176 TiMEHRI. 



The Secretary read a letter from the Agricultural 

 Committee, forwarding answers to the questions on 

 Emigration which had been referred to that Committee 

 by the General Meeting in April. 



Mr. G. Garnett, the Secretary of the Agricultural 

 Committee, stated that the answers had been compiled 

 from seven or eight different sources, and the rates of 

 wages were average rather than extreme. 



On the motion of Mr. Daly, seconded by Mr. Davis, 

 a vote of thanks was accorded to the Agricultural Com- 

 mittee for their trouble in drawing up the answers. 



Mr. Duncan spoke in favour of the accuracy of the 

 rates of wages as given by the Agricultural Committee, 

 which he thought very moderate, He was glad that the 

 question of immigration had been opened up, as he 

 thought the time had now come when great progress 

 might be made. The Gold Industry was yet in its 

 infancy, and he believed it would yet rival King Sugar. 

 Then there was the Banana Industry, for which we had 

 plenty of land, and only wanted labour, without which 

 he was very much afraid it would come to nothing. It 

 would be wise policy on the part of the Government to 

 introduce more immigrants. There was a gentleman 

 here, Mr. Rodriguez, who had been concerned in send- 

 ing 12,000 emigrants from the Azores to the Sandwich 

 Islands. The planters there did not want any more, and 

 there were now 5,000 or 6,000 persons ready to emi- 

 grate, who might be induced to come here. Another 

 gentleman had said that a thousand immigrants could be 

 obtained from St. Vincent, who had been put out of 

 employ by the abandonment of several sugar estates. 

 These would no doubt make good and useful colonists. 



