Non-Paying Colony Is to be Exploited

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6669, 24 July 1928, Page 13

Non-Paying Colony Is to be Exploited

HOLLAND BUSY STUDYING WAY TO PUT AMERICAN AREA ON PAYING BASIS. AMSTERDAM. Much interest has been aroused over the recent opening in Amsterdam of a Surinam (Dutch Guiana) section of the Colonial Institute from tho fact that Surinam, despite its great natural resources, has cost the Dutch Treasury large returns with at present no returns. The causes of this drawback have been ascribed to the climate of the interior and the difficulties of tho labour- question, together with the reluctance of capital to undertake ventures on a largo scale. Interest, however, has of late, been awakened in Holland, and a society of capitalists under the name of West-In-dian Council of enterprise (Wcstindischc Ondernemersraad) has for the last two, years studied carefully the possi-. biiities of the colony. : Surinam is .rich in different sorts of wood, some of which is valuable to sculptors, a quantity of tho latter kind being lately offered by. tho board of the Colonial Institute to the Dutch So--eiety of Sculptors. There is also a permanent .exhibition of fruit. The magnificent building of the Colonial Institute was opened by Queen Wilhebdina in 192 G. Tt,;has been established to meet the growing interest in colonial affairs. Six institutes are affiliated to the Colonial Institute and the new section is sure to prove a great help toward realising the aims of the institute. It contains numerous objects connected with the life of the aboriginies, among which fine Indian pottery is conspicuous and it gives a survey of the land's products. Chief among the latter is cane, which, thanks to tho extraordinary fertility, of tho soil is cultivated

with good results, mostly planted liy immigrated British Indians, cotton" and balata, a sort of rubber which is used for driving-bands. Several agricultural industries, for instance the fabrication of fibrous substanees ; are still in an experimental stage and an American enterprise is obtaining excellent results with bauxite, the ra\V material, for aluminum. - v