, 1866-07-27

10 understand INC value Vi Il OdlC dOJ IulI3
and we need but compare our healthy
and strong looking laborers to the mlser-
able emaciated Wretches so often met with
in st. Thomas and TOrtoIa to draw a right
conclusion, who are better off, both ply
sicaIly and morally considered. The unWII-
l~ingness of the laborer to work, especially
fieIdwork, is the root Of the planters dIth-
Guilty, and the sympathy which general
ly exists for his l~aziness, is one OF those
unaccountable eccentricities by which good
men in the pursuit Of a hobby are some
times carried away to adopt measures,
which tend to encourage this evil propen-
sity rather than to enIighten his under
standing concerning the principles of
Christianity, so that all other earthly mat
ters might be comparatively easy. Strange,
that our morbid phiIantropists, have no
feeling Of this kind for the struggling poor
in the northern countries, who have also
yearly engagements to fulfill, and to con
tend besides, with the asperlty OF the Gil
mate. We praise and we stimulate the en-
ergy Of the Saxon race, while the scope
of our Colonial policy is to encourage the
Iaborcrs in the tropics to idleness. The
European laborer knows, that If lie will
not work, he must starve. LABOR tests arc
introduced intothe WOrkhouse to convince
him, that while he lives on pubic aims,
he must not be idle The advantage Is
clearly in favor Of the tropical ]Iaborer,
who is more independent, better paid and
fed, and altogether in a superior physical
position. 1t certainly was a true, and at
The same time very cutting word to the
purpose, which a simple old Irishman re-
siding in st. Croix some years ago adj
dressed to a Quaker. "lf my starving
conntrvmen-oulY had the good luck OF
PUooUo6'"5 " tvflu"i .i.i., - "~~t1 pc
baby try to do something for them"
The existing regulations of annual CON
tracts in the Sugar growing Islands ST.
Croix and ST. Johns have facilitated and
led to many highly desirable consuIta-
lions and beneficial contacts, in the whole
to nearer personal relations, which with
those, who understand and wish 10 take
advantage of this position, must serve to
nurture good will and confidence between
the employers and laborers, into whose
latter heads it is, according TO their child
ish inexperience and c~redulity, infinitely
easier TO put high flown notions and wild
hopes, than by wise and considerate mild
ness and instruction little by little to
counteract and extifpate their erroneous
ideas of liberty linked with idIeness, and
to make them by intoxicating the true
principles of Christianity useful members
of the great society. To attain this object,
it requires proper schools, time, steadiness
and perseverance,, but not judicial expert
ments nor the encouragement of job-work,
the evil effects of which are not so easily
felt in st. Thomas on account of It's COM
mercial pursuits, but are easily to be OBJ
served in the other Islands to Windward
of the same pursuits as this and St. Croix.
The example of this system in the neigh
bouring Islands, has not failed TO exer-
else also its influence upon our l%aborers,
so that their effective force for cuItivating
the Estates may be calculated to be row
reduced to hardly the third part of what it
was at the time of their emancipation,
the most of them having emigrated TO the
neighbouring Islands and especially to
st. Thomas, where they can earn in one
day sufficient to last them for the whole
week. And when we ask, what has st.
Thomas done in return, we find, that not
only nothing to compensate these losses,