395 
iii.—DANGER OF DEPENDING ON A SINGLE INDUSTRY. 
525. The recommendations involving expenditure by the 
mother country, which we have considered it our duty to make, 
are based primarily on the present and prospective eco of 
the sugar industry in the West Indies, but they a e of such : 
nature that they should, in our o od inion, be carried Süt even if the 
sugar RS were restored, temporarily, to a condition of 
prosperity 
526. It is never satisfactory for any country to be entirely 
dependent upon one in pert Such a position is, from the very 
nature of the case, more or less Less de ese € must in the case 
of the West Indies peels. in a preponderating influence in one 
direction tending to restrict development in bere ways. 
The representatives of the sugar industry in the West 
Indies have had special means of weed ing the Governments of 
the isses Colonies, and of putting pressure on the home 
ent to secure attention to their views and wishes. Their 
land, and the encouragement of the —— and forms of culti- 
vation suitable for a class of peasant proprietors formed no part 
of their policy ; n measures were generally believed to be 
opposed to their interests, which they regarded, no doubt, as 
vri with pe best interests of the com munity, and in, at 
least, some of the Colonies met with opposition at their hands. 
If a ditferent de had found favour, the condition of the West 
Indies might have been dh less serious — it is at present in 
view of the t Ae of the sugar industry. 
528. The ral statement regarding the Gasa of depending 
on a single indestry applies with very special force to the 
dependence of the West Indian Colonies upon the sngar industry, 
for the cultivation of sugar collects together a larger number of 
people upon the land than can be employed or supported in 
the same area by any other form of pe aa eel In addition to 
this it also unfits the people, or at any rate gives them no 
training, for the management or cultivation of the soil for any 
other purpose than that of growing sugar cane. The failure, 
skill, or habits zedquisito for erii a or use of the land. In 
this one industry is still more dangerous. In these cases not 
only is there a yearly charge upon the public revenue to meet the 
cost of immigration, but a liability for back passages is incurred, 
Which a failure of the industry would leave the Colony without 
funds to meet. 
529. Whilst, therefore, the vital importance of the sugar industry 
to the pr esent. prosperity of nearly ail the Colonies is beyond dis- 
pute, we wish to observe that so long as they remain dependent 
