East Indians in British Guiana. Bae | 
the estates their conditions do not appear so satisfactory at all.” The 
facilities afforded these free immigrants for growing rice on estate lands 
undoubtedly serve as a strong inducement to them to remain on the 
estates. Of course, the object in having these free immigrants on the 
estates is to supplement the indentured labour. The system is a good 
one, and operates to the mutual benefit of planters and free immigrants. 
In this scheme, it may be pointed out, it is not a matter of the planters 
showing any special consideration for a particular race—as some people 
think—but of obtaining what from experience they regard as the best 
and most reliable labour. 
Outside of the sugar plantation, East Indians are scattered all over 
the colony and are engaged in various pursuits. I will not go so far as to 
say that the mass of the future colonial population will consist entirely 
of East Indians. Indeed, I would not like to see a purely East Indian 
colony here. Other races are useful, each in its own way, and the 
exploitation of the vast hinterland, to which we are now turning our eyes, 
can only be achieved by people of hardier constitutions and greater 
streneth of muscle,—such, for instance, as the negro race possesses. 
But East Indians are demonstrating more and more their work in the 
economic development of the country, and are asserting themselves more 
and more in the general life of the community. The country may not be 
quite a paradise for them, but it gives them a living, and in many a case 
a perfectly comfortable living—a far better living, indeed, than they can 
get in the Mother country ; and, it is only to be. hoped that no impedi- 
ments will be put in the way of their further progress, but rather that 
they will be more and more encouraged in this direction, and to a 
permanent settlement on the land. 
In agriculture, the greater part of the labouring class of our Kast 
Indian population are engaged. It is well that this is so for british 
Guiana is pre-eminently an agricultural country, and upon agriculture 
depends its growth and prosperity. The East Indians themselves are 
natural agriculturists, and take what Mill calls “an affectionate interest ” 
in the land. To own land of their own is their great ambition, and to 
this end they labour hard and economise largely. To the provision- 
farmer or rice-grower, working under favourable weather conditions, 
comes not “the anxiety which chills and paralyses, the uncertainty of 
having food to eat,” to which the less industrious classes are invariably 
subject. The want of rain or artificial watering in times of drought, or 
of drainage when floods prevail, is the supreme troubler of the peace of 
the peasantry. The rice industry is almost absorbing the time and 
energy of the East Indian agriculturists. Provision-growing, to which 
ereat attention used to be given, is now largely neglected for rice- ‘growing. 
It is estimated that the area under rice cultivation in the colony is 36,000 
acres, being an increase of some 4,000 acres over last year’s acreage. 
In 1898 the area under rice was only 6,000 acres. So that in fourteen 
years it has increased by 30,000 acres—an acreage increase every year of 
2,142 acres. Since 1907 the colony has been exporting its surplus rice, 
