go TlMEHRI. 
lands to open up, all the fertile land is already absorbed.* 
The greater part of it is fast falling back into a state 
of nature, through the operation of the foregoing cause. 
As a forcible example of this, one has only to look at 
that once grand se6tion of the colony which is embraced 
between Golden Grove and Madawyne Creek on the right 
bank of the Demerara river, and on the left bank 
from " Vive La Force" to the Sandhills. With very few 
exceptions all has already fallen back to primeval jungle- 
This state of things could never have been foreseen by 
any of the original grantors ; and with the present cry for 
an altered Crown Lands Ordinance, one of the first 
clauses should be for the enforcement of the maintenance 
of the soil in such a state as to minister to the wants of 
the public ; and, concentration being strength ; the 
original intention of the early grantors of having 
a continuous cultivation should be adhered to, and the 
most fertile and well watered large territories of the 
colonies should not be allowed to remain in a state of 
abandonment. 
Such a sound law would soon have its effect ; and 
instead of an indolent race clamouring to have their 
roads, drainage, and dams kept up at the cost of the 
industry of the colony, there would be a people who 
would put their shoulders to the wheel and make an effort 
to save that on which every negro places great value, " his 
property." 
Mr. LUBBOCK in his paper read at the Colonial Institute 
instances the exports from British Guiana in 1884 at 
£2,312,592, of which £190,921 or too was other than 
* The writer here evidently refers merely to the lands on or pear the 
coast- Ep. 
