80 Timehri. 



regarded as a certain aid for the colonization of the colony. We are face 

 to face with new conditions in India and elsewhere, and may at very 

 short notice have to accommodate ourselves to the task of solving our 

 labour problems on other lines. 



Cassandra was not a popular prophetess especially in her own 

 country and we are all alive to the truth of the saying that you cannot 

 argue with a prophet. you can only disbelieve him. Still without 

 prophesying or pulling too long a face, it must be clear that the immediate 

 outlook is not as cheerful as we should like. Tt only remains to consider 

 whether we shall sit with folded arms and murmur " Kismet " or whether 

 like our predecessors in this colony, like our fellow citizens all over the 

 British Empire, we shall put our trust in God and boldly go forth to face 

 the difficulty rather than stay at home and succumb to it. 



Talk Without Action. 



Tf the development of this colony could have been brought about by 

 discussion and advice it would be one of the most progressive parts of the 

 world. But the talk goes on. good intentions are formed and nothing at 

 all comes of it. Year after year we tread the same weary round, hope 

 deferred making the heart sick. The climate is conduc ve to a life of 

 contemplation. Genuine capitalists seldom visit us and leave our 

 possibilities to the chances of the adventurer or the adventurous. T am 

 inclined to think they treat us as the Rajah of the musical comedy treated 

 another slumberous land : — 



,; Peace, peace, leave them in peace, 



For the weak must be ruled by the strong 



And the axe and the knife 



Are no longer at strife 



In the beautiful Valley of Bhong." 



There is a danger of our drugging ourselves with advice and hopes 

 without taking the advice or translating the hopes into concrete realities, 

 and I doubt whether anybody whose advice is neglected will make the 

 ineffectual protest of Ahitophel to call attention to that neglect My 

 recollection is that Ahitophel, finding his advice flouted, saddled his ass 

 and went away unto his own country and put his house in order and 

 hanged himself and was buried with his fathers. My scriptural informa- 

 tion does not reach so far as knowing what happened to Hushai the 

 Archite whose false advice was more pleasing to Absalom. King David 

 no doubt considered whether he should hang him or make him a captain 

 in Israel. Without irreverence I trust he hanged him. 



But lest I be tempted myself to imitate Ahitophel and, as I have 

 no desire to share either the punishment or the reward of Hushai the 

 Archite, I intend not to occupy your time by giving any advice at all. 

 I will myself set out the subject of discussion, mention a few facts, and 

 formally put before you the opinions of people who have a better right to 

 be heard than I. 



