347 
escape, except Grenada. British Guiana would also suffer se E 
and the problem to be dealt with in am Colony might pro 
one of exceptional difficulty. Jamaica and Trinidad ^h other 
resources, and the export i — crane Deieiiees has already 
been largely reduced, and now con ntributes less than one-sixth of 
the value of the total pau frati that island. 
. In British Guiana and Trinidad the necessity for keeping 
faith with the East?Indian immigrants, and of repatriating those 
of them who had a right to a free passage to India, and wished to 
take advantage of that right, might involve a large expenditure, 
which under the circumstances must fall upon the publie funds, 
: 
The present condition of such an Island as Tobago illus- 
trates the serious character of the economic and administrative 
he 
t 
exports of sigit from Tobago have already decreased very much. 
The resident population manages to live, but a consi iderable pro- 
on the cheapest and simplest form of government. New roads 
cannot be made, and even those that already exist cannot be kept 
in proper repair out of the revenue. 
FUTURE OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 
107. The conclusions with regard to the sugar industry at which 
we have so far arrived may be summed up as follows :— 
There is, at present, no prospect of any considerable and per- 
manent rise in the price of sugar in the ordinary rse of events. 
The effect which the imposition of countervailing duties on the 
import of bounty- fed sugar into the United Kingdom would have 
upon price is uncertain, and, for reasons which we have stated, we 
are unable to nde such imposition or the dicta of a bounty 
on West Indian 
The cost of iod: sugar in those portions of the West 
Indies whores the old processes of manufacture are still followed 
could in many l aces b. reduced by the introduction, at a con- 
siderable cost, of new machinery, but the prospect of profit is not 
puch m to induce capitalists Sate to supply the necessary 
xem 
is possible that is varieties of sugar-cane may be 
Via d, but, in no is any such discovery likely to be 
made in sv ufficient time do "ihsterially alleviate the erbe dis- 
eid condition of the industry. 
Some disadv vantage is imposed on the producers of rum by the 
Imperial surtax on im ported spirits. 
A onies Aids piers is not a cause of the present depression, and 
the extension of resident ownership of estates would not 
alley improve the prospects of the industry. 
W and salaries have already been reduced, and no further 
economy can be étrpeuied in respect of them. 
