SUBJECT. TREATMENT OF PORTUGUESE IMMIGRANTS. With Letter from Foreign Page. 452 Great overcrowding in these Vessels, and necessity for limiting the Payment of 467 CHINESE IMMIGRATION. DESPATCHES FROM GOVERNOR BARKLY. 130 55 22 October 150 127 INTRODUCTION OF CHINESE LABOURERS. ORDINANCE No. 23, 167 169 197 DESPATCHES FROM THE RIGHT HON. EARL GREY, SECRETARY OF STATE. 150 INTRODUCTION OF CHINESE LABOURERS into Guiana. Forwarding a DR. BOWRING'S REPORT ON CHINESE EMIGRATION. Extract en- COPIES or EXTRACTS of DESPATCHES relative to the Condition of the SUGAR-GROWING COLONIES (in continuation of Papers on the same subject, dated 5 September 1848). My Lord, (Answered, 15 February 1850, No. 149, page 386.) In my despatch of the 18th ultimo, No. 180,* I announced the opening of the Session of the Combined Court for 1849, and enclosed a copy of my speech on the occasion. I have now the honour to forward a copy of the reply of the majority of the Elective Members, delivered in at the next meeting. 2. The courtesy of tone of this document affords an agreeable contrast with that of some of its predecessors, and if all the propositions which it advances do not command unqualified assent, it can hardly be matter of surprise, whilst the doctrine that the repeal of the Corn Laws will inevitably reduce the British labourer to a level with the Russian serf, is still maintained by an influential class at home, that in our colonies it should be contended that the condition of the emancipated negro must be assimilated with that of the foreign slave, by the equalization of the sugar duties. I have never, indeed, concealed from your Lordship my own conviction, that whatever losses the planters may have in the first instance, to sustain while protection is in process of abolition, the question in British Guiana is one primarily and directly affecting the interests of the labouring class, and that the whole danger and difficulty of the experiment to which the colony is subjected, arises from the necessity of that protracted struggle for the reduction of wages alluded to in the reply. I believe, however, at the same time, that the degradation" of the emancipated peasantry" should it ever occur, would be attributable not to the competition to which they have been latterly exposed, but to their enfranchisement from control before they were fitted to appreciate the real advantages of freedom, and that such a calamity will, therefore, be best averted by doing all in our power to elevate their tastes, and increase their industry by religious and moral instruction. It is a common remark among the managers of estates, that after the bitter experience they have gained in the last few years, in making sugar with the aid of little money, and less labour, they wonder why they did not achieve far greater comparative results when they had at their command large gangs of slaves. * Page 266, of House of Commons Paper, No. 21, 1850, "British Guiana." No. 1. Governor Barkly to Earl Grey. 3 January 1850, BRITISH GUIANA. slaves. The fault, as your Lordship is aware, lay not in them, but in the nature of slavery, and I only refer to the remark in elucidation of the more consolatory inference which I would draw, that although the planters from entirely distinct causes experience great difficulty in preparing to compete on equal terms, with the sugar-growers of Cuba and Brazil, who still practise so wasteful and unproductive a system; yet, that nevertheless, the remuneration of their labourers need not necessarily for that purpose be reduced to the bare amount required to make good the prime cost, food, and clothing of a like number of slaves in those countries. On the contrary, after attentively re-examining the phenomena of emancipation, I see no reason to doubt that if the Creoles of British Guiana could be induced to perform a day's work at all proportionate to their physical capabilities; the proprietors of sugar estates could afford to pay in return, even were all protection withdrawn, at least a shilling sterling, a sum which in a tropical country, teeming with the bounties of nature, would secure them a greater share of the comforts of life than is possessed by any European peasantry. I have entered into this digression, not for the purpose of supporting my own views in opposition to those which the elective section so ably advocate, still less with any wish to lessen the effect which their temperate appeal to the justice of the mother country may be calculated to produce. No one is more fully convinced of the strength of the claim of my fellow colonists to every consideration in respect to time, money or labour, which can tend to smooth a social transition which has already proved so ruinous to a large proportion of them. I but fulfil my duty when forwarding such a representation, by stating to your Lordship wherein I dissent from the arguments which it contains; for if I failed to do so, the hopes of a successful issue from present difficulties, which I have expressed publicly as well as in my official correspondence, would appear a contradiction and a mockery. In recommending, as I have done, an extension of immigration, I should appear to be urging your Lordship to send fresh victims to be reduced to the condition of