AGRICULTURAL CREDIT BANKS 1 05 



first class, especially where it has the opportunity of 

 acquiring land, is excellent material for co-operative 

 credit. The East Indian comes from a country whose 

 people are familiar with communal village life and the 

 action of caste and trade guilds. It is worth while, 

 therefore, to take a rapid survey of the position of East 

 Indians in our Crown Colonies. Ceylon has about one 

 million Indian immigrants and their descendants. The 

 agricultural credit movement has already spread from 

 India. It should be of use to the East Indians, and 

 probably also to the native Cingalese. In the Malay 

 States the native is not disposed for regular .field work, 

 and there is a steady inflow of Indian labour. Here, too, 

 there should be room for co-operative credit societies, at 

 least among the immigrants. In Fiji the Indian element 

 is growing rapidly, and is likely to become the pre- 

 dominant one, for the unenergetic indigenous popula- 

 tion is unfortunately dwindling. The natives of that 

 fertile but thinly populated group of islands evince no 

 desire for a strenuous life, and I fear we may leave them 

 out of account. When the African slaves were freed, the 

 first use they made of their liberty was to refuse regular 

 work, and the planters had to look elsewhere. Mauritius 

 began to import Indian labour eighty years ago. By 

 1907 the population had increased fourfold. It numbered 

 376,000, of whom 264,000 were of East Indian descent. 

 The rest are mostly Creoles. The neighbouring French 

 Colony of Reunion has also a considerable Indian popu- 

 lation. Turning to the New World, British Guiana has 

 a population of 300,000 (only three per square mile), of 

 whom 133,000 are East Indians. The future prosperity of 

 the Colony largely depends on this element. Dutch Guiana 

 has also a considerable Indian population. Trinidad, 

 with 800,000 cultivable acres, nearly half of which is 

 Crown property, had twenty years ago 70,000 East 

 Indians out of a total of 200,000. Creole labour is 

 abundant in Jamaica, and there the East Indian element 

 is smaller and much less essential, though still useful. 

 British Honduras could profitably absorb much East 

 Indian labour. I think we may say that wherever in our 

 tropical possessions the East Indian has settled under fair 



