CO885(1-2) — Page 381

92

CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO

arrange, or with the loading of those that may be sent out to him by the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners; always taking care that the entire expense per caput does not exceed the sum of 100 dollars, which was fixed

the Court of Policy as the maximum rate they were willing to pay.

9. It is not yet in my power to reply to the question raised by the Com- missioners as to the amount which is to be devoted to this species of immigration next season, because it is a point to be settled by the Combined Court at its approaching session; but I think there will be enough money left of the sum originally appropriated from the guaranteed loan to authorize the charter of at least three ships to make a commencement.

10. It will be necessary to give due notice that in future all contracts entered into with Chinese introduced at the public expense will be null and void on arrival here, for unless the system of advances now made by the captains previous to embarkation on the security of such contracts which contain a clause binding the immigrant to repayment be put an end to at once, it will lead to abuses, no check whatever existing upon the valuation set upon the clothing, &c. delivered to the man, and very little security that he understands how much he has really received, a great part going, I am informed, as was the case in the early coolie emigration, to the collecting sub-agents, who are in fact lodging- house keepers, little better than the crimps of seaport towns at home.

11. It will be seen, moreover, from the contracts which I forward herewith, that the amount advanced in the case of the "Glentanner" was nearly twice as large as in that of the "Lord Elgin ;" and I am apprehensive that this difference may hereafter create dissatisfaction among the Chinese by different ships when they come to compare notes.

12. It indeed, as seems to have been anticipated by Messrs. Hyde, Hodge, & Co., the colony had at once undertaken to repay the shipowner the whole of these advances, in addition to the bounty of 100 dollars, the matter would have been simple enough; but as such a course would have been. equivalent to an indefinite increase of expenditure, I declined to adopt it, or even to recommend to the Court of Policy the modified proportion of their agent, that the employer to whom the indentures might be transferred by my order should be required to render himself personally responsible for the repayment, though I offered every legitimate assistance for the collection of the instalments, through the Immigration Office, as they fell due. The question was at last settled by a resolution of the Court, binding the employer to deduct the amount out of any wages falling due to the immigrant whilst in his service, and to pay it over to the Immigration Agent General for account of the shipowner, or to explain, to the satisfaction of the Stipendiary Magistrate of the District, why he failed to do so.

13. I observe in the instructions to Mr. White that he is authorized to go as far as to offer five dollars per month, with food and lodging, or seven dollars without such allowance; but as both the cargoes that have arrived were engaged at four dollars or six dollars only, I hope he will not find it necessary to exceed the latter rates, as it may create discontent if he does so. There can be little doubt, however, that in a few months time these contracts will be terminated* with mutual consent, as the Chinese are not likely to rest satisfied with earning six dollars, where by steady industry they can make twice as much, and the planters will be too happy to let thein work on their own account for whatever they can realize.

1. There are many other reasons why the selection of immigrants should in future be left solely to the agent of the colony, among which I may mention the necessity of sending a sufficient number of competent interpreters in every ship; of excluding persons irreclaimably addicted to opium eating, and above all of procuring a due proportion of women.

15. The first point is one that will occasion much embarrassment when I come to locate the Chinese likely to arrive here this season upon the different planta- tions throughout the colony, for judging from present experience it is likely to be altogether neglected. The "Glentanner" brought one man only who by residing at Sydney had acquired a limited knowledge of the English language; another had in the same way picked up a few words of French in the Mauritius, which eked out with a little Malay enabled me to assign him as interpreter for a party placed on the estate of a Dutch gentleman, who from long residence in the East had learnt the latter language. On board the "Lord Elgin," there

EMIGRATION OF CHINESE COOLIES.

93

was not a single individual acquainted with any other tongue than his native one, except the surgeon in charge who had studied Chinese so far as to become acquainted with the symptoms as described by his patients. This neglect to bring interpreters arose from the impression prevalent in the China Seas that the loiterers about the English settlements are the most depraved and piratical of the population, and that the massacre of the captain and crew of the “Robert Bowen," on her way to Califórnia was planned by men of this class before the ship left Hong Kong. There can be no doubt this mussacre, added to other stories of the kind, must have produced a good deal of alarm, for both in the "Glentanner" and "Lord Elgin" the fore-deck was separated by a strong barricade from the poop, guns on the latter pointed so as to sweep it, and armed sentries posted day and night at the wicket through which alone communication took place.

16. If trustworthy interpreters can possibly be engaged, and I am told that lads from the Chinese college at Singapore would answer admirably, one should be shipped for every 60 or 70 immigrants, as generally speaking a larger number cannot be properly accommodated on the plantation, and dangerous conse- quences might ensue were there no medium of communication between the manager and so large a body of people.

17. As regards opium eating, I understand that the habitual votary of this noxious drug is easily discernible by his complexion, and there can be no question I should think that all such should be carefully excluded from the ships, as they must prove comparatively useless as labourers, and though Dr. Manget does not allude to the point, it might almost be inferred that a part of the mortality in the "Glentanner" and "Lord Elgin " arose from the exhaustion of the supply of this wonted stimulus, as few of those who landed alive are as far as I can learn addicted to opium, whilst it is reported that many of those who died were so. Sydney, the English interpreter, forms an exception to the former rule, for it actually proved necessary the other day in investigating some complaints at the Immigration Depot to send to a chemist for opium and administer a pill before his faculties could be roused from lethargy,

18. Lastly, as respects the total absence of women, I know that the captains of immigrant vessels so much prefer carrying men qnly, for the sake of escaping the quarrels and disorder which generally occur where the sexes are mixed together on board, that I am by no means surprised that none were brought when it was optional to come without them.

Were it impracticable to rectify this omission, it would constitute but too valid an objection to the continuance of Chinese immigration on an extensive scale to a country like British Guiana, where at the date of last census the males were to the females as 67 to 60; but I am sanguine from the tenor of the letters written by Mr. White during his preliminary visit, no less than from other accounts, that this will not prove the case, and that as agent for the colonies he will be able with a little pre-arrangement to procure at least as large a proportion of women as is now done in the case of the coolies, which though insufficient to place them on the footing of an increasing population, would be ample to obviate objections upon moral grounds.

19. Having gone at so much length into a consideration of the footing on which, so far as I can yet judge, Chinese immigration should be placed, I will only add a few remarks on the immigrants whose arrival I have announced, reserving any more lengthened report on their conduct, physical capability, and general adaptation to the colony, until I have had fuller opportunity of forming my opinions.

20. To facilitate my so doing, no less than to have them under hand in case of necessity, I determined for some weeks beforehand to locate the first arrivals on estates situated a few miles only from George Town, but on the further side of the Demerara River, so as to save them from the annoyance of gaping crowds, and the subsequent temptation to drunketmess and dissipation. They were much delighted with the cottages prepared for them, some indeed stating through the interpreter that they had never lived in a house before; and though not much skilled in the cultivation of the sugar cane, which they seem to know rather as a garden plant, turned out with so much alacrity to work that they had to be restrained in the eagerness to earn wages, many of them being still too much affected by the dropsical symptoms produced by long confinement, and unusual diet on shipboard, to be fit for continuous exertion.

M 3

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

תי!

Reference :-

C.O. 885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO