, 1885-02-11

SANst " navy w tuO OhC VI bLO OOAA
mon necessaries of life. In consequence
of this the Government, in May 1883 re-
QueSted the Commission, which had been
appointed on the 9Th of March in the same
year to consider the question of a better
regulation of the trade in and sale of rum
and spirituous liquors in st. Croix, also to
give its opinion as to how far the above
mentioned wish could be met by proposing
to pass a supplement- to the Ordinance of
9th September 1858, prescribing that the
traders i'll the towns Of st. Croix could OBJ
tain permission under certain conditions to
esta blish a limited number of shops in the
country.
From the Report rendered by the said
Commission under date of 10th September
1888, which will be found accompanying
the Draft of Ordinance concerning the sale
of rum and spirituous liquors in St. CrOiX,
laid before the Colonial Council at the
same time with the present draft, it will
be seen that the majority of the Commits
sion fears that such shops, of which pre-
sumably only a few, say / to 6, could be
expected to be established, in any case
certainly not one for each estate, could
easily become injurious to the greater num-
Der of the estates, since the labOurerS
would prefer to go to those estates on which
the shops were situated, or as near as pos
sible to them and that the Commission on
this and other grounds has arrived at the
proposal that it should be made possible
to give permission to open a shop on each
estate from which ordinary provisions and
certain other necessary articles, namely
petroleum, candles, matches, soap, starch,
pipes and tobacco could be sold to any
one whatever, against taking out a Burgher
Brief as retailer, for which, however, shall
only be paid half the prescribed fee, if the
shop is conducted by the owner Of the
estate himself. One minority of the Com
mission has, on the contrary, put forth tho
view that by granting the right to sell in
the country as proposed by the majority,
too great an encrOachment would be made
on the trading rights of the towns under
the ordinance Of 1858, a greater encroach-
mpnt than is warranted by the cOnSidera-
tons which have led to the majority'S pro-
posal.
This minority recommends a provision
that the sales from the proposed shops
shall only be made to the people of the
estate concerned or to lab0urerS from the
surrounding estates whose owners have
consented thereto.
Another minority IN the Commission has,
lastly, in opposition to the above mentioned
proposal, advised not to give the planters
liberty to carry on a trade with their la
bourerS, which to the extent proposed by
the majority is not only contrary to sound
principles Of trade, but would easily lead
to the labOurers being brought into eco
nomic dependence on the land owners.
This minority, on the other hand, advises
to give merchants and retailers in The towns
opportunity to establish anywhere, beyond
a certain distance from the towns, shops
for the sale Of the above mentioned goods,
and, exceptionally to permit outlying
estates to sell under a license.
The Government, for its part, has
adopted the conclusions of the last
named minority both in regard to the
scruples as to the proposal of the Com
missions majority to admit the planters
to carrying on q direct trade with
their %labourers, the carrying out of which
proposal would also probably make all i'm
proper encroachment on the rights of the
towns, and particularly on those {. the
smaller traders settled therein, and inregard
to the opinion that the above mentioned
general wish expressed in the Colonial Coun-
Gil would be met by admitting merchants
and retailers in the towns to the right of
opening shops beyond II certain distance
from the town limits, for the sale of all
kinds of provisions and liquors to the same
extent as allowed in the towns, together
with sundry other articles of daily use
and by giving the Superior Authority, at
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