Agricultural and Commercial Society. 35 
people here — that they should think so. But he had 
tried to impress upon them the fact that the estates 
were not going to take their canes at a loss, and that 
the planters were quite satisfied with making a small 
pro lit. The conditions laid down by the Committee 
of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society he 
considered absolutely fair and just, as between the 
grower and manufacturer. He did not see that anything 
further could be done by the Society, but they could 
act as a Board of Arbitration — they could not make 
contracts between a grower and manufacturer. All 
they could do now was to encourage the industry and 
to lay themselves open at any time to arbitrate between 
parties, or to discuss in a friendly way and try to 
overcome any difficulties that might arise in connection 
with cane-farming. He thought there was a great 
future for the industry, and that the people could 
nmch better their position by cane-farming than 
by simply depending upon " catch-crops " like plantain 
and cassava, which provided an uncertain living and 
were at times very disappointing. He hoped that the 
start that had been made, and the encouragement that 
had been given to the movement by that Society, 
would in due course bear good fruit. 
Mr. Hill regretted that the discussion upon the 
report had been held over for so long a period, and 
that despite "whips" put out by Mr. Laing and the 
Secretary there was so poor ah attendance of planters 
at the meeting. At the time of the Conference between 
the villagers and the Committee of that Society, there 
were, he believed, two difficulties that suggested 
themselves. One of these was the danoer the farmers 
appeared to anticipate in getting their canes taken by 
E 2 
