34 TRINIDAD. 



its object the protection of cane and other staple cultivation. 

 I would not like to affirm that it succeeded, though it was 

 effective in checking the increase of small proprietors. The 

 crown lands of the colony are now offered for sale under certain 

 restrictions. To the foresight of Sir Arthur Gordon — to his 

 judicious arrangements — we owe the change. 



Societies, in their normal evolutions, must pass through 

 certain stages or phases, and wisdom consists not in opposing 

 those natural changes, but in checking and preventing deflec- 

 tions, and in restraining them within certain limits. 



One of the phases of this evolution in the West Indian 

 freed communities was evidently the formation of a class of 

 small proprietors, or the aggregation of a certain number of 

 families to that class where it already existed. The inclination 

 to become freeholders must have been particularly strong in the 

 emancipated labourers, both on account of their long dependence 

 and the influence of climate. The desire to become cotters has 

 been well manifested in the great number of squatters formerly 

 occupying crown land, and who, since the Government has 

 taken cognisance of their occupancy, have, by the payment of a 

 certain amount, become entitled to and actual owners of the 

 lands which their industry had brought under cultivation. As 

 agriculturists, however, the emancipated slaves may be said 

 to exhibit a partiality for the culture of certain plants — viz., 

 of such which do not require much exertion or unremitting 

 attention; of such as arrive most rapidly to maturity; or of 

 those the product of which does not demand much preparation 

 to render them merchantable, nor the same amount of care in 

 their cultivation, as our more delicate vegetables, for instance. 

 As to those plants which require a large and constant amount of 

 labour to render them exportable, they will cultivate such only 

 when directly compelled by legal enactments, or indirectly by 

 circumstances. This is proved, I believe, not only by the 

 history of the West Indies since emancipation, but also by that 

 of all other inter-tropical countries. And this is, perhaps, the 

 main point from which cane cultivation has received such a 

 check in the emancipated colonies ; for it has been kept up or 

 increased only where circumstances compelled the people to 

 work for a livelihood, or where indenture bound them to the 

 sugar estates. 



There is no inducement, at present, to increase the pro- 

 duction of sugar. If, however, an increased demand should call 

 for increased production, industrious cotters will probably be 

 the principal agents of that production, by adopting the division 

 of labour system, and by the establishment of central factories. 

 The system of central factories I consider as the most rational 





