The Future Prosperity of the Colony. 369 



various waterways of the colony, when the Government 

 are warranted by the spread of the Gold Mining Industry 

 to invite tenders for this special service. A seldom 

 considered source of prosperity to the c©lony lies in the 

 immense tra6ls of fertile coast lands, where rice, the 

 main food of the East Indian population, can be grown, 

 not only to supply local needs, but also for export. 

 The aomunt annually imported into the British Isles 

 is between eight and nine millions of hundred weights. 

 The local consumption is 37,800,000 lbs., and bearing in 

 mind the large number of men and women that the 

 imminent abandonment of some of the sugar estates 

 will put out of work, and the difficulties to be expe- 

 rienced in finding reasonable employment for them as well 

 as the very grave question of possible food and labour 

 riots if work be not forthcoming, it does seem that 

 aftive, and indeed very a6live steps should be taken to 

 throw open to cultivation the immense tra6ls above re- 

 ferred to. 



The " Divinity that shapes our ends," may unknown 

 to us have decreed that the abandonment of sugar 

 properties is to be the turning point in the Colo- 

 nial history; and that the labour set free from the 

 sugar fields is to be utilised on the rice patch, the 

 gold placer, and the provision ground in the forest. 

 Full warning has been given of the coming crisis and 

 it is for the inhabitants to manfully accept the new 

 order of things, and while supporting sugar as it de- 

 serves, to provide other avenues of employment and of 

 wealth and prosperity. To foster and encourage the 

 gold industry, to work with a set plan for the opening 

 up of the country gradually, and the improvement and 



