16 
mended by the Special Commission on Minor ee oe 
appointed — aS Lord Gormanston in 1888. This Com 
is a in the following words :—“ The depressed condition 
“of the staple industry of the Colony at present, and the pro- 
* Soka outlook as to its improvement, strongly impress upon 
: Commission sa necessity of urging upon the Government 
“of this Colony to take steps to foster the development of 
“ agricultural products to aosa the deficiency caused by the 
“ decline of the main industry.’ 
45. The present circumstances of the Colony are even more 
depressed than they were in 1895 and it is desirable that no time 
should be lost to aia me most accessible Crown lands of the 
Colony, leaving to the future the development of interior lands, 
whi 2 ill require means of communication of a more costly 
character. 
SUBSIDIARY INDUSTRIES ON THE COAST LANDS. 
46. On the coast lands mapa by sugar estates it is admitted 
that the conditions are not very favourable for subsidiary 
industries, and, as far I am aware, there are no industries 
that could imme Peat aise or in the near fi uture on such lands take 
the ase of sugar. 
47. If the sugar industry became greatly SE E or abandoned 
in British Guiana, these stiff clay lands could therefore be turned 
to little account in promoting the future prosperity of the Colony. 
They are bit adapted for growing sugar, but fit for little else. 
They are mostly under sea level, and entail a considerable yearly 
ao a ture in drainage and maintenance. The climate is also 
unfavourable sto the growth # plants nsually cultivated in the 
lowlands in the tropics, as few of them can bear prolonged dry 
seasons, and fewer still the Bree trade winds that blow steadily 
for r many months in the piss 
48. These remarks, it t be remembered, apply only to what 
are known as the front pari of the Colony now actually under 
cane cultivation. They form a narrow strip of alluvium alon 
the sea-board, ane extend only afew miles up me estuaries of 
the ə principal rive . The area of these lands is only 
part of the lotsa ae of the Colony, and only eR one- “twentieth 
rt of the estimated cultivable lands in private hands. Nev 
theless, in this small area is now concentrated all the SA 
agencies which have built up the wealth of British Guiana, and 
here, also, the pa maen of the population resides and gets its 
means of subsist 
49. rge eis, nment of sugar would necessitate a com- 
plete change in the industrial condition of the Colony, and a 
gradual ake of a large portion of the population from the 
coast to the river, and other lands in the interior. If, however, 
ies which, though they may not supply the place of sugar, 
may usefully Pannan the food resources of the Colony and 
