Some Home Truths. 187 



With the opening up of the goldfields and the balata bush the pictures 

 were completed. Labour became scarcer and gradually the black popula- 

 tion turned itself to various trades and the black-task gangs became less 

 and less of importance to the sugar estates as their places were filled by 

 East Indian immigrants, immigrants from China and from Madeira. 



The Villages, the properties of the old bondmen, were neglected so 

 far as cultivation was concerned, as more and more the adventures of a 

 life in the " bush " appealed to sturdy young men, where by dint of a few 

 months really hard labour, there appeared to be greater gain than a life 

 of persistent everyday industry which farming all over the world 

 demands. 



Such a life of hard toil amidst dangers, away from such civilisation 

 as the coast affords, brought with it the result usual to all races which 

 have to toil in this way — namely, a want of thrift, a recklessness and an 

 extravagant love of pleasure, which asks for nothing better than a merry 

 time, whilst the money is there to afford this. 



Now a colony such as ours which depends practically on one industry 

 for its stability and that industry an annual crop such as sugar cane, is in 

 a very precarious condition if reliable and steady labour is not forthcom- 

 ing. Hence an expensive system of immigration — a system massed with 

 faults — was resorted to. The immigrant found the most suitable was the 

 East Indian. Full of thrift, with but few wants, patient, industrious, he 

 has, as he was bound to, made a place for himself at the top and gradual- 

 ly he is becoming the wealthy proprietor of the colony. 



East Indian immigration is a thing of the past to-day, and to com- 

 pete with other countries we are bound to adopt labour-saving devices 

 which were "pooh-poohed" in the past as being entirely impossible, but 

 which to-day are being seriously experimented with — so far this has been 

 a blessing in disguise. 



On all sides there is a clamour for the development of the colony — 

 the magic word hinterland has been in everyone's mouth. A Governor of 

 " proved constructive ability " was demanded and we obtained him, and 

 it is a matter of unsavoury history how he was treated by many of our 

 colonists. 



At any rate the demand for development has always existed, some 

 claiming that the coastlands should be first dealt with and that drainage 

 and irrigation schemes should be forthwith carried out, others that 

 development should be on a large scale and that both coast and hinter- 

 land should be developed by means of schemes carried out on a gigantic 

 scale. 



Our immigration systems of the past have been marked by a spirit 

 the reverse of what should have existed. But out of our immigration 

 system we might easily have built up a colonisation scheme. On the 

 contrary, the object aimed at was adult labour for the plantations — no 



