NOW AND THEN OR NOTES ON THE SOCIETY 

 AND ITS WORK IN 1897 AND IN 1918. 



By Professor J. B. Harrison, C.M.G., M.A., F.I.C., F.G.S. 



I was President of the Society in 1897 and am now so again in 1918 

 after an interval of 21 years, whilst I appear to be the only member who 

 has held office at such an interval. The late Honourable B. Howell Jones, 

 who was President in 1884, 1891, 1899, 1905, and 1909, held office in 1905 

 after a similar interval from his first assumption thereof. 



It may be of interest to the Society to review some of the changes 

 which have taken place in the Society and in the industries of the Colony 

 since January, 1897. That year was the year during which the West 

 Indian Royal Commission made its enquiries and issued its report. The 

 influence of the Commission on some of the smaller West Indian Islands 

 has been manifestly beneficial ; on this Colony it has been, as in Trinidad 

 and Jamaica, more or less negligible. The beneficial effects in the West 

 Indian Islands has been due to the personal influence of two men, 

 Honorary members of this Society, Sir Daniel Morris and Sir 

 Francis Watts, more especiafly to the ability, practical knowledge 

 and local experience of the latter. Their greatest feat has been the 

 reorganisation of the sugar industry in Antigua and St. Kitts, and in- 

 directly in Barbados. Their other marked success has been the 

 establishment of the Sea Island cotton industry in Antigua, St. Kitts, 

 Barbados and especially in St. Vincent. In both these lines the influence 

 of the present Commissioner of Agriculture for the West Indies has been 

 paramount. 



At the time of the enquiry the sugar industry in British Guiana was 

 directed by men who can be described as a race of saccharine giants. 

 One of our members was in the forefront then as he still is, pre-eminent 

 in technical sugar matters in the Colony ; I, of course, allude to Mr. J. M. 

 Fleming, of the Diamond Estates. Unfortunately for the Colony his able 

 and zealous coadjutor, William Douglas, in my opinion by far the most 

 able chemical engineer and sugar technologist who has been connected 

 with the Colony, has retired from active life here, although his influence 

 can be recognised in many of the improvements installed in our sugar 

 factories. 



Among the more able of the practical agriculturists of that time was 

 Mr. J. Gillespie of Plantation Houston who still controls that fertile 

 property. The remainder of the sugar giants of those days are no longer 

 with us in the Colony ; many of them have been spared the shock of the 

 world-wide calamity wrought by that past-master of infamy, who, whilst 

 challenging the exploits of those mighty men — Atilla, Caesar, Alexander 

 the Great, and Napoleon, has entered into competition in the " Eternal 

 Infamy Stakes " with Caligula and Nero, and vancpuished them — hands 

 down. In 1897 under the guise of friendship he was encompassing the 



