The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1865-11-18
PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
From the New York Nation.
COOIie Labor ut the south.

duets. IL Is inevitable that the owners of large
plantations South will try what can be done with
cooiie or Asiatic labor. 1t is probably known to
many OF our readers that, during the past ten
years, large numbers Of HindOOs and Cinnamon
have been induced to emigrate to Cuba, Trinidad,
and British Guiana, under contracts to work, for
a term Of years, for stipulated sums. All ac-
counts agree that the experiment has proved sue
c~essfui. The climate does not disagree with the
A7Iatics. whose labor Is far more efficient than
that IF the freed negro.
" An effort IL now making to Introduce coolie
labor into Jamaica"
The writer then quotes 1roIIope in proof of the
success Of the experiments in the British West
Indies
Let us commences by saying that TroIlope's
work on the West Indies, like his deceased
mothers book on the United States, abounds in
inaccurate statements, and Is consequently very
Enthusiastically authority. 80 far as Jamaica i
Concerned, the writer OF this article has had an
experience Of matters there which entities him TO
say that most Of the statements in that work
should be taken cum gTanO sails, and that many
OF them are totally Incorrect. TrOllope spent
only a few weeks in the island, which he visited
on oi1clai duties in the pOst-offce department Of
the imperial Government and he was during the
whole OF that time engaged in travelling from
place TO place. lie was everywhere the guest of
the planters, from whom he derived all his infor-
nation as To the state Of affairs generally. and
the character and condition of the blacks in par
tIcular- Such information would be of course
colOred by the peculiar prejudices Of the dominant
Class and he cannot therefore be regarded as a
trustworthy guide in matters relating 10 Jamaica.
we VIII not however content ourselves with mere
assertion, but shall let facts speak.
At the time that Mr.. Trollope wrote his book
ON the West Indies, it is true that strenuous
efforts were being made to promote coolie emigra-
ton for the cultivation Of the Jamaica sugar
Plantations, and that those efforts were encoun-
terlng stout opposition both from q certain party
IN the colony and from another in England COM
posed OF the philanthropists of Exeter Hall. In
view of the fesults of such emipration i'm British
Guiana and Trinidad, Mr.. Trollope thinks it
" singular that an attempt should be made to
prevent 1t In the case Of Jamaica. But he was
either ignorant of the fact, or he suppressed it,
that the experiment of coolie labor as a substitute
Tor that of the negro had been already tried in
Jamaica, and had proved a total and miserable
failure. lie was not more than three or four years
after the emancipation of the blacks that the
planters OF that island fell upon the e~xpedient of
coolies to do the work of their planta-
tons Under legislative enactment an agency
was established in India for collecting coolies and
shipping them to Jamaica, and over ten thousand
OF these people were sent to the island and dis
among the planters. But it was soon
that most of them were totally unfit
tor agricultural labor, and upon enquiry it turn
ed out that the majority of them had been hastily
taken from the scum of the streets of Calcutta
and Madras, and shipped off to the West Indies.
All that the agent and his subOrdinates seemed to
AVE- ciEeu uDOut WAS their Helu-InOneV the
more coolies they shipped, the more pay they got;
IND IN their greed of gain they foisted upon the
colony a lot of worthless people. The planters
0und that they had committed a great mistake.
The coolies were either turned off the plantations
'r LETT to wander whithersoeyer they pleased with
,ut any restraint, and to find subsistence as best
hey might. The consequences We're most de-
The poor wretches were soon found
the streets and the highways, living by
nendicancy, and large numbers of them persisted
Meanwhile the island had been burdened,
Trough the experiment, with u debt of nearly {
wo millions of dollars, that became a charge I
pom the general revenue, to which the freed {
egroes were compelled to contribute as well US !
he planters Undeterred, however, by the Bit
er experience OF the past, ut the period when {
ir- TrollOpe visited Jamaica; the planters. still =
ent upon obtaining cheap labor, were agitating II
y a renewal of the experiment that had already I
D lamentably failed. There were those, both in 0
amaica and in England, who had not forgotten Z
ne npshot of the Grst trial. They opposed the y
theme, but Were unsuccessful in their opposi- a.
on and 1t was ultimately decided, after two :,
of agitation, that the experiment should be- h
gam tried, under, professedly, more stringent $,
than at trst-proyision being made, a
nOnS other things, that twO-thirds of the ex- b
ense should be borne by the planters. And U
hat has been the sesult ? This time an agent, Is
'ecially selected with Il view t. his fitness for q
II work, was sent out from jamaica to India ; r
Irs were chartered. and about four thousand Ia
.olies were sent over to the island in the space
three years. Then the planters suddenly dis 60
yered that there was no longer any need of
Ollie laoorefs, that the expense attendant upon -
e scheme was too heavy FOR them To bear, and "
1t the negro laborers were preferable to the ve
siatic- The agent was summarily recalled n,
d Tor nearly two years past, not = single cOolie ce
Migrant has been landed on the shores of Jamai- so
D. The greater portion of those now on the M
and will have to be sent back to India. after tn
ihl!ing the terms of their indentu: g and when WI
last of them shall have lett for his native nc
nd, IT will be found that the island has incur oy
I a debt little short of four millions of dollars To-
rough the twice-repeated experiment, without W
wing reaped any benefit in return for such q W
rge outlay of money. ~
As To Cuba, we shall say nothing here, for ra
O!!e emigration there is, we fear, only another Th
me for slavery but with regard to Demerara lis
d Trinidad 1t cannot be denied that in those an
lonies the experiment has 10 all appearance Tn
rked successfully. But for this two reasons to
~ be assigned, not operating in the case of pa
First. IN both of those countries popu- OF
ION Is much more sparse than in Jamaica. mn
18th = territory four or five times as large, la
merara, according to the last census. has little
re than one-third the population of Jamaica; for
1 Trinidad, which is about half the size of her PAL
island, has barely One-fourth the population wol
jamaica In both these colonies. then, labor pro
carce; but IN Jamaica, with fair wages and the
.uidr payments, 1t can be had in abundance. Say
Ond, the experiment has been conducted with
iIerent system OF management from that which ~
ans IN jamaica. DemerarI and Trinidad are -
are called : crown colonies" Their lecis- p.c
lres are not elective bodies, chosen by suffrage sea.
-ue colony, out are composed OF nominees of Thi
Crown ana thus the imperial Government disc
rclses a more direct and influential control tan
T their affairs than IS possible in the case of vor
naicl, where the popular voice is represented, esti