

 and exports) is of the value of ^^"20,662, 348. Of the imports about 

 40 per cent., in manufactured and other goods, are obtained 

 direct from the United Kingdom. 



Attention is drawn to the extensive tracks of cultivable 

 land still awaiting development in Colonies such as British 

 Guiana, British Honduras, Jamaica and Trinidad. Where 

 native labour is not available for developing new agricultural 

 industries, a well-organised system of immigration which has 

 been in satisfactory working for many years is carried on with 

 the co-operation of the Government of India. The number of 

 coolie immigrants now under contract or settled as free coolies 

 on small holdings in the West Indies is estimated at about a 

 quarter of a million. 



The report proceeds with an inquiry into the value of the 

 Canadian preference to the West Indies. The Commissioners 

 found very early in their inquiry that there was considerable 

 conflict in the evidence as to the division of the benefit arising 

 from the preference given by Canada as between the buyers and 

 the producers respectively. After careful consideration of all 

 the facts placed before them they express the opinion that the 

 preferential policy initiated by the Canadian Government has 

 been of undoubted benefit to the West Indian producer of sugar. 

 Taking one year with another the latter has received from " a 

 third to a half, or approximately from 95. to 145. per ton above 

 the price which he would have been able to obtain without the 

 preference." On the other hand, the Commissioners hold that 

 the Canadian refiner has also benefited, since " it creates in a 

 large body of producers an interest in selling to him," and to a 

 great extent it relieves him from the necessity of competing for 

 his supplies in other markets. " It also, by reducing duties, 

 probably stimulates consumption and improves his business." 



In another aspect of the subject the Commissioners are of 



