, 1873-02-01

has therefore been difficult to entertain an idea
of a change in any other direction or manner
than by replacing the old Regulations by new
Rules, which then, always presuppOsed the In
tervention or action of the Government, conse-
quently in the form of an Ordinance and the
reason of this was, perhaps, because the parties
had grown accustomed to such a system of or
ganiSatiOn, but no doubt also because the chief
and greatest interest Of the Island was here at
stake and there were but very few who would
have considere d satisfactory a usage established
by agreement between the planters, and sub
ject to their own control.-On the other hand,
the opponents of fixed rates of wages have kept
too much on the track of free agreements, to al
nit of the Planters entertaining any hope Of co:
operation from that quarter towards the eStab-
lishment by Legislature Of such new Rules I'M
due fears have, 50 it seems to us, been enter
tanned against obtaining a new settlement by
Law or Ordinance. But while it is the free
agreements that have chiefly given rise to fears,
it must at the same time be admitted that there
was on the whole no great tendency or willing
ness to do away with the old system, in favour
of anything new.
The planters are in particular blamed for
having stuck to the principle of fixed days wa
geS, and for not having introduced task-WOrk,
and thereby d~epriVing the Iabourer of the best
Encouragement W p6IlUiL III Vic SIGdGcSG pUSSlDl6
amount of work, namely the encouragement af-
forded by every labourer being paid according
to his Working-abilitieS and to the result of his
labour from which again it should result, as a
necessity, that the planters have got less work
out of the disp0sible labOuf-foroe, than other
wise would have been the case. The first of
these points has already been considered in its
bearing on the LQbOurerS, and it has been point
ed out, that the working Gbiitj83 of Lab0urers
belonging under the same class and receiving
as such the same rate of wages, does not vary,
and by the Regulations was not meant to vary
to the extent it is represented. There may be
found many sorts of labour requiring a less
amount of physical force, but still worth tie re-
Enumeration by the full amount of a days wa
ges for an able-bOdied and strong lab0urer and
care is Of course taken to avoid having a gang
Of lab0urerS consisting of people that are
too dis8imilar 10 point of labour capacity there
are repeated instances before the Authorities
where a Iabourer who is unable to "work up his
row. is dismissed from the gang; he is then put
to do other work (side-word), that may fully be
worth the days wages given him; 50 that it
would not appear to be any of the most discreet
managers who would attach so very great weight
to the favourite argument, which even the Gov
ernment now advances, viz: that in q gang Of
90 hands the amount of work delivered will il
all cases be in proportion to the performance
Of the 5 weakest or LATEST hands, and not to
that Of the Is strongest and most industrious.
There is here, like elsewhere, work that must
be remuneratod according to the time employed
therein for the day.; the rate of pay for such
work IS elsewhere established by usage with
rs, owing to the local peculiar relations, the
rates are regulated by an Ordinance; and there
will here aad in this particular branch, the same
as elsewhere and in other branches, always be
individuals that have richly deserved the wages
plid them, and others again who have scarcely
deserved theirs but just as little as any hus-
baudman, in Denmark, for instance, having a
clever herd3man, or ploughman or milk-maid in
his service would give those parties higher
wages than the customary price for such work,
lust as little that will be done here. A good la
bourer is not thereby reduced or degraded to a
poor or Indifferent labourer he knows very
well, that on the Estate where he is located, he
has mauy encoaragements which the Indifferent
labouror has not. The fixed wages were origin
ally adopted by the planters as a maximum-pay
but as it very soon, already before the 1st of
October 1913, became apparent, that the sys-
tenn Of an unequal and varying rate of wages
was attended with bad results, the adopted
scale became the general rate and was then fixed
by Law as such. It was, then, established also
by experience, that an increase of the money
wages would in certain cases directly lead
to a general rise ia the price of labour, with
out more work being given for the higher
wages.