382 Timehri. 
The Secretary of State for the Colonies has become impressed with the 
needs of this colony; he has sent us a tried and able administrator in 
the present Governor, who is rapidly making himself acquainted at first 
hand with our conditions and our masses. The opening up of the 
Panama Canalis bringing these British possessions once more into promi- 
nence and dangerous fossils in these parts are beingclearly seen in the 
bright light now pentrating the thick darkness that has so long veiled us. 
Many promising sons of Guiana have been forced by circumstances to go 
abroad to more enlightened spheres of labour, and their communications 
with those whom they leave behind are rousing them up to greater 
activity and greater determination to better their condition. This is in 
itself a great stimulus to the rulers of the land to move forward to 
check the exodus of the flower of its small population. A healthy 
rivalry is growing between the East Indian settlers and the coloured 
inhabitants of our country. All are standing to-day on the tip-toe of 
expectancy for the great move forward under the lead of Sir Walter 
Egerton, whose task is no mean one, calling for the most thorough grasp 
of local conditions and great farsightedness. But he can be assured of 
loyal co-operation from the masses, who regard this as their day of 
salvation and will not lose this golden opportunity, remembering that 
There is a tide in the affairs of men 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
_ Neglected, all the voyage of our lives 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries. 
