The Hawaiian gazette., 1899-10-17

Experience Gained In the
British Colonies.
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In the future OF our West Indian col
onies the labor problem mus, bulk
largely ON coolies. for white men cap
not work In tine blazing heat of the
plantations and the descendants Of the
people we enslAved will not. The mig
ger has no taste tor agricultural la
Dor. and bliss to him In the shady side
OF a hut and half-a- dOllar In his peck
ct. To work the estates first Portu-
guese. then Chinese and lastly East
Indian coolies were imported. The
Portuguese made money and went into
business al storekeepers; the Chinese
followed suit In smaller way: and
hardly an indentured lHborer OF either
race Ia to be found now on the sugar
estates. The East Indian c0Olie has
done better In agriculture. but even
though there IL q total OF $4,000 of
them in British Guiana alone. the
available labor ia far below what is
necessary. Mr.. Chamberlain has sane
toned the emigration Of 5000 this
year, but unless that standard is main
tanned for several years to come, the
want of labor will be as pronounced
as Il is now. When his ten years OF
service are up-fOr the first five he Is
an indentured laborer, In the second
five he is qualifying for his passage
money home-the co0lie goes back to
India, and this 10 the drawback of the
system; for II he settled he would do
well for the colony, and the colony
thinks SO much Of him that 1t Is pre-
pared to DO almost anything to keep
him. But. of course, home is home,
and when the dusky son Of the East
performs his share Of the contract, he
has a perfect right to 90 II he pleases.
But the Colonial ONCE might with
very great advantage to both the In
dies increase the proportion which is
allowed to come annually, SO that the
number in active service should never
get below a certain level. During the
three years which ended with 1895
there were over 10000 immigrants OF
the class, while during the subsequent
three years the total was less than
$500 So that instead of increasing,
the working" total is decreasing, and
that, too, in the face of the fact that
| with coolie labor and nothing else can
the minor industries of which the op-
ponents Of countervailing speak -four
ish to any extent. The Barbados man,
himself as black as the ace of spades,
and inclined to belittle the coolie be-
cause of his c0lOr--he calls him
black" with heartiness that would
be positive insOlence on the part of the
whitest man that ever was-won't
| work regularly on the estates. When
the hurricane Of last autumn played
sad havoc in Barbados and st. Vincent,
agents were sent to the islands to Of
fer work in Demerara to 1000 men,
They offered q three months engage
ment, good wages. free house accom-
mediation and medical attendance, but
even that did not meet with the degree
of success one would have expected.
Mr.. Duncan says they recruited ala
only, and Mr.. SOmmerson told me they
did not turn out what could be de-
scribed as brilliant bargain. They
are Dasking in the sunshine of their
islands now, with the heartiest wishes
of their mainland employers that their
rest is congenial. The man for the
West Indies Is the East Indian coolie,
and before long It is hoped he may be-
gin to realize that himself. So far
he has not been averse from trying the
experiment OF staying ON, and on set
Elements in Essequebo, Demerara and
Berbice there are altogether about TO-
900 unindentured coolies making the
most on lots of their own OF the cult
yation OF rice. OF their success ! will
tell you later; what IL sought to be
impressed now IL that the West Indian
planter has, without bounties and
without the gibes of stay-at-hOme
Britons, quite enough to vex his soul
l-Glasgow Herald.