10* 



(14) Several schemes have been recently put forward whereby the 

 investment of outside capital has been invited for the improvement of 

 the conditions of sugar manufacture; in discussing them it is well that 

 attention should be directed to those points which I have here only in- 

 dicated in a very brief manner. 



(15) In Queensland considerable impetus has been given to the 

 sugar industry by Government aid, whereby the Government guarantees 

 the interest upon money invested in the erection of sugar works under 

 certain well-defined regulations. The Queensland Sugar- Works 

 Guarantee Act was passed in 1893, and has thus only been in operation 

 for a few years; it appears to be most carefully compiled and affords the 

 Government ample security. In considering the desirability of intro- 

 ducing such a method of working into Jamaica, perhaps the first point 

 which is worth noting is, that its successful operation should be more 

 easily secured in a colony like Jamaica, where sugar-producing now 

 exists as an industry of considerable magnitude, merely waiting for im- 

 provements in methods of manufacture, the canes being already in ex- 

 istence, than under the Queensland conditions, where the sugar indus- 

 try was a comparatively new one. 



(16) There is little doubt that the cost of erecting and working fac" 

 tories would be less with some such form of government as that provi" 

 ded in Queensland, than will be the case if outside capital alone is found 

 for the undertaking. 



(17) Where sugar can be grown on lands irrigated at small ex- 

 pense, the sugar industry ceases to be a precarious one, and should prove 

 highly remunerative. This can be accomplished in some districts of 

 Jamaica and here there ought to exist a thriving industry affording 

 stability to the welfare of the colony. In addition to the districts capa- 

 ble of irrigation there are many other places well suited for sugar 

 growing where central sugar factories could be erected to the advantage 

 alike of the sugar grower and of the colony, if satisfactory means of 

 providing capital can be found and an equitable basis of trading, as be- 

 tween the capitalists and cane-growers, can be secured. In all this, I 

 see no difficulties greater than those which have to be overcome in 

 most commercial undertakings. 



1 have, &c, 



Francis Watts. 



NOTKTES OF BOOKS. 



Illustrations db la Flore du Congo. 



Amongst the contributions to the Library of the Department lately 

 presented are two parts of the first volume of " Illustrations de la Flore 

 du Congo." It is an Atlas of Drawings (14 x 11 inches) of new spe- 

 cies of plants with descriptions in full, published under the editorship 



