The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-10 00:00:00

FREE LABOUR IN THE WEST

INDIES.

We are asked by our friends in England if there be
any truth in the statements advanced by the Planters,
that " the negroes will do no work except for the moat
exorbitant wages ?"
We have no hesitation in giving the statement the
most unqualified contradiction.
The first point to be settled in such a discussion is,
what may be considered a fair standard of wages. We
will let the question be decided on evidence supplied by
the planters themselves.
Let us first ask what was the market price of labour
fixed by the planters during the existence of the ap-
prenticeship.
The Parliamentary papers furnish us with abundant
materials for a reply. We find for example that when
a man named Nelson Harris, a common field labourer
on Caswell Hill Estate, in Vere, applied for his release
from the remaining term of his apprenticeship, the overseer
Mr. C. Harley, and the attorney Mr. William Dowell,
swore that his services to the estate as an apprentice,
were worth no less tha❑ eighty pounds a year—that is
about six shillings and ten pence per day ! Mr. Mac-
Pherson valued the services of the same man at
forty-five pounds per annum, about three shillings and
fourpence per day, and Mr. M'Clemont at thirty
five pounds per annum.
We find that on the same day, the same Mr. William
Dowall, valued a boy of sixteen years of age, at thirty
pounds per annum ; that is 2s. 6d. per day.
Mr. G. P. Burrell, another Magistrate of Vere, valued
one Mary Ann Donaldson, an estate washer-woman, at
451. per annum.
On the valuation of Mary Williams, a field labourer
on Woodstock, in St. George's, Mr. William Hossack,
the proprietor, declared on oath that the value of the
woman's services to the estate, though burdened with
two young children, under five years of age, was one
hundred pounds per annum ; making about eight
shillings and six-pence per day of nine hours !
These are but a few of the specimens that may be
culled out of the Parliamentary Papers, to show what
were the opinions—ratified by the sanctity of an oath,
of certain planters—all highly respectable—all honour-
able men, as to the actual value of the services of a
labourer engaged in field cultivation! If we were to
take these opinions as our guide, we might fairly fix the
standard of wages at five 'or six shillings per day. But
we will cast them aside ; we Will admit for argument's
sake, that the value of the labourer's services as sworn
to, by these honourable men, was absurdly extravagant,
and merely intended either to defraud the helpless la-
bourer, or keep him in a state of slavery.

We pass on to other, and more reasonable evidence,

In the great bulk of the valuations taken, the sum
decided on as a fair estimate of the value of praadial
service, was 251. per annum, making the day's labour
worth 2s. 2id. ; this, exclusive of the cost of mainte-
nance as to the clothing, medical attendance, the " cus-
tomary allowances," and house and ground, which
would raise the value of tbe day's labour to 2s. 6d. or
2s. 11 d. per day.. _ _

Such was tile. planter's—statement of the value of
labOui ; and what did the planter actually pay for
labour, when his necessities required him to seek
more than what the law allowed him to extort from
his own gang ? Jobbing gangs during the latter
part of the apprenticeship never were hired out
for less than 2s. 6d. per day—very commonly
3s. 4d., and sometimes 4s. 2d. Cane hole digging
was sometimes taken by the piece, at 8/. per acre,
in average land ; seventy cane holes were regularly
extorted from each labourer ; at this rate the jobber
received rather better than the sum of ss. sd. for the

labour of each of his gang per day ; when the labourer
was hired in his own time, he was paid at the rate of
from ls. Bd. to 3s. 4d. per day ; but in the great ma-

jority of cases at 2s. 6d. per day.
Now, arguing from these data, and their accuracy
will assuredly not be disputed, we would fix the stan-
dard of a reasonable rate of wages at two shillings and
sixpence per day of nine hours. What, then, was the
amount of wages offered by the planters at the begin-
ning of the system ?—what was the amount demanded
by the labourers ?—and what is the amount now ac-
tually paid ?
In St. Thomas in the East, just before the termina-
tion of the apprenticeship, the high-minded gentry of the
parish took it into their heads, to have it all their own
way ; they magnanimously agreed among themselves,
not to give more than ten pence currency, (6d. sterling)
per day, for a day's labour, the length of which they also
laid down with as much self-complacency as though the
despotism of the old system were to continue in full ope-
tion ; their egregious folly and ignorance, speedily be-
came apparent, and many are doubless now suffering
from their innocent mistake.

In St. Thomas in the Vale, we heard of a similar
combination, not to pay more than three shillings and
four pence (two shillings sterling) per week, with the
occupation of house and grounds, nominally free of rent.
In Trelawny and St. James's, the plan was to pay
only one shilling and a halt-penny currency (that is 7i-d.
sterling per day). One or other of these rates was
adopted by the generality of managers throughout the
island ; the labourers, as might be expected, rejected
these inequitable—these iniquitous terms ; they were
not quite so ignorant of the value of their labour, as the
planters had calculated on.
But were they any way unreasonable in their de-
mands ? Let the facts speak for themselves.—ln nine-
teen cases out of twenty, the labourers demanded the
lowest sum that had for many years previously been
given for a day's labour, that is, is. Bd. currency
per day ; and we have not heard of a single instance
of a gang standing out for higher wages than 2s. Gd.
per day, subject to a heavy deduction for rent of
houses and grounds Some few of the planters
at once acquiesced with these terms, and thereby
established that sort of feeling of confidence and good
will, between themselves and their people, as enabled
them to carry on the cultivation of their estates, with
little or no interruption. But in a great many cases,
we believe the majority, the planters persisted in their
endeavours to thrust their own terms upon the la-
bourers ; the struggle which ensued caused a temporary
suspension of labour, and hence the outcry that the
negroes had refused to work, except for the most exor-
bitant wages.
We will take this opportunity of observing, that there
are some estates in the island which cannot afford to pay
the rate of wages we have pointed out as reasonable—
estates situated far in the interior—of inferior produc-
tiveness—and overwhelmed with the difficulties and ex-
penses of getting the produce conveyed along the rugged
and lengthy roads down to the Barqucdier.—Such Es-
tates cannot afford to pay 2s. Gd. per day, nor even
Is. Bd. ; in fact, they cannot afford to pay any wages at I
all!—they ought to be totally abandoned as regards
Sugar cultivation—it is struggling against nature, to
persist in carrying them on. Sugar cultivation, we
imagine, must eventually be limited to those localities
where no natural impediments exist.

From what we have herein explained, our English
re'ders will be quite competent to judge whether there
be any reasonable foundation for the hue and cry raised
by the planters and their partisans, as to the extrava-
gant wages demanded by the labourers.—Colonial
Reformer.

The Marchioness of Hastings will not accom-
pany the Marquis to Scotland, but intends leaving town in
the course of the week for Cowes, Isle of Wight, with her
family. Part of the Marquis and Marchioness's establish-
ment has already arrived there.

BENEFIT OF THE CORN-LAWS TO IRE-
LAN D.—The high price of provisions in our market is at
this moment the cause of excessive distress to the numerous
poor of the city, and the wants of this class are aggravated
by the scarcity of employment, an evil unfortunately preva-
lent in the early part of the summer, when the export
merchants have exhausted their granaries, and await the
supply of the growing harvest, which then occupies so many
hands in the stores and at the quays.—limerick Chronicle.
[ See also the Debate in the House of Commons, on Friday
evening, when some Irish Members who voted to retain the
scoundrel enactments were clamorous for relief for their
suffering countrymen.]