17 



Trelaivny : — "I do not see how the. Govern men t cau give auy ass istance except by opening up 

 new roads and improving the present lines. 



" Coffee grows well and thrives in the Ulster Spring and Albert Town districts until it touches the 

 clay and as that part of theParish is largely in the hands of a peasant proprietary, it is increasing 

 in cultivation but only by slow degrees. A slight fall in price has immediately the effect of checking 

 the planting for the next season. There are thousands of acres now in forest which might be put 

 under coffee cultivation ; but without capital and labour I do not see any prospect of much increase 

 beyond that natuial to the location of small Settlers and the gradual taking up of the waste lands." 



Clarendon ; — " There is plenty of good Coffee land in Clarendon, the N. E. corner of Manchester" 

 and south boundary of Trelawny. As to development it is perfectly impossible to move without a 

 continuous supply of labour. A oonlinuous supply of labour cannot be had here without indentured 

 Coolies. This is my experience after offering every inducement short of prices that would bo ruinous 

 to obtain it. Whether it would pa^ to employ imported labour, or whether men would go into so 

 long-winded a speculation without inducements of some sort I do not know. No one without the 

 command of considerable capital, and the ability to live without any return for four years, need think 

 of establishing a coffee estate. Roughly he would want, to establish 200 acres, at least £10,000. 



St. Thomas : — " Labour is ore of the most serious questions, and there is only one solution of it- 

 Tbeie must be State-aided imn igratic n of a very liberal kind and quality, if any good is to be done. 



" Bananas will soon run out. Sugar c»nnot be started again, and there is nothing to fall back upon 

 but coffee. Now it is not generally known that there are many hundreds of acres, I may say several 

 hundred square miles of land (at least two in Portland and St. Thomas) that could grow coffee, but 

 even if two hundred square miles could be put in Coffee at half a tierce to the acre, and say at SOs. per 

 cwt., it would give Coffee to the value of £1,828,668, or nearly two millions a year, — plenty of money 

 to get revenue from. Now not one single acre of this land can be touched without imported labour 

 of the right sort. The present Coolies are of no use, so the first thing to do, in fact the only way out 

 of the difficulty, is for the Government to give every facility to planters to import Coolie labour of 

 the right kind, and the first move should be to raise the Immigration Department to the position of a 

 first class agency, with orders to grant every facility for the importation of hill Coolies fit to cultivate 

 Coffee. The native will not work continuously, and consequently we must do all in our power to stop 

 any more lands being opened up as we cannot spare any more labour, — our very existence depends 

 upon this .... The principal thing to do at present is to keep from Jamaica any 

 new men coming here, until the question of being allowed to import suitable labour is settled." 



Ginger. 



The Collector of Taxes for Hanover reported that during the year much of the Ginger sold realised 

 low prices on account of the imperfect way in which it had been cured. 



The Collector-General reported that the average prices realised for Ginger in several Parishes were 

 an follows • — 



Kingston, 60/-65/ ; St. Ann's, 50/ ; Trelawny, 36/ and 44/ ; St. James, 52/ ; Hanover, 45/ • "West- 

 moreland, 60/ ; St. Elizabeth, 30/ and 48/ ; Manchester, 16/8 and 40/. 



Information wa^ sought fi'om the Collectors of Taxes as to the reasons for varying prices, whether pro- 

 ceeding fi'om the difficulties in curing or from some other cause, and also as to the method of curing in 

 different parishes. 



It appears fi'om the answers with which I was favoured, quoted below, that the variation in prices in 

 the different parishes arises generally from causes independent of curing, -but that low prices anywhere 

 indicate want of care in ciu'ing, or that ratoon ginger is harvested. 



Further consideration will be given to this subject, and I hope to visit some of the districts when the 

 harvest is being brought in. 



Hanover Collectorate. 



" My remarks in my last quarterly report were based on ginger which came under my observation 

 as several lots were sold to the '1 raders here, mildewed, and in one or two cases soft and spongy. I en- 

 quired at the time what was the defect in curing which had caused the depreciation in the condition and 

 quality of the ginger and I was told, that ginger to be successfully cured after it is scraped, must be kept 

 away from damp or rain and be subjected to every day exposure to the sun in a dry place, imtil it is per- 

 fectly hard. 1 he ginger mildewed had not received proper attention in this respect, which accoimts for 

 the low price which the ginger of this parish brings ; and the soft spongy ginger had not arrived at pro- 

 per maturity- otherwise, green—and had been put away damp into bags. 1 thought as the matter at 

 various times came within my notice, that this want of proper attention to a valuable commodity was pro- 

 ductive of a great loss. In the Seafort Town District I understand that greater care is exercised and as a 

 result much higher prices obtained." 



E. P. Puller. 



Revenue Office, Sav.-la-Mar. 

 As far as 1 have been able to ascertain, the price obtained was due not so much to superioi' pre- 

 paration by the producer as to competition on the part of purchasers. 



*' I am able to state, that the mode of preparing ginger in this parish is by scraping and washing 

 and carefully drying it in the sim. ° 

 " The low prices given in the early part of the season is for ratoon ginger which is often reaped be- 



