60 Timehri. 



According to the report of the subsidiary Industries Committee 

 of the Colonization Scheme 30,000 more labourers can be absorbed 

 into this industry and with irrigation added the Committee is fully satis- 

 fied that its successful expansion and increased development is fully assured. 



The Committee also thinks that settlers of the East Indian race are 

 the most desirable for the further development of this industry. 



There are vast tracts of land situate on the West Coast and Corentyne 

 Coast of Berbice, also in the Mahaica and Mahaicony Districts, eminently 

 adapted for rice cultivation, with the natural advantage of a plentiful 

 supply of water from the adjacent creeks for the purpose of irrigation. 



If these lands are all taken up by East Indians, as we hope they will 

 in the not distant future, for the extension of the said industry, the pros- 

 perity of the Colony will have been considerably advanced. The quality 

 of our rice is known and appreciated and there is a ready market available 

 for the produce, the demand being even greater than the supply. In 

 thinking of Indian immigration let this stand to its eternal credit. 



The immigrants and their descendants enter into every walk of life 

 in the Colony. There are a few wealthy cattle owners on the Corentyne 

 Coast and West Coast of Berbice. 



In Water street we can point to a few prosperous merchants who 

 from petty shopkeepers have risen to commercial magnates. Others are 

 engaged as clerks, mechanics, small shopkeepers, dispensers, hucksters, 

 green growers, milk sellers, &c, &c. 



A fair number is employed in the Civil Service of the Colony. 



In the words of the Commissioners they are growing in numbers, 

 wealth and importance. 



Foreign trade on any big scale has not, however, been attempted as 

 yet by the Indians in this colony. This fact is chiefly due to the initial 

 disadvantages under which they had to labour, rather than to lack of 

 enterprise. 



Ignorance of languages, together with the lack of a good education, 

 has handicapped the present generation. But their sons, brought up 

 under an atmosphere of free economic activity, will be better equipped, 

 and in the next generation we can be certain that business on a bigger 

 scale will be undertaken by them. 



From what has been said it will be clear that the labourer who 

 emigrates from India prospers, in spite of all the difficulties that ho has 

 to encounter, and all the prejudices that he has to overcome, an indirect 

 gain of first rate importance to India, but more than that, the mother- 

 land is also benefited directly by the prosperity of her sons abroad. 



