844 Timehri. 



regarding the importation of plants from Europe and the United States. 

 And similarly as they had a general quarantine law in regard to human 

 beings why not extend it to animals ? (Hear, hear.) They recently 

 had had an outbreak of Mai de caderas, and how advantageous such 

 a uniform law would be throughout the colonies? Other subjects were 

 the laws regarding patents, trade marks, and copyright. In regard to 

 the latter he thought they had a common law and were getting it at 

 the instance of the Home Government, but as to trade marks he 

 believed each colony had its own law. 



Telegraphic and Steamer Communication. 



Certainly when the time came to enter into the new mail contracts 

 or agreements in regard to telegraphic rates all could see in what a very 

 much better position they would be if the West Indies had one person 

 speaking for the whole of the eastern islands and British Guiana. (Hear, 

 hear.) How very nice it would be too if they had a general Board to 

 decide matters of Education ; they would not then have had all the recent 

 trouble, and it was not even now finished, regarding their Code of Educa- 

 tion in British Guiana, (Hear, hear.) It would be a good thing if in 

 that they were all brought in closer contact with things that were 

 going on in other colonies. The one great thing when they came to 

 have a general Council such as the Hon. Gideon Murray had proposed 

 for the colonies was, he thought, the question of representation on the 

 Council. How difficult it was they could see if they examined the 

 scheme drawn up by Mr. Murray after much attention to the subject. 

 Looking at Mr. Murray's proposals he found that British Guiana, Trinidad 

 and Barbados would be absolutely controlled by the smaller islands, and 

 no one could contend that those places should not have a prominent voice 

 in those Councils. (Applause.) He thought they should take up each 

 separate subject and get the experts in the different colonies to meet 

 together and submit a scheme dealing with them specially. Each time that 

 they succeeded in getting a general agreement on one particular question 

 made further agreement on another subject more easy. (Applause.) 

 E-ich Conference held resulted in the leading men in the different colonies 

 becoming better acquainted with each other and with the conditions in 

 other colonies. At present they were most terribly ignorant of the men 

 who count in the different colonies and of the conditions of those 

 colonies. Taking this colony there were very few people who had any 

 knowledge of the conditions in Trinidad or Barbados, but the subject 

 that Mr. Davson had brought before their notice could not but help 

 to develop their thoughts and bring them to a better understanding. 

 (Hear, hear.) 



