, 1873-01-22

been tried to aid and encourage the more dill
gent and industrious ~labourer but some hest
tation is felt in promoting a legal adjustment:
for what would in reality be tantamount to an
increase in the price of labour, since Is cents
would then become the lowest rate of the value
of a days work, instead Of the highest list
class, as a present.
Now, that the disproportiou which in the
lapse of years has grown out of the Labour-Re-
gulatiOns-for, as already pointed out, that dis
proportion could only to a very small extent
be found in the Regulations in se-should
have come to exercise such a pressure on the
LabOuring- populations, that, as advanced by
some, that population is being driven from the
country, must certainly be most positively CON
tradjCted. The inconvenia nee of that dispro-
portion has chiefly been experienced by Immi-
grants especially in the commencement, before
they have learnt to understand and benefit
from their situation on the respective Estates;
and the decrease among our oWn native labour-
erS, which some years ago was certainly pretty
considerable, but has since become very trihing
(although the disproportion has meantime in
c~reased), was very simply owing, firstly, to
this, that just at that time very extensive build
ing operations were being made in St. Thomas,
offering high day-Wages,-and, secondly, to the
agricultural occupations then opened on the
neighbouring Island of Vieques. And sufici-
ent proofs that the labourers themselves do also
understand to appreciate the solid and sta
BILE adjustment eff their position, are afforded
not only by daily experience, but at times alyO
in a more striking manner, especially where
native labOurerS after being absent some wears
from the Island, return here because their 81
tuation abroad was too uncertain. The reports
current here last year OF approaching modifca-
ti0ns in the LabOur Regulations very naturally
created come sensation among that population
and afforded ample materials for all sorts of
speculation and consideration but it was no.
ticed that especially with the older and more
experienced portion of them, the prospects of
higher wages which report 50 promisingIy held
out to them as a result of those notifications.
could not dispel the fear and anxiety, that
their privileges and allowances would,-a3 they
with good sound sense very naturally concluded
AS a consequence be done away with. and
they therefore desired that it should rather re-
main as heretofore.
10 the foregoing section ~aIlusion is made to
the privilege which general usage has accorded
30 the lalOurers to keep ponies on the Estates.
The number Of ponies kept in that manner bv
la5ourerS is about 1400, and of carts $50 the
total number of horses on the Island is between
2,4O0 to $500, horses and ponies ofthgt num-
Der there are in the towns $50 owned by all
classes Of the Community from this will he
seen how very few Of those in town in equal sta
ton with the rural population can afford to al.
low themselves that accommodation or luxury,
one which they prize very highly. On the
whole, it is AMONG the rural population that
small capitals are being laid up. Avery strik-
ing illustration Of how far the apparently small
wages can go, and how far they do go beyond
barely providing for the daily necessaries, is a-
torded by the instance of the Eastindian Coo
lies that were introduced in 1863 of the 500
Coolies that arrived in the Island, a number of
$50 Gncluding 9 non-adults and ID children)
were, after the expiration of their 5 years term
Of service, in 1868 sent back to India, and thew
carried away with them about $4,000 in mo-
ney saved and laid aside here. They were, it
is true, a class of people, who, if once inclined
TO regular habits and bent upon laying money
aside, could carry their economy pretty far; but
that result was nevertheless such, tbati it created
establishment even in foreign places.
ITO be continued