The Future Prosperity of the Colony. 357 



West Indies and North America. Next, the equally 

 fertile soil of the river mouths and for short distances up 

 their courses. Then, — the valuable forests of timber, 

 — the boundless savannahs capable of supportingcountless 

 head of cattle — and the Gold Mining Industry coupled 

 with what has been prophesied by an expert may become 

 a Diamond Mining Industry. Take all these together 

 and then look for the means of communication which we 

 find in the vast network of more or less navigable rivers, 

 with their huge affluents and yet smaller tributaries. 

 Sum up all these features and then, bearing in mind the 

 statistics of the gold output to date, decide whether the 

 inhabitants of this colony have reason to disbelieve in the 

 future of the Gold Industry and to distrust the capabili- 

 ties of the country for almost indefinite expansion or not. 

 There exists unfortunately one very serious obstacle 

 to the future expansion of the colony in the labour ques- 

 tion. The history of the past as illustrated by the old 

 Dutch maps of the interior, shows that no reliance as 

 permanent useful settlers and agriculturists can be placed 

 upon those, who ought as has been said before, to have 

 most of the wealth of, and be in leading positions in the 

 community of which they form part. Thousands of acres 

 granted free in Dutch times remain as free to-day; but 

 their chief freedom is freedom from useful cultivation, or 

 beneficent occupation ; they lie waste. Immigration is 

 the only remedy and it must be of a thrifty race who 

 come from a sub-tropical region, and who are capable of 

 toiling in the powerful heat of our tropical sun. The 

 races that seem to be the most suited for introdu6lion to 

 the colony are Japanese, Chinese, and East Indians, who 

 should be induced to come here, free, or under indenture, 



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