l6 TiMEHRI. 
dire6lly conne6led with that industry, If the non-resi- 
dent labourer could be depended on to work steadily, or 
even for say four days each week at reasonable rates, 
work would always be forthcoming for him. But so 
long as he will work only intermittently, he must be left 
out of account. 
In a country like this, where plantains and other pro- 
visions can be grown with a minimum of trouble, the 
cost of mere subsistence is so very small, that to those 
who are content with such a state, there is no pressing 
need to exert themselves. The ultimate pressure of 
starvation ; the absolute necessity for fuel, house, and 
clothing, which have compelled the inhabitants in colder 
countries to become continuous workers, and raise up 
prosperous industries, do not obtain in this colony. 
Human nature, whether black or white, is pretty much 
the same, and it is perhaps only natural to work as little as 
possible where the desire or the stimulus to better one's 
position is absent, as it is with a large portion of the 
population here. 
Habits of industry in a nation are acquired only by 
long training, continued from generation to generation ; 
and they may be lost in a similar manner. The dislike 
for agricultural labour is more pronounced in the present 
generation here than it was in the preceding, and that 
again was inferior to their fathers, trained to steady 
work under a different regime. Apart from their know- 
lodge of the 3 Rs., the rising generation are inferior to 
their elders in all the qualities that constitute a good 
citizen. 
It is asserted by some that although immigration is a 
necessity, Indian immigration is not so. The coolie is 
