178 TlMEHRl. 



for you, based on the results of the last year, and on the 

 possibilities, nay the probabilities, of the coming months. 

 It is true we exported in 1895 15,000 hogsheads of sugar 

 less than in 1894, and that the rum sent out exceeded 

 the previous year's returns by 1,400 puncheons only. 

 It is true also that we " made " a total of gold which was 

 less by 7,000 ounces than that of the previous year. 

 But, gentlemen, I would ask you whether the returns 

 you read in the Daily Chronicle of Thursday last, 

 were not infinitely better than the forecast which one 

 and all of you would have published, had you been 

 asked to do so, on that day twelve months ago. And 

 again, must we not take into account that the cost of 

 produ6lion in almost every instance has been lessened, 

 appreciably and wisely lessened, so that the net prices 

 obtained, the net profits made, have more than covered 

 the shrinkage in the amounts produced. And then let 

 us turn to the commercial side. Of course we know 

 that there has been a curtailment of purchases, 

 and therefore of sales : of course we know that the 

 consumer has had to look carefully after his expenditure, 

 and to draw in wherever possible, but notwithstanding, I 

 hold, and believe I am right in holding, that in our 

 business centres there is a sounder trade, a firmer condi- 

 tion than that existing at this time last year, or than that 

 gloomy time led us to expe6t would exist to-day. 

 You have had some very heavy attacks to bear, some 

 very nasty physic to take^ but your constitutions were 

 sound enough to withstand the first, and to profit by the 

 second. And, for what is before us, I believe, as I have 

 said many a time, that the future of the Colony is a bright 

 one, I believe that not only has the ordinary course of 



