300 
MADAGASCAR. 
ing power is considerably increased. Wages are 
lower, and the usual monthly pay of a labourer is 
two shillings and his rice, which amounts to a 
little over three halfpence daily. House rent is 
very cheap; and food is plentiful and of good qua¬ 
lity at marvellously low prices. Of course Euro¬ 
pean clothing and luxuries are scarcer, and conse¬ 
quently more expensive; but these can in a great 
measure be dispensed with without much detri¬ 
ment to health or comfort, as the native manu¬ 
factures are rapidly being brought into the 
market, and are found to be extremely durable 
as well as so varied as to supply almost every¬ 
thing necessary now for life in Madagascar. 
One great want of the country, doubtless, is a 
regular coinage. And we hope that this will be 
one of the minor blessings which the present 
prime minister will shortly see his way to bestow¬ 
ing upon the country. Of course, in such 
matters, old usages and prejudices have to be 
taken into account. The opposition to the penny 
post in this country, and the open derision of 
even the educated classes to the scheme when it 
was first proposed, is sufficient to show that re¬ 
forms of a social nature are often even more 
unpopular than sweeping political changes; and 
the wise sagacity of His Excellency is shown in 
not harrassing and irritating the population by 
attempting too many novelties at once in the 
