NOTES ON A TRIP TO SURINAM. 
By Rev. JAMres AIKEN, M.A. 
When I yielded to the persuasions of our tyrannical President and put 
together some notes on a little trip I recently made to our neighbour colony, a 
consideration which had some weight in bringing me to submission, was that 
to a considerable number of members of this Scciety Suriname is little more 
than a name, while, in view of the many similarities of its situation and con- 
ditions and the identities of its problems, any little contribution to a more 
familiar acquaintance between the two Guianas would have a value altogether 
out of proportion to the intrinsic worth of my remarks. 
The ease of access of Nickerie and Paramaribo makes it a little surprising 
that more intercourse has not been established to the mutual social and busi- 
ness profit of the colonies. To illustrate this point I may mention that, on 
my return journey, leaving Paramaribo at 4 p.m., steamer and motor brought me 
to my home at Auchlyne ai 3.15 p.m. next day, that is in exactly 23 hours, 15 
minute> from the stelling at Paramaribo to St. Saviour’s Manse. There 1s 
then no distance barrier. Of course thee is t-e language barrier. but that does 
not count for much. Every Datchman, both in ‘Paramaribo and Nickerie, 
speaks English—of course. 
An exploration of Dutch Guiana would net he complete without a visit to 
Nickerie. 1 visited it in spite of its reputation for a particularly frequent 
and baleful brana of mosquito. Perhaps that was an added attraction rather 
than othetwise. I had the pleasure of meeting some old acquaintances 
of the mosquito family, the familiar Albipes and sometimes tvo familiar 
iaemrorhynchus, but 1 must submit that their attentions were not unduly 
insistent. This comparative negiect of a stranger was, | am told, due to the 
fact that it was my good fortune to happen in on theiz holiday season. Another 
familar of the insect tribe was the Brassolis moth, so destructive to coconuts 
which 1 met immediately on ‘anding. Nickerie, a few miles up the creek of 
that name, 1s a kind of miniature New Amsterdam. lt has three or four 
churches, a well-staffed Post Office with a stafi of urbane and very obliging 
officials, an imposing Government building, a Gaol, a Hospital and two hvely 
business streets. 
The Hospital is a clean well-conducted place housed in buildings set round 
a square, somewhat ancient in appearance but in good repair. There is every 
mark of a brisk and flourishing commerce in the business part of the town. 
Everywhere the Berbician is in evidence ; about one-half of the population 
seem to belong to the British side of the Corentyne. 
Of course, the balata business is responsible for the presence of most of our 
colonists. I had the pleasure cf speaking to a gentleman engaged in the 
trade, and of glancing overa report he had prepared on the latex-yielding 
trees of Surinam, and was struck with the evidence of a desire to gather 
