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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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I have never thought that these laws did any good. A rascal gets his licence as easily as another, and as for the record kept of his purchases, even if he tries to keep one, it is not likely that he would get much assistance in doing so from a man who had stolen what he was selling. Besides, it can hardly be supposed that the existence of such a system would prevent dishonest men from secretly buying up things that they knew to have been stolen.

6. Again, it has been common for a man who has a provision ground miles away from his own or any other house, to build himself a hut on the ground and live there to guard his crop just at the time when it is ripening and is most likely to be stolen. It was found a great hardship and an obstacle to this practice that he thereby rendered himself liable to a second house tax.

But, by a recent law, the tax in such cases has been abolished.

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7. But the principal law that has been passed is one that was passed in my absence from the island in 1890, Law 15 of 1890, which enacts that " person found in possession of' certain kinds of agricultural produce, under circumstances which afford reasonable ground for suspecting that such , possession is not lawful, may be arrested by any "constable or rural headman, and taken forth- "with before the nearest magistrate; and the "refusal or inability of such person, arrested as aforesaid, to satisfy the magistrate that his possession of the article in question is lawful shall be deemed prima facie evidence of larceny." By section 3 the accused is made a competent witness. I have not often heard of a conviction under this law, though great wonders were expected from it. It is obvious that it is very badly drafted. It may give rise to a question as to who is the **nearest magistrate," and it is not left to be decided at the trial whether the man gives a satis factory account of his possession, but the evidence of the larceny is made the fact that he has not satisfied the magistrate, by which apparently (according to the language used) is meant the "nearest magistrate." It is easy, however, to dia- cover the principle of the law, and it would not be difficult to frame one making possession under suspicious circumstances, coupled with inability to account for it, evidence of guilt. I always shrank, however, from recommending any such wide de- parture from principles of English law. At the same time I have always been of opinion that, unless the law is strengthened in this direction it is powerless to cope with this very serious evil I have always understood that the thieves are well known, and that without the slightest necessity for, or pretence at, concealment, they bring their plunder to the market knowing that it can never be identified.

8. I have always thought, too, that something might be done by the establishment of a good detective police in rural districts. As it is, the

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constabulary do practically no patrolling. The only thief catchers in the country are the rural police. As for the constabulary they are always to be found at their stations, and, though eager enough to "make a case" against a man who comes under their rognizance committing what is known as a police offence," they are almost useless as thief catchers.

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9. I must say that, during the 15 years that I was in Jamaica, I never saw any reason to think that any real progress was being made among the population in either honesty or morality. On the contrary, part of my own domestic establishment was always one or two boys to help in the stable, house, and garden, and though 1 had no difficulty about the men and the women, I had an ever- increasing difficulty in getting these boys, though I paid as high wages as are given in this country in the rural districts to boys of a similar

age.

10. The resident magistrates range over a wide variety of topics in expressing their views upon this subject. What the exact cause of the increase of the crime is, it is impossible to say. That the crime exists is very easily accounted for. It must be remembered that the negro stands very low in the scale of humanity. The present black popu- lation are only very few generations removed from wild cannibal savages. They are still more immediately descended from men brutalised by slavery, encouraged in that state to breed like cattle, accustomed to look on the white man and civilisation as their natural enemy, and on the institution of property as a myth. It is not to be wondered at that their morality is very low and that they have very low ideas of morality, truthful- ness, or honesty. They have never been brought into contact with more than the veriest externals of civilisation, and (although I never like to speak of the effect of Christianity upon others), I fear that in their case religion has, as yet, never gone more than skin deep, and developes itself mostly in singing hymns. That such a people are addicted to lying and thieving is not surprising, and if they steal it is but natural that they should steal what they most want, what is easiest to take, and also easiest to dispose of. There is the whole explana- tion of praedial larceny. Its spasmodic increase

at times may be accounted for by a variety of circumstances-poverty and distress, the sudden ces- sation of a demand for labour (as on the completion of the railway or estates going out of cultivation). The increase in the statistics may be more or less accounted for by increased determination to prosecute (as when, e.g., oranges, one year value- less, the next year become worthy of protection) or greater facilities for prosecution. I daresay the Education Department has not done as much good as might have been hoped for, and prison discipline may not be as perfect as one might wish. But it is idle to describe the inefficiency of the one as the cause, or that of the other as absolutely no check upon the evil. As for flogging; that is out of the question. I daresay people would dread it,

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