Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-07-31

products of their own labor is increased ten or a
hundred fold. The material prosperity of n country
is not always to be known by the amount OF her
@ ports, any more than is her social or moral COM
dition.
In addition to the testimony we publish in n
preceding column, we copy the following from the
Anti.Slavery Standard.
There comes to us from England n pamphlet,
entitled The West India Labor Question being
Replies to Inquiries instituted by tie Committee
of the British and Foreign Anti,Slavery Society,
embracing Facts and Statistics on tie Present
Condition Of the Emancirated Glasses, and on the
alleged Want Of Labor in the West India Colonies,
but especially in Jamaica" The questions yro.
posed by the Committee and replied to at length
by correspondents in Jamacia, Barbados, Anti.
qua, Montserrat. Granada, Tobago aud British
Guiana, are the following:
QUESTIONS 10 wEsT INDIA CORRESPONDENTS.
l. Is there any real want of labor in your col
onv, and if so, to what extent, and to what gene,
raj cnusc is it to be ascribed
9. Are the native laborers fairly remuneratcd
for their labor on the estates, and are their wages
punctually and regularly paidf
3. What number of Immigrants has been intro
duccd into your colony since Emancipation; and
where did they come from principally?
4. What number has returned to India, China,
U L [hllICh9
5. What number is estimated to have died in
the colony, and what number is estimated to be
Row in it?
G. What wages have they been in the habit of
receiving?
I. What is the average cost of an immigrant,
inclusive of his passage to the colony and back to
his country
8. What proportion of the immigrants have
worked on the estates, and how have the rest been
employed?
0. What effect has their introduction had upon
the laboring population of the colony? Has it
r reduced the rate of wages? Has it supplanted
native labor to any great extent? Has it forced
! the native laborers to seek occu patton on their
own grounds, in the cultivation of provisions for
the increased population !? How has it affected
the morals OF the native population?
d The replies to these questions cover nearly forty
d double column octave pages. We have not room
for extracts now, but the result of the whole ia
thus summed up in the introduction
The Committee trust that the circulation of the
facts they have thus been enabled to collate will
" tend to remove the erroneous Impressions, prevail
J ent on this subject, which interested parties in
If this country. aided by one of our leading journ.
= ais, have sought to convey, and to counterfeit the
mischievous tendency Of their calumnious state.
ments. The Committee deem it advisable not to
publish the names Of their correspondents but
e would observe that their responsibility and perfec,
4 rustworthiness are beyond question.
Whilst the Committee consider that the letters
should be permitted to speak for themselves, il
may he well to state the facts they establish.
|. The alleged want of labor is a false cry. II
le cultivate the whole area of land at presen,
lying waste in all the colouies-except Barbadoe,
would, indeed, absorb any number of laborers;
but the evidence is overwhelming that no addition
to their number is necessary to meet the demand
for the estates that are actually under cultivation
re Q. Where labor is said to be deficient, it can b.
traced to causes within the planters control to re
move. OF these, insufficient wages. unpunctun
payments of the same, or no payment ct all, ar
stated to be the chief. 3. Immigration on IL
in present system is condemned as expensive al
l. unsatisfactory, injurious to the people who are il
" troducod, and to the native colonial population.
III The allegations of idlenees and immortality
re which have been propagated by The Times, ar
SIS Indignantly repudiated as gross calumnies, nm
"a. the writer's are challenged to produce the proof
their reckless statements. The Committe fe,
;" satisfied that all unbiased persons who read til
nj annexed communications must come to the col
Vi clusion that the negro population of the We
- India colonies have been shamefully maligne,
cd and that the demand for Immigrant labor" pr
W ceeds from a desire to graft upon free.labor q sy
tenn Of forced service, which is totally incompat
cir BILE with the spirit of the Act of Emancipation.