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"Contracts of Service within the meaning of Ordinance
There cannot in my opinion be a Contract of Service according to Law unless there be also a Contract of hiring, otherwise it would be a unilateral "Contract which could not be enforced. The following passage taken from Addison on Contracts p. 682 I think correctly states the law. "In order to constitute a Contract of hiring and Service there must either be express or implied mutual engagement binding one party to employ and remunerate and the other to serve for a determinate period.
I think there can be no doubt that the parties alluded to are considered free and not under any Contract of Service whatever and that the course taken by the Emigration Officer in so regarding them is strictly in accordance with the question giving rise to it.
Again, in December 1878 a query was made as to whether the giving of a promissory note to repay by instalments out of earnings in British Guiana for certain advances such as Passage money, Clothing, Cash, etc., made here constituted a Contract of Service. This was referred to Mr. Phillippo, and on the 4th of that month he wrote: "I do not consider that the fact of an Immigrant giving a promissory note to be paid by instalments out of earnings in British Guiana amounts to a Contract of Service and that technically under the Ordinance such an Immigrant must be considered free."