Star.
London, England, 1831-05-26 00:00:00

No. 13,794. THURSDAY EVENENtiI, MAY 26, 1831.

DEMERARA AND ESSEQUEBO.

Report of the Committee of Matters and Merchants, appointed to ye-
t the Agricultural and Commercial State of the United Colony
of Demerara and Essequebo.
A general opinion prevails in the mother country tbat the
united colony of Demerara and Essequibo feels the pressure
of the present calamitous times in a less degree than the
West India islands—and, therefore, we find, in the repre-
sentations which the latter make of their embarrassments,
this idea is encouraged with a view to prevent the adoption
of a graduated scale of duties. This colony, it is well known,
produces inferior sugar to the other colonies, with, perhaps,
the exception of Trinidad and Berbice ; and therefore, on
every principle of justice, the duty should be less than on
finer qualities. If it be asserted that it possesses a superior
soil, and consequently produces a larger quantity of sugar—
on the other hand, it will be clearly shown that, not only
the cost of the original establishment of an estate, but the
annual expenses are far greater than in the islands, and that
the proprietors are now deriving little or no return on their
capital.
To the minds of men unacquainted with the peculiarities
of the Colonies, a question will, no doubt, suggest itself.
Why should the expenses of a Demerara estate, with a given
number of slaves, exceed those of an estate in the West
India islands, with an equal number? On this bead, there-
fore, it is necessary to enter into a detail of the circum-
stances, which will throw light on the subject.
The soil of Demerara and Essequebo is alluvial; is under
the level of the sea at high water—consequently, must be
protected by embankments in front. The country as far as
the plantations extend, is almost a dead level, and therefore
embankments are also necessary in the rear of the estates
to keep out the waters of the interior. Side-dams are also
requisite, that damage occurring to one estate, by the
breaking of its front or rear embankment, may be prevented
from spreading to its neighbours. These embankments are
kept up at a very considerable expense, and have often to be
renewed and put in repair, by hiring extra labourers or
task-gangs, who follow this kind of business. Large sluices
and canals are also necessary, and very expensive ; and some
idea may be formed of the vast extent of capital indispentet- '
ble to establish a Sugar estate calculated to eroduce 700
hogsheads of sugar annually, when 37 miles of canals, 11
feet wide by .5 feet deep, on an average, and '214 miles of
trenches, 2 feet wide by 18 inches deep, are requisite for
the drainage of the estate, and transportation of the canes to
the mill. In many situations wharves of hardwood timber,
often extending from 200 to .500 feet into the sea, are also
necessary for the shipping of the crop; and, with the ex-
ception of the river estates, (where punts or lighters are
used,) each property must have its drogher to carry the
crop to the harbour of Demerara, and transport from thence
the requisite supplies for the estate and its people.
The country is so intersected by rivers and creeks,
and moreover the softness of the soil is such, that
transportation by carts is out of the question ; and there
is no way by which the great expence of boats can be ob-
viated, although it amounts to at least E5OO stet ling per an-
num to each estate. Steam-engines are almost the only kind
of machinery calculated for Sugar Estates in Demerara and
Essequebo, as the country has no eminences, and few pro-
jecting points fitted for the erection of wind-mills ; and,
being a level plain, is consequently deprived of waterfalls.
These advantages are enjoyed by the Islands, and obviate a
great expense of fuel, which is inevitable where steam-en-
gines are employed ;—great, however, as these advan-
tages are, they are surpassed by others which they enjoy
iu the durability, and small expense whicn their sugar
works cost, when compared with those of Demerara and
Essequebo. Stone and lime are at hand in the former,
whilst the materials of the buildings in the latter are either
of timber, purchased from wood-cutters, who procure it fre-
quently from the distance of some hundred miles in the in-
terior, or are erected at a vast expense with bricks and lime
imported from Britain. Independent of the impractibility of
procuring a solid foundation in most parts of the colony, few
are able to use the last-mentioned materials--consequently,
the buildings are principally composed of wood ; and such
is the humidity of the climate, that a set of sugar works and
implements, erected at a cost, perhaps, of 20,0001. sterling,
are not calculated to last for more than twenty years. and
during that period require very considerable outlay in repairs
and painting. The same argument applies to every other
description of buildings in Demerara and Essequebo ; con-
stant attention, timely repairs, and annual painting, are in-
dispensable to preserve them in a serviceable state.
Another serious item in the expenditure of Demerara and
Essequebo estates, is the salaries of the whites on them ;
and it is necessary to shew the causes which operate to ren-
der such so disproportionate to wages in the islands. In
tracing this to its origin, it will be found greatly to the credit
of the planters of Demerara and Essequebo, and to form one
of the strongest proofs of their anxiety to ameliorate thecon-
dition of their slaves, long prior to the interference of the
mother country with their local regulations.
In the time when this colony belonged to Holland, the
salaries of the white people employed on the estates were ex-
ceedingly low, and the managers and overseers in general,
by no means equal in respectability or education to the per-
sons now follou ing those employments. Discharged soldiers
and seamen constituted a great proportion of the overseeis ;
and although many of them were men of humane dispositions
and good conduct, it cannot be denied that instances to the
contrary occurred, and made it expedient to procure a supe-
rior class of men for these occupatious, when a general de-
sire for progressive amelioration became manifest amongst
the colonists themselves. The only way in which this
could be effected, was by holding out the inducement of
good salaries, and, inconsequence, many respectable planters
from the West India islands, and young men of good
education from Europe, were procured to perform the
duties. 1

