122 TiMEHRI, 
lished by the Government in commutation of back 
passages. He warned those who were conne6led with 
the establishment of these settlements, that it was not 
to be expe6led thev would prosper if the coolies were 
simply dumped down on the land without proper super- 
vision or interest being taken in them. He looked upon 
the settlement of the coolies in the Colony as of para- 
mount importance, but when they were placed on the 
land it should be fully understood that they should contri- 
bute both to the upkeep of the drainage and the irrigation. 
If that were not done he was very much afraid that the 
lessons they had learned in the past as regards coolie 
settlements would be thrown away, and that the new 
settlements they were trying to establish would be 
failures. With regard to the other minot industries, cocoa 
and coffee, he was informed by a gentleman interested 
in an estate on the Demerara River, that the coffee crop 
was about up to the average of last year, but that cocoa 
was exa6lly the same as the rice and sugar crops — a 
failure to a great extent. Certainly, the crop did not 
exceed two-thirds of what it was the previous year. The 
outlook of the cocoa crop he was sorry to say was not 
favourable. The heavy weather during the month of 
December caused a great many small pods to drop 
off. Mr. R. A. Barclay wrote stating that it would 
not be successful unless they had much drier weather 
than they had experienced lately. There had not been 
any considerable increase in the area of cocoa or coffee 
cultivation. At Coverden in 1897 ^^^Y acres of new land 
were planted in cocoa and coffee and fifty acres more 
were cleared in 1898 to be planted, but in the latter year 
the rains rendered trench digging on new lands impos- 
sible before September, and by that time labour had be- 
come so scarce that only twelve acres were drained and 
planted by the end of November. The experience at 
Coverden was typical of other places under cocoa and 
coffee cultivation. One of the most important move- 
ments made by the Government during the past year was 
the opening up to settlers of land at cheap rates — not 
only allowing people to become land-owners on a small 
scale, but offering inducements to those who were de- 
