The Labowr Question. 279 
while Sir Clement Markham was speaking of Spanish families of pure 
blood settled in Peru, the utterances of the various speakers seem rather 
to confirm the conclusions of Dr. Felkin. 
The facts that concern the subject we are considering that emerge 
from the discussion are, that the conditions required for successful South 
European settlement are not obtainable in British Guiana. A plateau of 
large area, even if obtainable, would have to be of such an altitude, 
having regard to our vicinity to the equator, as to emphasize unduly the 
admitted drawbacks of rarified air and a tropical mountain sun. 
Our labour problem, then, would seem to be the seeking out in the 
sparsely-populated Heat Belt of possible resources of tropical man- 
power, which, when found, we must proceed to tap by an immigration 
system capable of expansion or contraction in accordance with our 
varying needs. A possible scheme to do that belongs to the second part 
of my subject. 
A SUGGESTED SOLUTION. 
The first and most important suggestion that I have to make is 
that the principle should be adopted of free labour for all industries, and 
that there might be no doubt about what | mean by free labour, I will 
explain that my meaning is, that the Government should import immi- 
grants and hand them over free of charge to employers, whoever they 
may be, whether planters, wood-cutters, or miners, or what-not, so long 
as the said employers satisfied the Government that they were prepared, 
and in a position, to carry out the Government regulations relating to 
immigrants. In the interest of the newcomers themselves they would 
have to be allotted to the employers who accepted them on arrival for a 
certain number of years, say five, as at present. A period of tutelage is 
absolutely necessary. 
I am perfectly well aware of the outcry this suggestion will give 
rise to. Ican hear in imagination the angry storm of protest. Is the 
man mad? Where is the money tocome from? What, tax the labourers 
already in the colony to bring others to take the bread out of their 
mouths! ete., ete. I will deal with all this presently. First, let me 
explain why I put so very controversial a suggestion in the very fore- 
front of my programme. 
CHANGE THE PRESENT SCHEME. 
I take it that all will agree that if this country is ever to progress 
the present immigration system must go. You can keep the present 
immigration system and stand still or change it and go forward. 
But you cannot keep it and go forward. Think for a moment what 
the present system is, and what it means. A single industry is 
singled out and specially taxed to pay for the cost of intro- 
ducing the outside labour at present brought into the colony. The 
general revenue of the colony pays a fixed amount, and whenever the 