A planter's life in Demerara and Essequebo is far more
laborious than in the islands. The frequent rains—the ex-
tent of the plantations —the necessity of vigilant attention
to the embankments and drainage of the properties all com-
bine to render it so ; and the consumption of clothing, boots
and shoes, &c. is far greater than amongst persons in the
the same line in the islands, where the climate is dryer, with
good clean roads, and the distance to be travelled over is
comparatively trifling. There is yet another reason why
salaries are higher here than in the islands. The greater
part of our white people are procured from Britain, whilst in
most of the islands, with a numerous white population, the
descendants of settlers for centuries, no scarcity of managers

PRICE 7n.

and overseers ever takes place, as there is sufficient competi-
tion amongst the natives, who prefer small salaries, in their
native country, rather than quit it for a land where many
hare, by experience, found tlie duties of their station infi-
nitely more laborious, though with an increased rate of emo-
lument.

Under the head of salaries may also be brought the charge
for medical attendance. The fatigue which medical men
must necessarily undergo in paying strict attention to their
practice, renders it indispensable to pay them liberally ; and
the same causes which combine to occasion the excess of
expenses to mauagers and overseers over those in the
Islands, equally apply to the doctors. Indeed, the roads are
often so qitt up in wet weather as to be almost impassable ;
and a me &41 man, with a practice of perhaps not more than
half a dozen estates,•is under the necessity of keepiag three
or four horses, to enable him to go through his duties. The
diseases which afflict the inhabitants of Demerara and Es-
sequebo, are geoer.dly of a nature to require skilful treat-
ment, as they, for the most part, are occasioned by the hu-
midity of the climate ; aud, it is .tot unfrequently the case,
that individuals, the very picture of health and vigour, are
suddenly attacked, who, by immediate judicious treatment
by men of skill in the profession, are preserved. In many
of the Islands there are uctive apothecaries who prescribe
for a small MUD, and, as well as the generality of managers,
understand the common ailments of the negroes—and in
cases of danger only, physicians are resorted to. The
laws of tho Colony enjoin that each estate shall keep in
its service a regular medical practitioner, duly licensed by
his Excellency the Governor ;—the colonists are therefore
by this, and a regard for their own interest, constrained to
encourage gentlemen skilled in the profession to settle
amongst them, by paying them liberally.
The salaries and extent of our civil establishments are on
a gigantic scale when compared with those of the Islands—
where the legislatures have had the power of proportioning
such to the resources of their constituents ; but Demerara
and Esseqttebo, unblessed with this salutary protection,
are compelled to submit to a load of taxation, which,
under existing circumstances, is felt severely. This
taxation has been greatly augmented of late years by the
increase in the clerical establishment, and by newly-created
officers, in accordance with the views of Government. This
augmentation having taken place in the face of a declining
and ruinous market for the staple commodities of the Colony,
is therefore felt in a greater ratio. The Colonists, actuated
by an earnest desire to improve the spiritual and temporal
condition of their slaves, were induced to foster these addi-
tional religious establishment'', and calmly to submit to the
newly-created offices, and, after having entailed so heavy an
