( 46 ) 



seaweed and its products. Continued changes in the 

 market price of some of these products, arising out 

 of new mineral sources of supply, have since greatly 

 deransfed the orio^inal calculations of Mr. Stanford. 

 The rent he originally agreed to pay has never been 

 fully realised, and has now been reduced to an incon- 

 siderable sum. But his processes have not ceased to 

 Employment given fumish employment to a large number of persons, 



by the Company ij^cludiuiv women and children, who could not other- 

 in the Island. *^ ' 



wise have had any employment at all. I have been 



informed that in the season 1880-1881 the people of 

 Tyree made no less than 376 tons of kelp, and gathered 

 no less than 417 tons of ** dry tangle," which, at the 

 lowest calculation, must have dispensed among the 

 poorest classes not less than between ;^2ooo and 

 ;^3000. Whatever may have been the amount of 

 wages expended by this Company among the work- 

 ing classes in Tyree, — and that amount must in the 

 aggregate have been very large during the last twenty 

 years, — the whole of it has been brought to them from 

 causes to which they contributed nothing. It has 

 been due, in the first place, to Mr. Stanford's scientific 

 knowledge and skill. It has been due, in the second 

 place, to the proprietors notice and appreciation 

 of the prospects which Mr. Stanford's experiments 

 afforded ; and it has been due in the third place to 

 the proprietary right under which alone Mr. Stanford 

 could obtain, for his capital and for his riskful enter- 

 prise, the requisite security of a Lease. I am glad to 

 be informed by Mr. Stanford that though the value of 

 iodine and of potash has been so greatly reduced as 

 now to afi'ord little profit, there is a prospect that 



