The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-13
PROSPEROUS TRINIDAD.

| are cultiYable. According to the cen sus taken two years ago, the popula- tion if two hundred and fifty-three
 thousand. the odd fifty-three thousand representing the increase during the last decade. It Is mainly Christian, the Roman Catholic church claiming the
 largest proportion. There are seventy
 eight thousand East Indians, who re-
 main faithful to their native creed. 1 In the northern parts of the island the vulgar language is a strange French
 patois. In other parts early percentage is testified by use of the Spanish tongue. The ubiquitous Chinese is not
 unknown, being generally met with be-
 hind the counter of the miscellaneous store.
 When the slave trade was abolished
 planters were at their wits end to ob- tain field hands. The manumitted slave came to the conclusion that he
 and his forbears had worked hard
 enough for one family. With abun- dance yielded as the fruits of the earth
 and the capacity of living on very lit- tie, he found he could in three days
 earn enough to sustain himself for week. Why, then, labor through the
 remaining four days? He did not, and the planters were faced by the pros pect of their cane remaining uncut. Thereupon was established system of
 immigration. The East Indies were called upon to redress the balance ere
 ated by the new state of affairs in the west. The coolies come here under ir- denture to serve at fair wage for five years. At the end of ten years they may, if they please, demand a free re-
 turn passage home I am told there Is
 not more than one in five who avails
 himself of this privilege. Unlike the negro, who, careless of mankind, eats
 and drinks as long as he has cash, and
 when it is expended turns to for brief spell of work, the coolie is of a frugal mind. He works his six days week,
 and saves up the balance of wage that
 remains after careful expenditure on the necessaries of life. At the end of
 his term of servitude he claims an al-
 lotment of crown land and sets up in
 business for himself either as sugar
 planter or as cocoa grower. A watch | Lul anu WIoC ulkFC LO GhC value of this custom, do all they can
 to foster 1t. The owners of large es-
 tates look askance upon it. Its inevita-
 ble effect is to reduce the supply and
 send up the price of labor. Even with a steady flood of immigration difficult ty is found in mastering sufficient
 hands. With steady leakage at the
 other end, this difficulty is chronic.
 More disinterested persons see in the
 creation of a race of peasant proprietors
 the salvation, not only of Trinidad, but f of all the other islands. The royal
 commission which visited the West In-
 dies in 1897 placed at the head of their
 recommendations ''the settlement of the
 laboring population on small plots of
 land" The COW Is scarce in Trinidad.
 vantage in the situation. It Is that our
 But of allotment of three acres and
 more there is illimitable possibility.
 Last year the cane farmers. as the
 peasant proprietors are called, sent to the mill over one hundred and seventy
 thousand tons of cane.
 It is cocoa that has proved the salva- ton of Trinidad At the present time the area of the island under cocoa cul- tivation is twice that under sugar. and is steadily extending. The value of the sugar crop last year was something like one hundred and sixty thousand pounds below the average of the preceding quarter of a century. Cocoa exceeded the average of the some period by near ly four hundred thousand pounds. For the peasant proprietor, with his infint- tesimal capital, the cultivation of CO., coa is much more conformable to cir cumstances than is the growth of the sugar cane. Unlike sugar. cocoa, hav- ing been gathered from the tree and dried in the sun, does not require a process of manufacture. There is, therefore, no capital expenditure on plant, nor any bloated wages sheet. The new recruits to the ranks of peas ant proprietors are, accordingly, giving their preference to growing cocoa. The result appears in the latest available return. In 1895 the export of sugar amounted in value to e596415. In 1900 it was reduced to 2552,15S. In 1895 the export value of cocoa was G620 634. In 1900 it was G97S.632, an increase of con- siderably over fifty per cent. During the same term of years the total value of exports has, in spite of depression in the sugar market, increased in the same ratio In 1895 it was G1.791, S67. In 1900 1t was G2.511,S ,S99. There are, I fancy, few communities of larger growth that can show within the same space of time an increase of fifty per cent. on the value of their exports.
 When Sir Walter Raleigh first visited Trinidad, he was greatly struck by the discovery of lake that supplied pitch ready-made. Like sensible business man, he seized the opportunity of giv- ing his ships a good coating of tar, and set out again, bent on fresh conquests. In the centuries that have elapsed since Raleigh first landed in Trinidad the Pitch Lake has proved something like a gold mine to the colony. Of all mine ral products, the shipment of asphalt is the most important and lucrative. During the last seven years it has nearly doubled in value. Yielding con- siderable sums in relief of taxation, it contributes to financial position sound at all points. While the revenue of Trinidad is steadily going up, it's ex- penditure is firmly but discreetly cut down. The public debt of the colony, which amounts to about million ster- ling, is to the extent of seventy-five per cent, represented by remunerative