slaves; above all, I should be bound to lead Her Majesty's Government to despair of the safety of this colony upon any other terms than a total reversal of a national policy, from which I humbly conceive it to be beyond their power to depart. *These voluminous Minutes are omitted. I have likewise another reason for expressing my own views in submitting the reply of the Elective Members of the Combined Court, because it was in conformity with those views that I sanctioned, the conduct of the official members in converting the minority of the elective section into a majority of the Court, when voting the stipends of the Curates and Catechists for the past year; a measure which, as your Lordship will perceive from the accompanying copy of the *minutes of the proceedings, was not effected without an opposition of several of my usual political supporters, which I should never have ventured to encounter, if I had not conscientiously believed the question of the elevation of the Negro character to be, as I have described it, of such lasting importance as to render the temporary loss of popularity of little consequence in comparison. On other points connected with the Estimate, I refrained from interfering even by word of mouth, but I am happy to say, that with scarcely any material increase in its sum total, it was found possible to restore a more adequate remuneration to several of the principal public officers, including the Receivergeneral, Financial Accountant, Inspector of Import Duties, and Inspectorgeneral of Police, thus obviating every one of the objections which I pointed out in my despatch of 3d July last, No. 104,† in forwarding the scale of provision for the public service then suggested by the non-official members of the Court of Policy. I have only to add, that all the items of the Estimate having been gone through, the usual adjournment was agreed to for the purpose of making up the accounts, and examining the books and vouchers, after which the Court will be resolved into a Committee of Ways and Means, to prepare the Tax Ordinance, the enactment of which concludes, as your Lordship is aware, the business of the session. I have, &c. (signed) H. Barkly. + Page 36, of House of Commons Paper, No. 21, 1850, "British Guiana." BRITISH GUIANA. Enclosure in No. 1. REPLY of the Elective Members of the Court of Policy and Financial Representatives to the Encl. in No. 1Speech of His Excellency the Governor, on opening the Session of the Combined Court. WE, the undersigned elective members of the Court of Policy and Financial Representatives of British Guiana in Combined Court assembled, have to thank your Excellency for the speech delivered to us at the opening of the present session. We assure your Excellency that the various matters embraced in your Excellency's speech shall receive our best attention, and those comprehended in the several heads of the estimate, as they come before us in due course, will obtain our most careful and deliberate consideration. Your Excellency has truly adverted to the great falling off in the crop of the colony, partly occasioned by the unfavourable season we have experienced, and the consequent additional distress caused thereby to the community at large. The maintenance of the present rates of taxation will be severely felt, and any increase to the public burdens must, under such circumstances, be an aggravation of the pecuniary difficulties of the inhabitants. We shall, nevertheless, give to your Excellency's recommendations the most serious attention, and where any case of peculiar hardship is apparent, we will endeavour to apply a remedy, in as far as the diminished means of the colony will permit. We cannot, however, refrain from observing, that the provision made for our religious and educational establishments will, we think, bear a comparison with that of other colonies in proportion to population; and the same cause which renders the duties of clergymen amongst us more laborious, namely, the vast unoccupied districts intervening between the occupied or cultivated portions of the parishes, also operates to increase the public expenditure and to diminish the colonial resources. In our days of prosperity we felt a pleasure in lessening the labours of the rectors and ministers by the assistance of curates; but unless great retrenchment can be made in the expenses of many of our public institutions, we confess that we see extreme difficulty in adding to this branch of the public expenditure. Moreover, it is a measure unpalatable to a very great, if not the greatest, portion of the agricultural population, who belong to dissenting congregations. We cannot disguise from your Excellency our sentiments on the effects of the national policy which has brought the question as regards the production of our staple produce into a very narrow compass. We are, and must be, compelled to continue a struggle for the reduction of wages; for unless we can produce our sugar at rates of wages approaching to the cost of the food and clothing of the slaves of Cuba, Porto Rico and Brazil, and the interest of the money vested in their original purchase, we are borne down by the low prices at which the foreign slaveholder can afford to bring his produce to market. It must be obvious