BRITISH GUIANA.

Encl. 2, in No. 10.

The application for any such being made in the manner prescribed by the said regulations, and reported on by the Crown Surveyor as unobjectionable, will be published as heretofore, three several times in the "Royal Gazette," in order to give an opportunity to persons who may consider themselves liable to be injured by such grants to state their objections, as well as to those who may be disposed to compete for the lands, by tendering for the same at a higher rate; for which purpose also, the lands will remain ungranted for two months after the last insertion, during which period such objections may be entered, and such tenders received; and after the expiry of which period the grant will be given to the highest bidder, on his refunding to the original applicant the expenses attending his application, paying the fees of office, and one-half the purchase-money, and entering into sufficient security for the payment of the remainder, in two instalments; the first instalment in one year, and the second in two years from the date of the grant.

2. Wood-cutting licenses will continue to be issued to the extent mentioned in regulation No. 2 of the Government Notice of 21st November 1835, in tracts of the figure of a parallelogram, when the circumstances will admit of such, having their façades on the contiguous rivers or creeks, and their longitudinal sides or depths equal at least to twice their façades, extending inwards therefrom. A space or path of five roods in breadth to be left between each allotment, both of grants and licenses, for the purpose of access to the rear lands. The rent is now fixed at eight-pence sterling for lands within 1,000 roods from water-carriage, and sixpence sterling for those exceeding that distance, per acre per annum, in place of two stivers as heretofore, payable annually in advance. The lessee to enter into sufficient security for the punctual payment thereof. Applications for such licenses, with sworn surveyors' diagrams attached, and accompanied by recommendations from the Superintendents of Rivers and Creeks, will be made and published in the manner prescribed for grants; and no license will be issued until the expiration of one month from the date of the last insertion.

3. The following stipulations and restrictions will further be imposed on the lessee; the infringement of which will subject the license to be instantly withdrawn.

4. He shall not, without leave from his Excellency the Governor, be permitted to transfer his lease, or sublet the whole or any part of the lands. Should he employ any Indians, he shall keep a book which shall be subject at all times to the inspection of the Superintendent of Rivers and Creeks, in which shall be inserted by him the rates agreed to be paid such Indians for their services, as well as the payments made them from time to time on account thereof, for which, or for any timber or other materials which he may purchase from any Indians, rum or other spirituous liquors shall not be considered as payment.

5. In place of the fee of from 200 f. to 50 f. required by the 7th article of the existing regulations to be paid on grants, "in aid of the expenses of the surveyor's office," the following are now fixed as the fees which the Crown Surveyor will be entitled to receive on delivery thereof respectively; viz.

For reports on applications for grants or licenses, $12 each.

For grants and licenses, when executed, with diagrams attached, and recording the same, $22 each.

Without authority thus had and obtained, no person or persons shall hereafter be permitted on any pretext whatever to reside, work or cut timber or other materials upon, or otherwise occupy any of the lands belonging to the Crown, such as are already in possession of grants or licenses duly registered according to the regulations excepted, during the periods of their respective leases. All other temporary permission for so doing, whether verbal or in writing being hereby cancelled and annulled.

All other stipulations provided on the existing regulations, dated 21st November 1835 aforesaid, which are not repugnant to those hereinbefore specified remaining in full force and effect.

Enclosure 2, in No. 10.
(B.)

GOVERNMENT NOTICE.

THE Lieutenant-governor, Major-general Sir James Carmichael Smyth, in consequence of the many irregular petitions for grants of land which, from time to time, are made to his Excellency, and which cannot be complied with, being either at variance with his instructions or contrary to the enactments which have already been promulgated in this colony upon the subject, by competent authority, has thought proper to direct that the following rules, founded upon his Excellency's orders from his Majesty's Government and the existing regulations, should be published in the "Royal Gazette," for the information and guidance of all such persons as may be desirous of obtaining grants of land hereafter in British Guiana :

1. His Excellency being prohibited from granting to any individual, land to a greater extent than 100 acres, it will be useless to apply for any larger quantity. It may be a convenience to planters and others, who have been accustomed to reckon the façade and depth of their plantations by the Rhynland rood, to know that a depth of 300 ræden, with the usual façade of 100 ræden, affords an area of 100 acres.

