Report of Society's Meetings. i8i 



earnest wish is to see the solutions found by those here 

 who have expended so much ; those who have risked so 

 much in their initial stages. 



Close on 280 years ago one of Guiana's first pioneers 

 v^ent to his death on the scaffold in London. But I am 

 not aware that the sentence was carried out because he 

 lacked energy, or because he had not found the great 

 treasure, or because he had not laid down a causeway 

 conne6ling Guiana's river-mouths with Eldorados of the 

 interior. 



But what Raleigh sought so gallantly, you who have 

 fought an equally gallant battle will, I hope, find — not 

 however, death on Tower Hill, not execution in London 

 City — but the development, the opening-up and the gar- 

 nering-in of the treasure of your great country ; provided 

 always there be peace within its borders, and an assur- 

 ance that your treasure trove be not snatched away from 

 you. 



And now a few words as to the probabilities, the 

 schemes and paths which lay before us in this just-com- 

 menced year. 



Our staple industry looks in a fairly healthy condition. 

 Prices now ruling seem to point to the earning of some- 

 what more than bare existence or than a living wage, and, 

 given anything like stability in the market, anything like 

 a continuance of its present position, I do not think you 

 willaccuse me of undue optimism, when I hold that estate 

 owners and sugar growers should feel happier in their 

 outlook than they have been justified in feeling for some 

 time past. But we want more than all this, we want to 

 see other industries implanted and flourishing in our midst ; 

 we want to see men taking advantage of and profiting 



