391 
we ascertained by personal 2 and inquiry that in two 
large parishes at least, where sugar cane cultivation has ceased 
nd bananas have been sib Cups. a larger population is now 
maintained than existed in former days, nor was there any reason 
to suppose that there was any special poverty in those parishes. 
502. It i. not follow that all abandoned ee sain dcus 
be made to produce bananas, but we received evidence that 
such estates were capable of producing abundant c o s of fedi 
and that in some cases portions of coffee estates which had been 
abandoned owing to the supposed exhaustion of the soil could, 
under certain conditions, which are mede to by Dr. Morris, be 
xm brought under the same cultivat 
. The new United States tariff pli a considerable tax on 
the import of oranges, which will probably t the export of 
this fruit from os di value of which in 1895-96, owing to 
the failure of the crop Flo m was 169,7947., though in 
previous years the a iiie generally less than one- -fourth of 
this amount. 
504. The report of Dr. Morris shows E AN A how the trade 
of Jamaica has altered in the last fifteen years, and how far other 
products have made up for the falling off in sugar, and it is 
manifest that if the new industries €—ÀÁ ico may be expected, 
and if the sugar industry can be carried on at a profit the Island 
will be in a fairly prosperous condition, Aem it must be 
always subject, like other countries which depend solely on 
agriculture, to depression in prices, with the addition of the 
drawback of droughts | and. floods as is usual in tropical 
506. The Bowie EDE EE, of the Island is fully described 
by Dr. Morris. It has done excellent service in the development 
of various industries, and has no doubt heiped the sugar industry 
also by attention to the best methods of cultivation, and by 
endeavouring to improve the canes, It has also imparted 
employed in conjunction with the Botanical Department in 
analysing the soil and its products. 
507. There is evidence that good results have arisen from the 
action of the Jamaica DEI and of the two agricultural 
associations that exist in the Colony. 
508. Before we conclude our remarks on Jamaica some reference 
must be made to the system of coolie immigration in the Island, 
By the last return received there were 14,128 East Indian 
immigrants in Jamaica, of whom 3,762 were still serving under 
in 1845, and 8,809 have returned to India, Under the present 
system the whole cost of er cei of Indian immigrants and of 
their passages to and from India is paid by those who employ 
them, the Government esten the cost of the supervising and 
medical und in the Islan 
rly and until quite recently the immigrants were 
imported rail exclusively for the sugar planters, though a small 
