A Plea for the Encouragement of the lesser 
Industries. 
By J. S. Blake, Pin. Skeldon. 
WING to peculiar circumstances one industry 
must always predominate in such a place as this ; 
and to this all others must be more or less 
subservient. In this colony, it is needless to say, 
the production and manufacture of sugar is the in- 
dustry of all others. It takes precedence of every- 
thing ; and everyone is to a certain extent engag- 
ed in, or dependent on it. Other industries there are, 
such as growing cocoa, coffee, cocoanuts and provisions ; 
and much has lately been said and written about the ad- 
vantage of a mixed cultivation and of other crops on 
which to rely in case of the failure at any time of a sugar 
crop or if the depreciation in the price of sugar 
is ever so great as to make estates unworkable. 
Without however entering largely into this subject, my 
intention is to advocate the encouragement of small in- 
dustries, such as the production of rice and provisions, 
by people whose spare time, when not engaged on the 
different estates, is employed in cultivating their own 
land and provision grounds; and I shall confine myself 
more particularly to our free immigrant population, East 
Indian or Chinese. 
The cry the other day was — " Give these immigrants 
grants of land in lieu of back passages to their country. 
