Frustrated by the colony's slow development, the Board of Aid's London backers replaced colony director John Boyle with Irish-born Cincinnati city engineer Robert Walton in May 1882. Rugby attempted to establish a tomato canning operation in 1883, but after the cannery was constructed, colonists failed to grow enough tomatoes to keep it operational. Newspapers began to ridicule Rugby, with London's "Daily News" accusing Hughes of creating a "pleasure picnic" rather than a functioning colony, and "The New York Times" claiming that Hughes was planning to abandon the colony altogether.