August i, 1890.] 
THE tROPIOAL AQRU 3 UUTURI 8 T. 
They further reootnmend that no employer ^should be 
supplied with imported labourers who refuses to re- 
ceive such contract labourers (native or second term 
Coolies) as the Protector is able to allot to him, or who 
after receiving, breaks his contract to them. 
Your Committee are of opinion that as priority of 
employment would, under the system they recommend, 
always be given to native labourers who are willing to 
work under annual contracts which the Government 
would be responsible to see duly carried out as well by 
the labourer as by the employer, the public interest 
requires that any deficiency in- the supply of labour 
reoessary for the continuance or development of agri- 
cultural operation should be met by importing a suffi. 
cient number of labourers from elsewhere. 
It must be borne in mind that if by the arrangement 
suggested there be a sufficiency of native labourers, 
willing ;to work under Government Supervision on 
yearly oontracts—so as to ensure to capital a reliable 
supply of labour — no imported labourers will be required 
or introduced and that if enterprise and capital are 
driven away from Jamaica, because neither native nor 
imported labour is obtainable, it will be not only im- 
possible for the Colony to advance but on the contrary 
it will retrograde. 
Your Committee do not think there is any question 
of competition between the native and imported 
labourer because they cannot believe that an employer 
will ever resort to the employment of imported labou- 
rers if he can obtain reliable native labour. 
Your Committee in closing their Report call atten- 
tion to the fact that if it be, as maintained by many 
a ainst the assertion of others, that there is a suffi- 
ciency of native labour, and if that labour will declare 
it elf and avail itself of the machinery afforded by 
these suggestions general prosperity will be secured 
at no cost to the State beyond the maintenance of the 
Immigration Department j for the benefit of native 
labourers. 
One member of the committee in a separate statement 
said : — 
Individually, I go beyond its recommendations and 
would urge upon the Government the necessity for 
taking immediate steps to meet the demand for labour 
not only on Estates— which now exists — but the de- 
mand which, in my opinion is certain to arise in car- 
rying out the very extensive public works already de- 
cided on, and in contemplation and which must to a 
great extent deplete the present supply of agricultural 
abour. I also think that the Government ought to 
cffer inducements to skilled laborers and tradesmen to 
settle in the Island who could teach their handicrafts 
(now nearly extinct) to the rising generation under a 
proper system of apprenticeship. 
In my opinion it is idle to assert that native labour is 
now available on the terms given to the Coolie immi- 
grant. Employers cannot expect to control continuous 
native labour — even on ruinous terms — while the 
labourer can become a freeholder with a facility unsur- 
passed anywhere and there are other well known 
reasons which account for the decreasing supply of 
labour, notably, the smattering of elementary education 
given to our youth, which has the tendency in the 
present transitional condition of the bulk of the popula- 
tion to disqualify them for field or other manual work. 

DOiAIESTIC GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES_ 
The following is from the New York Sun : “ While 
it is a fact that nearly all the precious stones are 
to be found in the United States, the deposit of 
most of the varieties, so far as we know, are too 
meagre to warrant the application of capital and 
systematic labor to their production. In two States 
only, Maine and North Oarolina, has a systematic 
search for gems been carried on. Of diamonds, 
for instance, 95 per cent, of the current supply 
comes from the Kimberly mines of South Africa. 
I Over nine tons of diamonds, valued after cutting 
I at $500,000,000, have been taken from those mines 
i 
I 
I 
since their discovery in 1867. The South Afrioan 
mines are all contained within a radius of a mile 
and a half. The deposit is concentrated and its 
working profitable. Since Brazil, India and Borneo 
are to be included among the contributors of the 
remaing 5 per cent, of the world’s diamond supply, 
it will be seen that the share of the United States 
as a producer is hardly recognizable. A few years 
ago a very lively hope was started of the existence 
of diamond fields in Kentucky. It was based upon 
a striking resemblance between certain earthy for- 
mations in Kentucky and those at the Kimberly 
mines. Theoretioally, there is strong reason to 
believe in a Kentucky diamond bed, but the theory 
has not yet developed into fact, Less reason but 
a more brilliant plausibility was given to the promise 
of a diamond mine in Arizona some twenty years 
ago. Representations were made in San Francisco 
of the discovery of an immense treasure of diamonds 
and rubies in one of the neighboring territories. 
In confirmation there were exhibited so called 
rubies amounting to 80,000 carats, and numerous 
diamonds, one of 108 carats weight. The stones 
were deposited in the Bank of California, and 
the news spread across the continent. Capitalists 
became interested. A bill in the interest of diamond 
miners was passed in Congress. A great combina- 
tion party from the east and from the west went 
prospecting. They carried along an expert from 
the Royal School of Mines, in Freiburg. They 
found the promised spot. Everybody picked up 
gems. In a week the party secured 1,000 carats 
of diamonds and something like 7,000 carats of 
rubies. Then Mr. Clarence King, director of the 
United States Geological Survey, went out and 
proved that the mine had been ‘ salted.’ The rubies 
were shown to be ordinary garnets, and the 108- 
oarat diamond a piece of quartz. Part of the 
salting had been done with a large quantity of 
rough diamonds bought by an unnamed American 
in London. The swindlers made by their venture 
$760,000, the greater part of which was contributed 
by California capitalists. Of corundum, the mineral 
which, in some of its varieties, bears the names 
ruby, sapphire. Oriental amethyst, Oriental emerald 
and Oriental topaz, we have some specimens, but 
the country is not rich in stones of this order. The 
North Carolina corundum excels in variety of color. 
Many specimens have been cut and mounted, 
especially of the blue and red shades, and make 
good gems, though not of the choicer quality. The 
chief locality for gem sapphires in the United 
States is near Helena, Mont., where they occur 
as loose crystals, usually small but often trans- 
parent and of good colour. Turquoise we get from 
New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and 
California.” —Rrndstreet’s, 10th May. 
♦ 
NOTES ON POPULAR SCIENCE. 
BY DR. J. E. TAYLOR, F.G.S., F.L.S., &C,, 
Editor of Science Gossip. 
Sugab-Oane. — A most interesting and highly impor- 
tant paper was read before the Linnean Society in March 
by Mr. D. Morris. Mr. Morris is one of the younger 
school of botanists, and is well-known for his extensive 
knowledge of economic botany, for which his training 
in Jamaica has well fitted him. He is now assistant 
director at Kew, and it is there he has made the dis- 
covery announced in the paper above referred to. It is 
concerning the growth and development of the sugar- 
cane. Hitherto the plan has been to propagate it by 
slips or cuttings and few planters knew or cared anything 
about the seeds. Mr. Morris had succeeded in obtain- 
ing seeds from the sugar-csoe, and he believes he can 
