"Our legislators pretend on every occasion, opportune or
 inopportune, that we must do everything in our power to attract
 capital: they profess to fear that, if their power is diminished,
 something will be done 'to scare away capital', and the like in
 endless iteration."
 The iteration has not yet ended, even in 1955 If capital has not
been scared away between 1888 and 1955, it will never be scared away !
 Crichlow emphasised that the people wanted constitution reform
because they had no power to curb the constantly increasing expenditure.
Rostant went further still-there was nothing to show for the increased
expenditure. Rostant complained :
 "They would like to see less taxes, and they would like to
 see that when school-houses are said to be built, that they are
 built, and that when bridges are said to be built, that they are
 built, and when roads are said to be made, that they are made ...
 Sometimes it was reported in the Blue Book that a bridge had
 been built or certain schools had been completed, and we after-
 wards found out that there were no such schools in existence
 at all, not even the site chosen."
 As the French proverb goes, the more things change, the more they
 remain the same. In 1888 the government of Trinidad and Tobago spent
 money on roads which were not built, just as in our time we spent money
 on Caura for water which we have not received. Sixty years ago money
 was spent on schools which were not built just as a few years ago we
 spent money on machinery which went into the Laventille Swamp.
 The bridges on which money was spent were not built just as we spent
 money on a slipway which is defective. Crown Colony government
 meant "buball" government. The case for its modification, even in
 1888, was overwhelming.
 The Colonial Office, however, was adamant in its refusal to concede
 the slightest particle of representative government to Trinidad. The
 Chairman of the Commission, the Attorney General of Trinidad, an
 Englishman. submitted a minority report opposing the representative
 principle. This is what he wrote :
 "... in the present circumstances of Trinidad an electorate
 to consist of persons qualified by knowledge and education and
 at the same time representing all interests in the Island cannot
 be found. An electorate based upon the qualifications of know-
 ledge and education would not be representative of all interests
 in the Island while an electorate based upon the representation
 of all interests would necessarily include a very large number
 of ignorant and illiterate persons ... I cannot imagine anything
 more fatal to the interests of this prosperous Colony than to
 attempt to rouse its peculiarly heterogeneous population to a
 desire to exercise political privileges, and to take a share in the
 Government before the spontaneous wish to do so, the result
 of a more advanced state of education and civilization, has arisen."