2. Wood-cutters will continue, as at present, to have permissions or licences of occupancy issued to them from time to time. These temporary permissions (it cannot, however, be too clearly understood) cease at the conclusion of the periods for which they have been, or may

severally

severally hereafter be granted, and which periods will not in future, under any circum- BRITISH GUIANA, stances, exceed the term of five years; nor will the extent of the land so permitted to be temporarily occupied amount, in any one case, to more than 1,000 acres. Upon a façade of 200 ræden, a depth of 1,500 roden will contain 1,000 acres, and which will, in future, be the utmost extent of each separate wood-cutting license.

3. No application, whether for a permanent grant or for a permission of temporary occupancy, will be taken into consideration, if not accompanied by a correct diagram, signed by the King's or other sworn surveyor, exhibiting the situation, the extent and the boundaries of the land required.

4. All applications, whether for permanent grants, or for licenses for temporary occupa tion, to be addressed as at present, to the Government Secretary. It having been thought proper, for the greater facility of reference, and for the better ensuring of that regularity and order (without the preservation of which in so important a department the public would necessarily suffer much inconvenience), to select an experienced and respectable surveyor to be his Majesty's surveyor in this province, it will be incumbent upon the Government Secretary to forward all such documents, without delay to that officer, for his investigation and report.

5. It will be the duty of his Majesty's land surveyor to ascertain how far the granting of the land solicited may or may not intefere with the rights and interests of the Crown, or of individuals, and to report accordingly. All applications for land, whether for a permanent grant or for a wood-cutting license, to be inserted, at the expense of the applicant (as at present), three several times in the "Royal Gazette;" and in order that persons who may conceive themselves liable to be injured, if the applications are acceded to, may have an opportunity of stating their objections previously to the passing of the grant or issuing of the license of occupation, his Excellency the Lieutenant-governor will not give any directions upon the subject until after the expiration of one month from the date of the last insertion of the application in the "Gazette."

6. The limitation in the extent of future grants is not meant to apply to proprietors or planters who, being in possession of estates held under the regulations issued by the authority of their High Mightinesses the States of Holland, on the 24th July 1792, are entitled (in pursuance of the 5th Article of the Regulations in question) to an additional depth of 750 ræden (or 250 acres) as soon as two-thirds (or 174 acres) of the first grant are in cultivation. So long as an estate is in cultivation, and that there is the most distant chance of the second depth being required by the proprietor of the first depth, such second depth will never be granted to another person. As however, it is the object of his Majesty's Government to encourage a concentrated cultivation, and to prevent tracts of uncultivated land from falling into thehands of individuals, the second depth will in no case be granted to the proprietor of the first depth, until he shall have scrupulously complied with the regulations upon that head, and that he has at least 174 acres of the first depth in cultivation. As an additional inducement to the planter to adopt the plan recommended in the 3d article of the printed instructions (dated 1st August 1884) addressed to the special justices by the Lieutenant-governor (with respect to locating and feeding the apprenticed labourers), his Excellency, however directs, that land appropriated to, and cultivated by the apprenticed labourers of an estate, for their own benefit, is to be considered as part of the 174 acres the cultivation of which will entitle the planter to apply for the second depth.

7. It will be the duty of the King's Surveyor to cause the diagrams of all grants of land, as also of all land permitted to be occupied, whether for wood-cutting, grazing or any other temporary object, to be carefully entered into a book to be kept by him for the purpose. The grantee will receive a copy of the said diagram (attached to his grant), and for which he will have to pay, in aid of the expenses of the Surveyor's Office, in pursuance of the existing regulations, from 200f. to 50 guilders, according to the proximity of the grant to watercarriage. From this fee, the lessee is (until further instructions), exempted.

8. Land which may, hereafter, be granted in British Guiana, will not be granted otherwise than subject to the same acre money imposed upon land granted in the districts of Demerara and Essequebo by their High Mightinesses, in their regulation of the 24th July 1792. Wood-cutting licenses, and permissions for temporary occupation will be issued upon the payment of two stivers per acre per annum, to be paid annually in advance. The receipt of the Receiver-general at Georgetown, or of the Acting Receiver-general at New Amsterdam, for the money, to be exhibited to the Government Secretary previously to the issuing of the license.

