TRINIDAD: THEN AND NOW. 



I am at this stage unable to give a correct num- 

 ber of all the places where oil has been struck, but 

 there are at least 9 in working operation, and this is, I 



believe, but a small fraction of the number that will, 

 within a few years, be the case. While I write a 

 paragraph purporting to have the outline of an inter- 

 view relative to the Trinidad Oil Industry, appears in 

 the Port-of-Spain Gazette. As the whole paragraph 

 does not refer to oil I will only copy the part which 

 does. It ds as follows : — 



" In the course of an interview with a gentle- 

 man who knows full well what he is speaking about, 

 he expresses his strong belief in the big future which 



awaits Trinidad," u Coming to our Oil 



Industry which is now in the forming, he regretted 

 to state that it was greatly feared by those deeply in- 

 terested that there is a strong current of wire-pulling 

 with the object of shutting out the Oil Fields, in the 

 interest of a combination of some strong companies 

 who had formed a sort of secret trust to monopolise 

 the affairs of Trinidad. It would be the very worst 

 thing for the island if they got their desires, especi- 

 ally as the officials are simply playing into the hands 

 of those people — consciously or unconsciously." 



I would not publish this paragraph were it not 

 that I think high officials ought not to be stigmatised 

 as being conscious of " wire-pulling to the detriment 

 of the colony ; " for, knowing Trinidad as I do now 

 and as I have long known it, I am convinced that 

 we never had a more honest combination of the 

 higher officials of the colony than we have at the pre- 



