70 Timehri. 



overweening desire of self-advertisement which they undisguisedly dis« 

 play while they indulge in the entrancing exercise of tickling the ears 

 of the groundlings. Independent Commissions of Enquiry have examined 

 and discussed the allegation that the importation of East Indian Immi- 

 grants has led to a reduction of the rate of wages and to the prevalence 

 of unemployment among other classes of the population, and have con- 

 cluded that such an allegation is unfounded. 



Just now efforts are being made to increase the labour supply by 

 means of what is being called a Colonisation scheme, that is, to sow the 

 seeds of wealth in the colony. That these efforts will succeed is a con- 

 summation devoutly to be wished. East Indian immigrants, at the close 

 of the year 1917, held real property valued at a little over one million 

 dollars, the largest contribution thereto during the same year being a 

 cattle farm in East Demerara, for which the sum of $35,000 was paid. 

 The purchaser was an immigrant who had come to the colony in 1881, at 

 the age of 21. He remained in the colony for twenty-three years, and 

 after going back home, returned. Many there are like this man, this 

 embodiment of thrift, a fact that may be gleaned from the record which 

 tells that the $319,590 worth of property owned by East Indians in 

 Georgetown was held by only 304 of them. In New Amsterdam, 64 East 

 Indians held property valued at $72,000. The goodness of prices ruling 

 for rice was reflected in the Savings Banks' transactions. At the end of 

 the year the number of depositors was 7,507, and the sum at their credit 

 $489,801, showing an increase, as compared with the previous year, of 

 171 depositors and $78,403 in the amount at their credit. During the 

 same year the sum of $10,073 was remitted to India, being a little more 

 than £500 more than in the previous year. 



On the question of East Indian immigration, let me quote the 

 weighty opinion of Governor Swetteuham : — " With reference to the 

 future progress of this colony, and the presence of the immigrant coolie 

 therein, I confess, speaking individually, my regret is that, instead of 

 merely 150,000 coolies, we have not ten times that number in the colony. 

 We have lands enough and to spare, and with a na:ural supply of water 

 available they could grow enough rice to supply this hemisphere. 

 Already, chiefly by the industry of the free coolie, the local price of rice 



, has been reduced. There is also an enormous field here for 



coconut planting on a large scale, and on the savannahs for cattle farm- 

 ing, a business which is very popular amongst coolies. The coolie has 

 already spread over the whole country from the Corentyne to the 

 Orinoco, and he has been so successsful in providing for himself that 

 coolie settlements in return for back passages have been abandoned, not 

 as a failure, but because the coolie is so successful without them. The 

 coolie is to be found in some localities renting land from negro owners 

 for rice cultivation at a high rent and sometimes employing negro 

 labourers in the cultivation. He is to be found draining, for wages, 

 villages owned and populated by negroes. His thrift is most commend- 