9. Much inconvenience having been experienced, and many disputes having arisen in the district of Berbice from the undefined and unlimited nature of the wood-cutting licenses formerly issued in that part of British Guiana, by which permission was given to individuals to fell timber on all and any ungranted lands within that district, the property of the Crown; and for which permission five per cent. upon the value of the timber was to be paid; all such licenses and permissions have been cancelled and revoked by his Excellency's proclamation of this day; and all wood-cutters desirous of obtaining licenses to cut wood upon his Majesty's lands in the district of Berbice, will be pleased to govern themselves according to these regulations, which are equally to hold good throughout the three districts of British Guiana.

10. His Majesty's sheriffs, justices of the peace, post-holders and all other persons in authority in the province of British Guiana, as also his Majesty's Colonial Receiver-general

BRITISH GUIANA. and Assistant Colonial Receiver-general, are required by his Excellency the Lieutenantgovernor, all and each of them in their several capacities, to be aiding and assisting in carrying these regulations into effect.

Guiana Public Buildings, Georgetown, Demerara, this 21st November 1835.

Governor Barkly

to Earl Grey.

11 February 1850.

Demerara:

Mr. Mure, 1.
Mr. M'Leod, 2.
Mr. Ricketts, 3.
Berbice:

Mr. Whinfield, 4.
Mr. Strutt, 5.
Mr. Daly, 6.
Essequebo:
Mr. Carbery, 7.
Mr.M⭑Swiney,8.

+ Page 27.

My Lord,

Government House, 11 February 1850. (Received, 28 March 1850.)

(Answered, 13 April 1850, No. 172, page 393.)

1. In addressing your Lordship nearly a year ago,* concerning the prospects of this colony, I promised to report the result of my further inquiries into the working of the métairie system, as applied to the cultivation of sugar; and I have now the honour to forward copies of such of the replies received by me from the · stipendiary magistrates, as seem best calculated to throw light upon this interesting subject.

2. The tenor of the information thus obtained, strongly confirms me in the opinion which I then ventured to express, that that system is not likely to lead. to an extension of the quantity of sugar exported from this colony, whatever advantages it may present in other points of view. Indeed I do not well see how any expectation to the contrary could be reasonably entertained by those at all conversant with the condition of the labouring population in British Guiana, for although recent accounts respecting the peasantry of southern Europe have somewhat modified the condemnation pronounced by political economists on métayage generally, as a mode of production disadvantageous in every respect, it is, nevertheless, evident that to render it successful the métayers must be endowed with great intelligence, unremitting industry, and sterling integrity, qualifications which. it must be a delusion to hope to find common in the first generation of a people emancipated from bondage.

3. I by no means wish by these observations to discourage the extension of a system here, which were it practicable, I should rejoice to see universal. I merely seek to check the extravagantly favourable prognostications of its results, which can only terminate in disappointment to all who cherish, and in loss to all who reckon on securing them. Although, however, the métairie system will never, in my judgment, suffice to restore this colony to prosperity, nor enable those planters who adopt it to export cheap sugar in competition with that grown by slave labour, it has, nevertheless, been productive of very great benefits during the crisis just past, not only by saving several estates from utter abandonment, and preserving at least a wreck of their property to the unfortunate owners, but by giving the Negroes an insight into the real economy of sugar cultivation, and reconciling them to such reduction in the wages of labour as they found from actual experience of the reduced value of the produce of their farms, to be fair and reasonable. It is a system, likewise, which must tend to promote the gradual formation of that middle class, so much needed in colonial society, and to retain, as cultivators of the staple products, many who were certain to rise above the position of day-labourers; as one proof of which, I may refer to a letter† to myself which I have appended to Mr. Strutt's report, written by Boatswain James, who for some time past has conducted Hanover estate in Berbice, without any aid or superintendence whatever.

4. It is true, that letter proves incidentally, that Boatswain James suffers, likemany of his neighbours, from the disadvantages of doubtful credit, and an expenditure for wages beyond that which his crop would justify, but it is still highly creditable to the African race to find one who a few years ago was a slave on the property of Colonel Stopford Blair, capable of thus commanding the confidence and directing the labours of large bodies of his fellow countrymen.

5. Sanguine

* Vide despatch of 21 March 1849, No. 53, page 303, Appendix to First Report on Ceylon and British Guiana, 297, 1849.

