, 1872-03-06

small leak will sink a great ship"
The plan of full cash payment for labour
being shown up as that which would be
most beneficial to the interest of the plan
tiers and satisfactory to the labourers, the
conclusion follows; that the employers
property should necessarily be regarded as
sacred, while the moral aud social condition
Of the labourers would be highly improved
thereby.
Each proprietor or administrator would
also be able to calculate his yearly eXpea-
ses with sone degree of certainty for he
would fin it obligatory on him to maze
s1ch an arrangement as would best suit
his peculiar pacuniary circum stances. \
certain number Of hands for the cultivation
of a certain number of acres Of land, would
result in hereQuiramento Of a certainamount
of money to carry on his business and
thus all the heterogeneous mass Of yearly
incon e~niences which crowd on the heels
oftha planters under present circumstances,
might somewhat be aYerted.
But these are not all the benefits that
would result from this plan. The supplies
necessary for the consumption of the coun-
try population, which are now obligatory
on the planters to obtain, Woullba thr0wI
into the business Of He shop Nceper8ia the
towns and by this influx Of business, an
impetus would be given to trade il the IN
terest of the smaller dealers in the c3mnar-
ciaI part of the community and, eventual
ly there would probably, yea, almost post
lively arise the necessity OF establishing
stores II certain parts OF the island, to sup
ply the daily wants of the country folks;
particularly those who did not come to
town to obtain supplies on Saturdays.
While scanning over paragraphs 9-l2,
it is no where to be found that any prOvI-
sion is made as TO d fixed time to pay the
labourers their wages. Aud what is the
result of this? Many estates pay late Oh
Saturdays; many on Sundays; some tort
nightly and some even retain the Iabour-
er's wages for q longer pc iol. BY this
irregularity, droyes Of the labourers omit
working on Mondays, under the plea that
they got no money for market on Satur-
day, aud, therefore, they must 60 to town
TO obtain supplies which they require on
Monday" This is an irreguIarity out Of
which a hest OF other evils arise, which
evils it may not be very prudent to state
here; but this ought to be checked, both
for the interest Of the planter and in justice
to the labourer.
A few remarks more on these paragraphs
before leaving them to see after the others.
Paragraph tenth, abiding to extra work
during crop, orders that, "Labourers work
ing suchextrahours by turns, art not to have
additional payment" What really was the
meaning Of the legislator when he enacted
this? Did he really mean to say, that be-
cause the planter did not choose to employ
the same person or persons every day for
'such extra work" that, nevertheless, no
right to expect payment for such extra
work existed under the circumstances 2
Or did he mean despoticaily to deprive the
labourer of his just dues by snch an unfair
enactment regardless of his right, in behalf
of the employer?
Paragraph twelfth appears to defeat in
toto the moral obligation of man to consider
honest labour as the stepping stone to all
his creature comforts, when it enacts that,
"Work done on Saturday may, however,
be ordered by the magistrate as a punish
ment to the laborer, for having absented