"Changes on Sugar Estates In British Guiana 

 from 1865 to 1894/'* 



By F, C. Thorpe. 



HAVING promised Mr. DUNCAN, our Chairman, 



S to read a paper conne6led with our Sugar 

 Ll9 Industry, I felt I was in honour bound to do 

 so ; but my long severance from the Society made me 

 feel diffident as to how it would be received, and doubtful 

 as to what subje6l I could write on that would interest 

 you. My long residence in the colony, my connexion 

 as overseer and manager with men who long ago have 

 passed away, leaving, in the words of LONGFELLOW, their 

 " footprints on the sands of time," has left me and others 

 such records that, even with the present low prices of 

 sugar and a run of bad seasons for years, we have heart 

 to continue the strife; I therefore chose for my subje6t, 

 " Changes on Sugar Estates in British Guiana from 1865 

 (the year I came to the colony) to the present time." 

 The word ' changes' gives one such a large scope to 

 dwell upon, that I am afraid it is almost exhaustless, and 

 will require great curtailing. For, if one only compares 

 our magnificent city of the present day, with the George- 

 town I landed in in 1865, he must be struck with the 

 grand changes and improvements that have occurred 

 since then. The great fire of 1864 had made a wreck of 

 a large part of it. Water Street before the fire was 

 narrow, the widest portion of it being opposite Klien'S 

 and the Colonial Company ; to-day that is the narrowest. 



* Read at the July Meeting of the Society. 



DD 