additional expense on their already reduced finances, not-1
withstanding such substantial evidence of their desire, by
every prudent and practicable measure, to ameliorate the
condition of their slaves (in which they have succeeded be-
yond the most sanguine expectations of disinterested public
men who have been eye-witnesses of the fact),— it is with
pain they now perceive that the implacable hatred of their
enemies 4• in no degree, appeased ; but has, on the con-
trary, acquired fresh virulence, from the measures of ame-
lioration which have been adopted by the oppressed.and im-
poverished colonists—who now observe, with horror, that
nothing short of their final ruin is sought to be accomplished.
It is almost superfluous to add, that the effect of the syste-
matic proceedings of the anti-colonists has been to render
estates in the colonies unsaleable,—confidence is destroyed,
—and the present holders of property are compelled to
struggle with their embarrassments, unaided by a remune-
rating price for their produce, and unable to effect a sale, or
to obtain that relief which they formerly procured from the
British capitalists, when the stability of West India pro-
perty was unshaken by illegal attacks.
The state to which the plantations in Demerara and Esse-
quebo have already been reduced, is clearly exhibited in the
following statements. The Colonists have not only the
mortification of toiling without profit to themselves, but
have likewise their lives and properties placed in jeopardy,
by the dissemination of the unprincipled and inflammatory
doctrines of a set of men, the instigators or leaders of which
veil their sinister motives under the cloak of philanthropy,
whilst they would not screple to consign to ruin and blood-•
abed their fellow-subjects, who hold their property by as
lawful a tenure as that by which any other species of pro-
perty in the empire is held.
Statements referred to in the preceding paragraph.
The quality of Demerara and Essequcbo sugar is a medium be-
tween dry brown at.d middling—the former quoted minimum, 43•—the
latter 111111111111111 534—average fitly per cwt.

No. I.—Ar estzte in the best part of the colony with a gang of 500
ncgroea, produces ou an average 800 hhds sugar, which, at the King's
bean'. tutu out 14 cwt. nett each :
1 cwt average price
• Duty as at present baled with.
out reference to guilty 244
Freight. Mercantile, and Duck
Charges— 8. 6d,— 3k. 6d

4. Leavai 15s. Bd. p. ewt. equal.
To ,410 17s per hhd.--800 hhds. .. £8,680
70,000 Q.llonm Rum, old Gall.
equal to 53,334 Imperial Gal-
lons, at the present quotations.
per Gallon ...£ Is Bd.
OTT.
Cost of Production, Mercantile,
and Dock l'hargcs Is

Leaves.. 8d per GaLlon.
58,334 Gallons at that rate .. ... ... ... 1,944 9r.
Gross Revenue ... ... 10,624 9s.

Expenses, vls.
86,000 lbs Fish at M. ... • • 677 ls.
Clothing for Negroes ... ... 750
Plain:ins purchased ... ... 1143
450 hhds. Coals, at 38s .. • • 856
360 hhds. to put Sugars in for the crop along
with the Coal hbds. ... • • 350
Drogh.rnge ... ..
Salarks and Taxes ... ... ... 1600
Pork, Rice, and Port Wine, /2406 10
Bricks, Lime. Timber, Lum-
ber, anti Nuils for repairs 8050
Tobacco and Pipes •. 8110
Temper Lime, Lamp 011, and
Wick ... ... 700
Tar, Pitch, Cordage, and
Plumber's Work .. 860

• The planters not only feel the pressure of this extwbitent dety,
but have moreover, to complain, that it is not levied on the quantity
I delivered, but on the weight of the midis when landed, between which
time and the day of sale it diminishes considetably, end the duty
should, therefore, be only exacted on the quantity soid—e rommue
which could easily be carded into effect, at the time of delivery from
bonded warehouse,