248 
proceedings op the victoria institute. 
community. Mr. McCarthy had told them that their transit trade 
with Venezuela, far from increasing as it should have done, was 
less now than it was at the beginning of the century. When 
they considered that the commerce of Venezuela was to-day, 
perhaps, ten or fifteen times what it was a hundred years ago, 
it seemed incredible that they should be doing absolutely less 
trade now with Venezuela than they did then; hut when Mr. 
McCarthy told them, as Collector of Customs, that not only had 
they not given facilities of transit but that their fiscal laws 
actually placed prohibitive measures on that trade, there was no 
difficulty in finding the cause why the trade had decreased. 
The fact that at the beginning of the century, this Colony 
was the depot for the supply of foreign goods to Venezuelan 
ports from Caracas to Bolivar, and the fact that they had now 
lost the larger portion of that trade, could only be attributed to 
the indifference which perhaps the merchants themselves and to a. 
certain extent the Government, had looked on what had been 
considered by many people to be a trade of no advantage to this 
island. They had allowed Venezuelan merchants to open up and 
take away from them a business which might otherwise have 
remained with them, but for the simple reason that they had not 
taken any steps to keep it. They had not here any dock accom- 
modation, which was a very great factor in preserving the trade 
of any country that wished to make headway as a transit centre. 
He had brought the question of establishing a dock here once or 
twice to the notice of the Government, but it was treated 
with cold indifference and shelved. Meanwhile, the charges 
which goods in transit to Venezuela had to pay had caused, 
together with the cheapening of steam communication, a largo 
amount of traffic to go to Barcelona and other places which years 
ago used to come here. The Or inoco, a large river that should be 
the natural water carriage of the rich products of Venezuela and 
Columbia, was now being rapidly developed. They got now 
from Meta, cocoa and coffee, which formerly used to go down the 
Magdalena in very small quantities, it was true, but sufficient 
prove the development of the trade. Mr McCarthy was 
saying that^oa^ of the causes why their transit trade 
that up to very recently it 
opinion of those in power that 
Agricultural centre- 
to 
right in 
was not more developed was 
had been almost the unanimous 
Trinidad should be considered only as 
In order to see the fallacy of such a policy' th^' had only to 
look at the two extremes Hong Kong, a year ago hardly 
existed, and St Thomas thirty years ago had the most flourishing 
thtsColny lmd S ret d u^e ’ whS iTVLTtl ^ ^ 
which had pulled 1. through ,h, 
d„, y imposed Ven^la, „ hlla it JrfeXd f 
