New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-06-16

praisement being founded upon the prices realized
in such actual sales as had occurred between the
years 1920 and 1890.
Tho total number of slaves in British Guiana
for whom compensation was claimed under this
act was 81. s24. OF these, 57,s07 were classed as
predial attaehed-that is engaged in agricul-
tural labor, attached to plantations; SANE as
predsl non-attached, constituting the task
gangs formerly spoken of; and 6,2N as non
predial, consisting for the most part Of domes-
tic servants. There were 1859 returned as aged,
diseased, or otherwise non-efective, and 1913 as
under ak years of age. These last were not in
cluded in the apprenticeship, but were declared
free at once. For the purpose of the appraise-
ment the predial attached were cIsssed as head
people, 1913; mechanics, 1910; inferior mechan-
les, 6ls; field laborers, 80, 1913; inferior field Ia
borers, 1903. The total appraisement amounted
to 60 ,557, or about $45, $50, 600, which gave
the slaves an average value of about $3.50. The
compensation paid amounted to about half the
appraised value. This large sum--upward of
twenty millions Of dolars-went almost entirely
into the hands Of the British merchants who held
mortgages on the plantations.
To carry the apprenticeship system into opera
ton, a new Governor, Sir. James Carmichael
Smith, had been sent to the colony. He proved
magistrate of great frmness and decision, and the
planters soon found that it was in vain to expect
from him anything but the most strict impartiaity
in carrying the new law into effect. One Of the
early results of the new system, was the general
xool oh
pared by committee of planters appointed by the
Governor, showing the quantity of each discrp-
ton of work which might be expected from an
average hand as the result of days labor.
These tables were based upon the experience of
the slave time. But it was soon found, that the
more athletic and active under the new stimulus
of securing the rest OF the day for themselves,
could perform the appointed task in much less
time than the average of the ab0rers, and many of
these Efficient workers were induced by the offer
of payment, to perform second, or part Of sec
ond task. Acknowledgements which begun
now to be generally introduced, saved a large
amount of labor in supplying the sugar-mills with
canes for grinding, and in carrying away the
megass'' SO called, the crushed residium of the
cane, to the loges, or long and lofty Sheds rooted
over, but open at the Sides in which the megass is
stored to be protected from the rains, and kept in
condition to be employed as fuel for the sugar
boilers.
1t thus happened that notwithstanding the eur
tailment in the number of hours of labor, which
the planters could extOrt from their apprentices,
and the actual diminution of the number of
labOrers, which, from causes already pointed out,
was going on during the whole period Of the ap-
premiership the sugar planters were still able to
keep up and even to extend their cultivation. The
crops of sugar, rum, and molasses during the four
years that the apprenticeship lasted were decidedly
larger than they ever had been under the slave
system. The apprenticeship as administered in
British Guiana combined, as we baveseen to GER
tain extent, the advantages of both slave and free
| labor. While the planters derived from the APP
prentices, as such, nearly or quite as much labor
as they bad been able TO extract from them as
slaves by paying for extra work they we're able to
obtain an additional quantity. Nor was the cur
tailment in the authority of the masters so sudden
or so extensive as that introduced by the appren.
tceship act into most of the other colonies. The
changes of the eight years preceding had gradually
prepared the way. The planters, knowing that
he power of the Crown might and would be exer-
cised to remove any obstacles and to put down
any opposition TO the smooth working of the
new system, soon accommodated themselves to it.
In the other colonies those at least which had
Legislatures of their own, the case was different.
Those colonies, and especially Jamaica, as they
had given occasion for the Emancipation act, by
their obstinate refusal to adopt any Of the modif
cations in the slave system demanded of them, SO
they did their best to embarrass in every way the
operation of the Apprenticeship act The local
legislation requisite to give that act effect was
very grudgingly and insuficiently yielded. Moth
ing, indeed but the necessity Of making certain
provisions for carrying that act into effect, re-
quired as preliminary to a share in the slave
compensation, extorted from those aLegslatures
hesitating and reluctant compliance. The same
spirit exhibited by the local Legislatures was dis
played on large part Of the plantations Instead
of gracefully yielding to what had become an In
eviable necessity, the greater part of the planters
stin struggled TO eyade or set aside the provisions
of the act. The apprentices, on the other hand,
stickled obstinatey for their new rights, and
state of contention was thus introduced, by no
means favorable, as the result ofthe crops showed,
to the interests of the planters This they
ascribed TO the system itself as necessary result
They made bitter complaints Of the meddling
spirit of the stipendary magistrates, whom they
accused of always taking the side of the appren
tees. On the other hand the English friends Of
the apprentices ALLEGED that the stipendiarY magis