The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1869-11-25

Chinese labor will be thoroughly tested
in Louisiana In the coming spring. Koop-
maascnapp's agents have already closed con-
tracts for some four or five ship loads, to be
delivered at Key West by the Pacific mail
Steamship company. A New Orleans letter
OF the 14Ih inst. to the New York Herald
says:
Mr.. John Williams, jr., one of the New
Orleans agents. is now on his way to Hong
Kong to complete the necessary arrange
menus He Is accompanied by Tye Arr, a
native of Hong Kong. educated IL England,
who has been for some time a resident along
the coast of the Mississippi, and is thorough
ly familiar with the soil, the crops. and the
capabilities of Louisiana. Tye Arr prom
Uses to engage the services of the finest class
of Cody labOrers, such as are most familiar
with the kind of cultivation that pays best
in Louisiana. namely, rice and sugar. The
contracts drawn up are for five years, and.
on the face of them seem unexceptiOnably
liberal, both as regards rations and pay
These are the leading features:
First-We agree to work on plantation or
do any other kind of work that may be as
signed to us by our employer for the period
of five years, beginning at time we COM
mence to work, for which we are to be paid
by him, in gold, at the rate of nine dollars
per month of twenty-six days-one-half at
the end of each month and the balance at
the end of the year, the said employer re-
serving or holding in his hands twenty five
dollars of the earnings each year as a guar
antee to him of the faithful performance of
this contract, but TO be paid to the under
signed on its being fully carried out-not
otherwise.
Second-Our passage to the United States
and all advances amounting to (whatever
they may be- in gold. and paid by our en-
ployer. we hereby obligate ourselves to pay
out of the first wages or earnings together
with any other advances that he may make
to us.
ThiFd-Ne are to be furnished by our en-
ployers with comfortable quarters and ra-
tions of i've pounds of pork or its equiva-
lent in bacon or beef; fourteen bounds of
rice; one-fourth pound tea per week: also
snail quantity of ground for a garden
spot. IL is agreed, that during the time we
are working TO pay the advances made to
US, we are TO De furnished in cash one dol
lar and halt per month, and ten dollars
per year for clothing, &c, and which sums,
II received, we are TO return.
Fourth-We agree to work from daylight
till dark, with an intermissiOn of one hour
each for breakfast and dinner, and during
sugar making TO watch at night, as usual on
sugar plantations; but we are TO be paid bv
our employer of half the night thirty-fiye
cents in specie for each night, at the end of
the month; but no labor is to be required
of US ON Sundays. except when necessary to
save the crop. feed the stock and protect the
plantation generally. We reserve the right
during the summer months to take two
hours for dinner. provided we are at work
by sunrise and take our breakfast before we
go out.
These fivs ship loads will be a test exper-
iment. Should they succeed Gas there is the
strongest reason to suppose they wilD it is
scarcely possible to over-estimate the effect
the movement will have on the future of
Louisiana. Most of the first shipments will
De located on the rice and sugar lands in the
vicinity OF 3ayou lafourche. In that same
district there are thousands of acres of
prairie lane now uncultivated, which can be
turned into rice at little expense. In the
whole State there are not certainly less than
100000 acres of swampy land available for
rice culture, This crop has of late wears
been cultivated more and more in this Stare.
Ii is less hazardous than sugar or cotton.
and pays better. Moreover, the climate and
soil Of Louisiana produce q description of
rice worth at least five cents a pound more
than any East India importations. The only
thing lacking 10 labor. That the Coolie i'm
migration viii supply