THE PAST AND THE FUTURE. 
279 
are great, and will be greater. The sugar in¬ 
dustry on the east coast, for instance, employs 
machinery, &c., to the value of over one million 
dollars about Tamatave alone, of which the 
British share alone is valued at 80 per cent; 
and a claim has been recently sent in for compen¬ 
sation to the French Government by a planter 
near Ivondrona, who estimates the value of his 
last years canes at £10,000. The soil favours 
the production of such valuable commodities as 
cinnamon, cloves, tea, vanilla, coffee ; and the 
vast field for enterprise which the island offers 
to the sugar-grower has already been dwelt 
upon. 
All that is required is capital, energy, and 
a fair security for life and property. A com¬ 
pany has been talked of for making a railway 
to the capital, but as the absence of roads has 
so often proved the one remaining source of 
security and safety to the Malagasy in times of 
invasion and attack, it is doubtful whether this 
scheme will receive popular support, at least for 
some years to come, and till the memories of 
recent events have become somewhat weakened 
and modified by the passage of time. 
The lakes on the east coast are to be united, 
and the necessities of the increased traffic will 
demand the completion of this great design of 
Badama I. as soon as possible. 
