I 
Report of Society's Meetings. 123 
sirous of making and obtaining homesteads. He did 
not know any more fascinating word than " homesteads." 
One pictured a comfortable house surrounded by growing 
crops, by cattle, and by poultry, and an independent 
population on the land. It was a pretty pifture, but it 
had its dark side. The pioneers of homestead farming 
had to be prepared to undergo very great hardships and 
in many instances very great privations. He would warn 
those who wished to go into the interior of this country, 
or indeed of any country, to establish homesteads that, 
they must have some capital to assist them over the 
stile. After referring to the difficulties the pioneers of 
civilization had to encounter in opening up and settling 
on new countries, the President referred to interesting 
articles on homestead life in Canada and Australia. Re- 
turning to the crops ot the Colony he said the shipment 
of sugar last year to the United Kingdom was 20,162 
tons, to the United States 85,934 tons and to other 
Countries 692 tons^ making a total of 106,788 tons. 
From that total there should be dedu6led the shipment 
in January, 1898, which was the produce of the previous 
year, viz., 22,000 tons, and there should be added the 
amount of sugar on hand on the ist instant, 15,000 tons. 
The crop for the year 1898 would then be 99,788 tons, 
but to this they might add what was computed to be the 
local consumption, 10,000 tons. The matter of next im- 
portance to the Colony after agriculture was the gold 
industry. The shipments of gold amounted to 1 1 1,852 ozs. 
valued at $1,959,800. That showed a falling off compared 
with the previous year, and he was sorry to say the fa6l 
was borne out by figures he got from the Institute of 
Mines and Forests, that the industry was not progressing 
as well as people at one time thought it would. In fa6l 
the prospe6ls at the present moment were anything but 
roseate. This was not because the precious metal did 
not still exist in the interior of the Colony, but partly 
because a great deal of money had been lost by local 
capitalists in the gold-fields and because exploration had 
not gone on at the same rate as it did in former years. 
Professor Harrison had visited both of the large gold 
distri6ts of the colon}^ within the last year, and he had 