that in a country like British Guiana, with a scanty population, compared to the abundance and fertility of its soil, the free labourer will not submit to such a state of degradation; that no fair division of revenue between labour and invested capital can be brought to bear. The price of produce is forced down by slave labour to an unremunerating and unnatural degree, and the conclusion to which every candid and unbiassed man must come is, that to have very cheap sugar, slavery must be tolerated in foreign colonies. Were the contest between free labour in the foreign and free labour in the British colonies, the result would not be doubtful, for we know that in fair competition the latter would stand their ground; but the contest is unequal, more especially when we see British capital and British enterprise profitably engaged in fostering the production of slave-labour sugar, and that the solemn treaties entered into with foreign powers for the abolition of slavery are allowed to remain a dead letter, to our prejudice. Were any proof wanting to substantiate this fact, we have only to adduce the instance of our Demerara East Coast Railway Company, which, after a long struggle, has only been able to complete eight miles of its line, and must soon be altogether stopped, unless aided by Government; whereas in the slave island of Cuba hundreds of miles have been completed by the aid of British and American capitalists, who feel secure in their investments, whilst in this once magnificent province of the British empire not one shilling can be obtained on the faith of being profitably employed. Driven, however, as we are into this unnatural position, with our credit gone, and our properties bearing no exchangeable value, we have only to contend with our difficulties as we best may. We are determined to spare no efforts to struggle with them; but it will readily be granted that, under such circumstances, we are compelled to practise the most rigid economy in every department under our control. It is, therefore, painful to us to be under the necessity of impairing institutions which, under more prosperous circumstances, we should have felt it to be our duty and our pleasure to extend. BRITISH GUIANA. We see daily that capital is forsaking our shores, that plantations are sold for less than the cost of their machinery, that confidence in the stability of property is lost; and unless we be speedily aided by the mother country, in some great measure of relief calculated to ensure us continuous labour, and some return on invested capital, we have reason to believe that our staple productions will rapidly dwindle away, and soon attain a point at which the expenses of the civil government can no longer be maintained. (No. 6.) No. 2. Governor Barkly to Earl Grey. 3 January 1850. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Barkly to Earl Grey. My Lord, I HAVE the honour to submit the usual number of copies, together with the Reports of the Attorney-general of two Ordinances passed by the Combined Court of 1848, intituled, "No. 16, of 1849,* An Ordinance to continue for a further limited Period, Ordinance No. 12 of the Year 1847, intituled, 'Colonial Taxes;' and, "No. 19 of 1849,* An Ordinance to levy certain Taxes upon Incomes, Horses and Carriages, and Produce, returned or returnable for the Year 1847." Having in my despatches of 5th October, No. 148,† and 1st ultimo, No. 174,‡ fully explained the origin of these measures, and having indeed been so fortunate as to secure your Lordship's approbation of my conduct on the former occasion, as conveyed in despatch No. 119,§I feel it unnecessary to occupy your Lordship's time with any further observations on the subject. (No. 8.) No. 3. Governor Barkly to Earl Grey. 4 January 1850. (A.) COPY of a DESPATCH from Governor Barkly to Earl Grey. Government House, 4 January 1850. (Received, 2 February 1850.) My Lord, (Answered, 16 February 1850, No. 151, page 391.) WITH reference to your Lordship's despatch of 15th September 1848, transmitting a copy of the Act 11 & 12 Vict., c. 130, for guaranteeing the interest on loans to the West India Colonies, together with a letter from the Lords of the Treasury explaining their Lordships' views as to the steps to be taken for giving effect to this Act; I have now the honour of bringing to your Lordship's notice the enclosed extract Minute of the Combined Court, praying for such portion of the total sum of 500,000 l., not exceeding 250,000 ., as Her Majesty may be pleased to grant to this colony under the provisions of the aforesaid Act. Your Lordship will perceive that this application is made in general terms, strictly in accordance with the wording of the Act, "for the purpose of promoting the introduction of free labourers, the formation of roads, railways, works of drainage, and other public undertakings of a similar character;' and that it was resolved on by a large majority of the elective members of the Court, in opposition to an amendment moved by Mr. Croal, for a committee to consider the state of the colony. * These Ordinances will be found printed at pages 495 and 496 of the Appendix to this Paper. † Page 235, Huse of Commons l'aper, No. 21, 1850, " British Guiana." Page 248, Ibid. Page 276, Ibid. " Mr. |