176 
PROCEEDINGS OP THE VICTORIA INSTITUTE. 
others) Prestoe on the cultivation of Ramie ; Day on Balata Gum 
and on the water supply of Port-of-Spain and San fernando, 
Francis wrote on Casava, on Coal Deposits and on blighted Sugar 
Canes ; Adolph Urich on the industry of Beetroot Sugar. My 
contributions included one on the Geology of our Northern Hills 
and other papers on Natural History and one on the Town of Port- 
of-Spain I shall now more particularly refer to. The other 
papers contained in the Proceedings have had their silent influ- 
ence in their appropriate way. But the results of this one are 
visible at every step you take in the town. The paper referred 
to was read by me in 1877 and an abstract of it was printed in 
the proceedings for the following year. My friend the late 
Emanuel Cipriani who was then Mayor of Port-of-Spain used his 
influence for the adoption of the improvements suggested by me 
and in consequence some of them were adopted. — So also m 3 ' sug- 
gestions as to Tramways were in part, but only in part adopted. 
Among the improvements advocated in the paper was a better 
form of street gutter in fact that now universally used in 
Town. The paper was only printed in abstract for this reason that 
large and expensive diagrams would have been necessary if the 
paper had been printed in full ; and the means of the Scientific 
Association were too limited to allow of the engraving and printing 
of such diagrams. The improvements proposed were shown to 
the meeting partly by means of colored diagrams and plans and 
partly by means of the blackboard. So that if any one asserts 
that the work of the Scientific Association is a dead letter 
he might be answered in a way somewhat similar to that of the 
person who inquired for Wren’s monument. As regards street 
gutters some of my proposals have been literally carried out 
and are in full operation at this moment (with the exception 
only of pipe drains) replacing the illshaped, wasteful and unwhole, 
some gutters of former days by the present improved style. The 
old idea was a roadway of almost semi-circular section while 
the gutter had two almost vertical sides of considerable 
height, dangerous for and unusable by foot passengers or 
£“£7 * e V t 5 " *” 
which I lay no claim” whatever as it has In °? gmabt y of 
in all modern Towns of anv In J “ long been m use 
section of only slight curvature and TxtnfdT th^ & ^ 
from the margin of one footpath (the curbstonef to t \/° y 
of the opposite one— every inch of thn J to , e mar S m 
available for the use of carriages Practical!' ^® mg thuS 
the roadway is doubled bv the . y t ^ le usable area of 
waterway is not dTminfshed p'!r S ® ctlol \ ^ hi le the area of 
tance have therefore enured to the y ® Sul . ts of great impor- 
