, 1873-02-19

The subsequent paragraphs TIP |stipulato
the number Of working. days and the ordinary
working hours (S7), the extra wOrking-hours re-
quired of the labourers during crop rs 81, the
general fixed rates of wages 5 q, the rates of
extra-pay for work in extra hours 10 the fix
wages for work on Saturdays 5 II and finally
exceptions from the rules in these respects
5 12I
And it is especially against those points the
opponents Of the Labour.R Regulations, in SO far
as they do at all admit yearly contracts for la
bour, have directed their attacks ; and they
have sought to prove, that those enactments
are unjust and opposed to principles of econo-
my, and that such matters ought not any how
to be settled by binding rules, but ought en-
tirely to be left to agreements between employ
err and labourer according to their own will.
Here, then, the argument based on the peculiar
position and circumstances of this Island will
find its principal application those relations
render it not only permissible but, from regard
to the interests of both parties, also advisable,
not to say neCeSSary-tO have the matter in
question regulated. If the labOur-forco in this
Island were ample, instead Of being, as it's, ex-
ceedingly scanty or if this Island were in the
same manner and to the same extent as any
corresponding community in Europe or Amcri-
ca, a link of one whole complex of c0mmuni-
ties, where exchange of labour force is con
stantly going on, so that scarcity one place
Immediately causes plenitudo another place,
were it so in this Island, instead Of its being a
link in an isolated groupe Of Islands, where,
with only one single exception, the constant cry
is for the introduction of l~abOurers to carry on
the Industrial occupation common to all, viz
the growing and manufacture of sugar,-then,
the adjustment and ordering of those matters
might be left free, without danger to the exist
enc0 of Sugarproducti0n or Sugar g0ving,
in other words without the risk of endanger-
ing the existence Of the Community itself as
such but then the danger would be on the part
of the labourer; for then the employers, being
unfettered by the Law, would fix a certain
standard, with which the labourer would have
to be content. The case being, as it is, re-
verse, the planters would still have to agree
among themselves on a certain system or re-
g~ulation, if they want to avoid that sugar pro
duction should becOmesO expensive, that itcOuld
no longer pay. But the labOurers, who will
command the market, would then league to-
gether to oppose that, and to demand for them
selves higher wages, and under the weight Of
such higher wages the smaller properties would
fall to the ground the larger ones would hold
out 50 long until they, by the decrease in the
luluDoI VI OIuplOJ CtS III consequence VI tl0 uio
mantling of the smaller properties, could come
to command the market again in other words,
after a large portion Of the Island has been
thrown out of cultivation, the labourers would
on the remaining portion be equally as unfa-
vourably situated. RotrogresSions and emigra-
ton would be the inevitable consequences for
it must be borne in mind, we have here no fixed
occupation to offer those classes of the popula-
ton that cannot be employed for estate-work;
the Island would then, if it did not become
irrevocably unfit for sugar production or for any
other regular production, require decennaries to
recover, and only by way Of expensive immi-
grafton experiments, towards which the Mother
country would ultimately have to advance the
means and to sanction Regulations Of a still
more binding nature. The neighbouring Is
lands, especially the British Colonies, affords us
a lesson in that respect, which ought not to be
lost.
That a result differing to any essential ex-
tent from that here depicted, would be attained
by giving Regulations binding only where no
other agreement has beeu made-a project ad-
vocated all along by Sarauw-could not be