The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-04-22

~ VI j lNA0 u VIZ u k(hoAD6 &NN-NNNN
regarding Indian immigration to- the struts
Tie relations between Indian Coolies and the Tea
Planters Ut Assam and Planters IN the Peninsula
may be said TO be very much the same, and legis-
latiUn, suitable and applicable to one, IS appllca-
Bile and suitable to the other. The Assam Bill is
intended to replace the Indian Act VII of 1873,
and the two chief points on which it differs from
that Act are the extension of the permiSsive term
of contract from 3 TO 5 years, and the allowing OF
contracts TO be made In the Tea districts. The
Bill further clrcumscrIbes the limits beyond
which q deserter can be arrested without warrant
from ten miles to five miles from a Magistrates
residence. As both the extension of the term OF
contract and arrest without warrant are points
of much interest to Planters here, We make the
following extracts from the discussion on the
Bill in the Vieeregal Council upon these ques-
tions
a. will not take up the time of the Council by
repeating any part OF the temperate and able re-
ply of the planters so the British Indian Associa-
ton. | will only make a very few remarks on
two points respecting which that reply might
have been fuller. The Association objects to the
extension OF the term OF the contract from three
to i've years, and tho Hon. Maharaja has repeated
the objection. But five years is the term for
which coolies may be engaged to serve In the
French colonies under Act VII OF 1871, and Art.
* OF the convention with France printed in the
third schedule TO that Act, one reason of course
bOing that for the first year or two the raw cody
is learning his business at the expense OF his en-
ployer, who can only be recouped for that expense
aud for the cost OF importing him by the cooly's
skilled service for three or four years. L am IN
formed that many young Englishmen who come
out here as assistants in merchants Offices bind
themselves for periods of five years from the date
of arrival. Instruth, the mention oil any term at
all is a restriction, for the benefit OF tue servant,
OF the liberty to enter into contracts OF service al
iOrded by the law of England. In Wallis q. Day,
= NJ. and W. 273, the Court of Eechequer held
that a covenant to serve a carrier during the COW
eDanters whole life was good In law and that de-
cision has been approved by the very latest text
writer (Smith L.. T.. 9Th edition Vol. | p. 49, Pol
locks Contracts 3l6.) Under our Bill the max
mum term will be five years but in PIlkington
u. Scott. Is, NJ. and w. 657. the agreement OF
service was for a term OF seven years, and IN
Hartley u. Cummings, 5 T.. b. 247, 1t was also
for seven years and in both these cases the agree
ment was upheld. | admit that in France a con-
tract OF service extending over the whole Lille OF
the contractor is deemed inconsistent with indi-
vidual liberty and is accordingly forbidden by the
Code Napoleon, Art. 1880. But under that Code
any term of service not virtually amounting to a
contract for life would clearly be valid.
Then as to the power to ar est without warrant
coolies DESERVING their service, the British Indian
Association seems to think this n novelty in An
glO-indian and English law, and has the hardl-
hood to say that it does not differ widely from the
Fugitive Slave Law of America. But the Fugi-
tive Slave Law contravened the common law of
the free States, which was the common law Of
England, according to which a slave, the instant
he lands, becomes a freeman. The Fugitive Slave
law required all citizens to render personal aid
in arresting slaves in case ct resistance excluded
the testImdEg of the fugitive, and rendered penal
any assistance given to him. There are other
differences between the two laws, but have said
enough to show that we are justified in regard
ing the comparison US a mere handful OF rhetor-
ical weed. Then, as to precedents for the statu-
tory power to arrest runaway servants without
warrant. A Babu called Kunja Lal Baner'i, in
Paper No. 10, says a. Except in case OF military
desertion, your petitioner is not aware whether
such power has been conferred on an employer in
any other country by its legislature to arrest by
force a private servant leaving his employers ser
vice. Now, | can quote one precedent with
which every one. except, apparently, the Associa-
ton and this Babu, must be familiar. Since 1854
for the last twenty seven years throughout the
United Kingdom, when any seaman or apprentice
deserts from any merchant ship in which he Is
duly engaged to serve, the master or any mate,
or the owner, ships huspand, or consignee, may
apprehend him without first procuring a warrant,
and the police must assist in the arrest if requir-
ed. So 1t is enacted by the English Statute II
and IL Vic. S. 246, and this section is copied in
the Indian Act l OF 1859, S. sc. Would any of
the parliaments held during the present reign
have enacted anything like a Fugitive Slave Law ?
But the closest precedent is the Burmah Labour
Law, Act III of 1876, Sec. IS, which enacts that
- If any immigrant deserts or attempts to desert
from his employers service. such employer or
any other person acting in Ills behalf may. aCithOnt
tUdrrdnt, and without the "ssis' ance of any police
officer (who nevertheless shall be bound to give
such assistance If called upon to do SOY apprehend
such immigrant '0heTeUer he may be found" My
Lord. when we remember that the author of the
Burmah LabOur Act was Sir Arthur dollhouse,
the man of all the men | have ever known the
most completely filled with a noble passion for
constitutional freedom and right, we may, | think,
safely pass a section which the FIVE miles limit
makes far less stringent than that which have
just cited.
And when we also remember that the clause
objected to il copied from a section which has &C
tually been in force since 1873 Bengal Act VII
of 1873, S. 122), and has gwen rise $50 far as
am aware) to no malpractices, We may estimate
at it's true value the suggestion of the Association
that the planters poems will use this power for
the purposes of revenge or e%xtortion Straits
Times, Singapore.