, 1872-03-09
SnmMttiratirns
THE SITUATION.

IL SITUATION.
In continuing the foregoing comments
on the "Labour Act" the following re-
marks are offered on the remaining para
graphs =
Paragraphs 14th-16th deyolye a Sc
RES Of restrictions on the labourer, all in
favour of the employer. The nature Of
these restrictions offers no better guaran-
tee for q freer and more progressive deve-
lopment Of the labourer's moral and social
position, than the foregoing and following
ones but they visibly maintain the same
spirit Of slavery which teens throughout
the whole "Labour Act"
Paragraphs %l7th-2Oth regulate all mat
ters concerning the sick and infrm, prog
nant women, and the attendance Of
young children.
"That inirm persons, unfit for any work,
shall be maintained on the estates to
which they belonged ua1er slavery. Is a
Just enactment. There they spent their
strength for years enhancing by their la
bour the value OF the projectors capital
and when they could work no more, he
received his last benefJ-componsatiou
for these old WORKOUT labourers at the
same rate as for young and strong ones,-
by the act of Emancipation. It is there
fore to be hoped that, no resembling Of this
clause Of the "Labour Act" will ever take
place under any circumstance, while I'M
dergoing revision and should the act be
even totally abolished, a further hope is
entertained that this clause would DO l8-
gislatod on os the old lab0urer's pension
law,
The 18th paragraph, IA which the above
is contained, with some consideration en-
acts, that the estate shall care for the sick
at It's own cost but under certain condi-
tions, viz, the sick Iabourers must be
"willing to remain in the hospital during
their Illness" But q Royal Ordinance,
dated 22nd February 1855, rescinded this
obligation on the estate, and entitled the
proprietor to collect from every individual
Iabourer, Gnvalids and children under -
years excepted), 3 cents per week, as q
contribution towards the payment OF the
physician and for medicine furnished.
And q later Provisional Ordinance, dated
23rd August 1864, provided for all those
cases on estates where there are no hospi-
JA!S tttdt 6t siCh T-!SonS WIZ WGiG i'll
want should be cared for in their houses
at the estates expense.
Now. SO far SO good for all this seeming
beneGcence heaped upon the sick labourer
by these three ordinances but place the
End clause of the 18th paragraph beside
this and what appoars9 A most forbidden
and slavish notion viz, that "when a
laborer pretends illness, and is not appa-
rently sick, it shall be his duty to prove
his illness by medical certificate" 1t is
here that the physician is under the con-
troll of the planter; and the labourer in his
turn hampered by both, by means Of the
control which this passage Of the law
places him under. The physician, that he
might retain his practice, invariably sides
with the planter IN the interest OF the es-
tate and too often, to the detriment of
the sick labourer, denies the required GER
tifcate. And, Of course, all such labour-
ers, if not found at work immediately af-
ter the infallible fiat of the medical man
has been pronounced, are instantly placed
under the notice of the police as being
lazy and idle, aud if they escape being