, 1874-02-07

menQOQS Decline. ~ lL as OucS0 TWO
latter countries were concerned, the de-
cline. was of course only temporary. Look
at Cuba. Porto Rico, and Brazil in the
above return, sending us no less than
6O.983 tons, or third of our total con-
sumption-some the produce of slavery
whilst our own free-labour colonies and
British India send US about another third.
From this it may be seen what is the
character of the struggle between free and
slave labour, and what an effect will be
produced when slavery disappears from the
face Of the earth. Turning to the stocks
of sugar, we obtain a key to the condition
of the market for the last year. In conse-
uuence of the normou production OF slave
sugar, and the growing beet-root industry
of the Continent, demand has not yet kept
pace with supply. The stock of refined
in the United Kingdom at the end Of
1871 was, 2l9,135 cwts. ; 1872, 141,7l8
cwts. 1879 23O,820 cwts. The stock Of
unrefned on December 81, 1871, was
1,728,O39 cwts 1872, 2,79I,353 cwts.;
1878, 3,349,6s5 cwts.
Another feature in the Board of Trade
returns for the past year is the increase in
the imports and consumption of cocoa.
The imports increased from 16 million
pounds in 1872 to 1913 Millions in 1878, the
consumption from 7,853,000 lbs. in 1872 to
$4,000 lbs. in 1878. The reduction of
the export duty in Trinidad may possibly
tend to increase the production Of this
nutritious article.
Captain Lawrence Archer, who has re-
sided for some time in the tropics, is prepar-
ing a work to be entitled "Monumenlal
Inscription Of the West Iudies.'
The water supply is a question that
ever presses upon the attention Of people
in the tropics, aud no one can wonder at
the importance attached toit A commits
sion has recently been examining into it
in British Guiana, and although the mem
bers are not unanimous in their report, the
conclusions Of the majority may be inter
esting to many proprietors in England.
"Briehy described, the scheme of water sup.
ply proposed by the commissioners, pro-
poses to dam up in the Lama and its con-
tributory creeks during wet weather, as
much water as will last for some time af-
ter the cessation of rain. To convey the
water from this reservoir by a canal to be
dug from the Couribanni Creek to a point
within six hundred roods of the extreme
back dam Of Annandale, or the Annandalo
water path may be taken over and used
for the purpose. From the back of An
mandate the new canal would diverge east
and west. The former would be carried
as far as may be required, the latter would
be continued till it meets the Lamaha near
to the head of Canal No. 3. At a convo-
nient point Oh the Couraba0a Creek or on
the Lama, there should be erected a steam
pump capable of lifting fifty thousand gal
Ions water per minute five feet high.
When the water in the creeks falls to too
low a level to admit of its flowing down
the new canal, high enough to run into
the navigation canals of the estates, and to
cleanse the sewers of the city, the steam
pump would be set to work to raise water
from the creeks into the canal, and when
the former is lowered to some extent, wa
ter would be drawn from the Mahaica
Creek into the outer portion of the Lama,
and then by the arrangements already de-
scribed, into the3 basin inside of Gordon's
stop-off' 1t is evident that the construc-
ton of the new canal from the COurabana
Crock will hrinU the wafer within n con-