The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1876-03-04
THE PACIFIC
Commercial AOOertlser.
J. MARCH I.
Dutch Guiana.

In an extremely interesting article reprinted in
the January number Of LiAeN from The Fort
nightly Rerie,0, We find much that strikingIy
illustrates the state of things in Hawaii nei. We
quote a few paragraphs
Here as elsewhere under population is the
great stumbling-block in the way Of progress.
'sIt is pitiful TO think that out of the ten thou
sand and more acres, all excellent land, conceded
by the Dutch government TO the occupation Of
the Nikerie proprietors, hardly more than q
fourth has been, as the preceding numbers show,
brought into actual use. Yet il is neither the
climate nor the soil that is here in fault. How
often, not in Nikerie and the remaining districts
Of Surinam, but in st. Vincent, ST. Lucia, Trim
idad, in almost all these western Edens, nay, even
in hourishing Demerara itself, has the image of
little unpIcturesque Barbados, unprOmising in
show, unfavoured by nature, yet thriving, pros
porous, overstocked, and therefore only prosper
Gus because oyerstocked, required to my mind
Improved machinery. coolies, Chinese, are all of
them excellent things each II their way, but they
cannot make up for the absence of that one great
requisite of all progress, material or social, a
superintendent native population. But how is
it to be obtained for our own three-quarters-
empty islands? How for Guiana How for Surf
nam ? Many answers have been given, and more
may be given yet but Il wholly satisfactory one
is yet to seek. We will try our luck at the So
luton of this problem farther on.
mot far inland by the banks Of the Coppename,
though shut out from our sight by the forest
screen, is a settlement bearing the name of Bata-
via; and composed exclusively, exception made, |
trust, of the government inspector and the doc
tor, of lepers. A hundred and fifty in number,
they employ themselves in field labor; have cot
tages and gardens of their own, and as the dis
ease is painless, or nearly SO, they live on not
unhappiIy their death in life. The motive for
keeping them thus apart from every one else is,
Of course, the idea that their malady is contagi-
GUS an idea widespread, it is true, but unsup-
ported by scientific testimony, and probably due
to the horror and disgust excited by the sight of
so loathsome a disorder. Salt fish, the old estab-
lished slaye-diet throughout the West Indies, is
not improbably responsible in many cases, if not
most, for the disease; though not contagious and
hardly even Infectious, it is certainly hereditary.
Improved diet, and above all fresh articles of
food, put a limit to its rayages, and give hopes
that with proper precautions 1T may ultimately
disappear.
"For my part l am not sorry to miss seeing
Batavia, but L must regret the invisibility of
Groningen, where, near the mouth of the Sara
macca, a colony of European laborers has been
established for several years past. 1t is one of
the many attempts made at various times to sup
plement negro by European feld-work; and has,
like the German and Irish colonies of Jamaica,
and the Portuguese of St. kits, proved a failure
in the main; though its inevitable non-success as
a farm has to a certain extent been compensated
by the gardeners and artisans whom it has sup
piled to the capital. Something of the sam
kind has, [ believe, taken place elsewhere. Field
labor and outdoor life are things, early or late,
irreconcilable with European vigor, health, and
even existence, in the tropical new world. Nor
are they needed there. of all which also more
anon.
"But neither Jamaica, nor Demerara, nor Bar
BADGES, possesses a correct epitome of itself in
Kingston, Georgetown, or even BridgetOwn each
of these three seaports has a character of its own,
distinct from, and in some respects opposed to,
the colony at large. This is due to many causes;
and most of all to the L" mixed multitude of
trade, the camp-followers of enterprise, who,
under whatever banner they congregate, acknowl.
edge in heart and life no flag but that of indivi-
dual self-interest. These are they who muster
strongest in the generality of colonial towns,
especially seaports; and tinge, if they do not
absolutely color, the places Of their resort. And
thus from the merest port of call along these
shores, where the condOttieri element is at it's
maximum, to Georgetown, where it is decidedly
at its minimum, a something of a restless, make
shift, egoistic, g cheap-jack'' admixture obscures,
or at least jars will the public-spirited national
ity, ~unsettles the population, debases the build
ings, ungrOups the unity, and deforms the beauty
of place and site. .
"By what influence is it-attraction, sym
pathy, or mastership-that some nations SO emf
nently succeed in transforming the acquired sub
jects of whatever race into copies, and occasion
ally caricatures, of themselves, while other nations
not less signally fail in doing SOP"