ing that the rice exports are sinall in comparison with the local consump- 
tion. The principal overseas consumers in the order of their takings are 
Trinidad, Barbados, French Guiana and the French West Indies. It is 
computed that only one bag in every seven produced is exported ; and 
so it comes to pass that the local demand regulates the market. It 
seems safe to assert that the per caput consumption of rice is the largest 
of any of the food products of the colony. It is patent that the 
prosecution of this industry, even although its organisation is not efficient 
and the relations between grower and entrepreneur not as they should be, 
has had a healthy effect on the social and economic situation. It has 
given trade a filliip and the connection between it and the marked 
increased consumption of what may be deemed luxuries is so near as, im 
the opinion of not a few observers, to preclude any suggestion of a mere 
coincidence. Let us take spirits. The following statement. an official one, 
shows the quantities (gallons) of wines and spirits (home made and foreign) 
and malt liquor entered for consumption within the colony for the ten 
years ended 31st March.1911 :-— 
264 Timehri. 
YEAR SPIRITS WINE Matt Tora 
1902 198,005 21,154 137,692 356,851 
1903 185,239 27,980 142,070 355,289 
1904 177,419 21,261 154,626 353,306 
1905 142,811 25,097 134,953 302,861 
1906 178,597 24,061 111,709 314,367 
1907 208,555 23,388 170,316 402,259 ; 
1908 194,616 28,622 196,011 419,249 
1909 195,769 29,486 176,548 401,800 
1910 212.314 30,940 191,068 434,222 
1911 303,368 31,366 185,534 420,568 
Note in regard to the foregoing table that the volume of consumption 
began to expand just as the industry had begun to feel its feet, so to 
speak. It is very significant also that the year of the largest consumption 
of spirituous liquors coincides with the year which saw the largest volume 
of the export of the cereal. It falls to be recorded, too, that since rice — 
gained for itself a place on the export list there has been a marked 
increase in the consumption of those articles which are affected more or 
less exclusively by the East Indian community, such as salt, ghee, seeds, 
spices, dholl and mustard oil. Bags and sacks are brought into the colony 
chiefly for the purpose of bagging rice and sugar. Inasmuch as the sugar 
exports have actually declined during the past decade, the fact that the 
quantity of bags and sacks imported meanwhile has risen from 1,238,478 
to 1,317,575, the importations standing at 1,420,225 in the year (1910) 
when the rice export trade reached its zenith, must clearly be attribu 
to the expansion of the rice industry. Yet more evidence regarding its 
development is afforded by the import trade in agricultural implements. 
The value of these imports has increased almost without a break for the 
past five years. Beginning with an importation of $22,174, the indent 
mounted to $33,850 in 1910 (the year of the rice boom, so to speak) then 
sank the next year to $26,543, to rjse the following year to $28,409. 