5. Sanguine, as I am, that the cultivation of sugar in this colony will yet be BRITISH GUIANA, carried on on a large and remunerative scale, despite the obstacles which have since emancipation impeded its success, I do not myself anticipate that the métairie system will ever spread much beyond its present extent, but at the same time I feel bound to watch with interest the progress of a measure which is capable of conferring great social benefits upon the Negro race, and I am sure your Lordship will receive with interest the details which it is now in my power

to communicate.

I have, &c. (signed)

Henry Barkly.

Sir,

Enclosure 1, in No. 11.

DISTRICT A., Lower Division.

Friendship, 24 January 1850.

THE métairie system has been tried on several estates in this district, but has, I believe, Encl. 1, in No. 11. been abandoned on all except two.

A considerable extent of land is still worked by that method on Plantation Enmore, and a few acres on Plantation John and Cove.

Mr. Porter has favoured me with the following information as to its results on Enmore. Mr. Porter says, "I have between 79 and 80 acres of land on Enmore worked on the métairie system, from which 90 hhds. of vacuum pan sugar were made last year. The people have rented the land for the last five years, but, although I am happy to say that I have never had any dispute with them, I am, on the whole, disappointed in the results of the system, as the lessees, instead of working the land themselves, as I expected they would have done, hire gangs of labourers to do so, and the consequence is, that the land rented by them is scarcely so well cultivated as the rest of the estate.

"The labourers work the land, cut the canes and manufacture the sugar, and the estate gives them the use of the punts, cattle, buildings and machinery, and also provides the casks and fuel, and the produce, including rum and molasses, is equally divided between them and the estate."

On plantation John and Cove there are two tenants on the métairie system. One of them rents two fields. One field, which contains 7 acres 42 roods, was put in cultivation in June 1847, and yielded, in July 1848, a crop of 8 hhds., and last year only 5 hhds. The other field, containing 7 acres 212 roods, was put in crop in December 1848. The tenant is now cutting the canes; it is supposed that the crop will yield 9 or 10 hhds.

With reference to these fields, Mr. Borman, the attorney of the proprietor of the estate, says, "Leased for five years, but, generally speaking, very little attention to the cultivation has been paid, and although with a large family, hiring labourers to do the work required. In contemplation to take the fields away after the next cutting, unless more attention is paid, of which notice has been given.”

The other tenant has 6 acres 150 roods, which was put in crop in September 1847, and yielded, in October 1848, 12 hhds., and last year 10 hhds. of sugar. Of this field, Mr. Borman says, "Every attention paid, the man's family working the field, and the prospect for next cutting good."

The whole produce is not equally divided between the landlord and tenant, as at Enmore. The tenant here has half the sugar, and 100 gallons of molasses with each hogshead of sugar. In other respects the terms are nearly the same on both estates; but at John and Cove there are no vacuum pans.

The métairie system has been extensively tried, and has generally resulted in disappointment. With high-priced sugars, many might be found to undertake the cultivation of land by this method; but the labourers in this colony are little disposed to give labour or expend money on a cultivation which affords only a distant and uncertain return. I doubt, also, whether they are sufficiently enlightened to appreciate the advantages of high cultivation, without which, I fear, sugar crops cannot be profitably raised and manufactured in this colony.

W. B. Wolseley, Esq.,

Circuit Stipendiary Magistrate.

I have, &c.
(signed) J. O. Lockhart Mure,
Stipendiary Magistrate.

Sir,

Enclosure 2, in No. 11.

Georgetown, 24 January 1850.

I HAVE anxiously watched the working of the métairie system on Plantation Kitty, and Encl. 2, in No. 11. am truly sorry to say, that it has been a complete failure; I forward a letter I received from Dr. Manget, proprietor of Plantation Kitty, which he has allowed me to submit to his

Excellency the Governor.

BRITISH GUIANA.

For the reasons assigned by the Doctor, I fear that many years most pass ere this system can be advantageously carried out in British Guiana.

W. B. Wolseley, Esq.

I have, &c.

(signed) J. Macleod,

Stipendiary Magistrate.

So in copy.

Circuit Stipendiary Magistrate.

Sub-Enclosure 1, to Enclosure 2, in No. 11.

THE métairie system has been tried by me on Plantation Kitty, since 1845. I had 120 acres of cane cultivation taken by farmers, the number of acres not being the same for each farmer.

One had 36 acres; one, 15; three, 13; two, 8; two, 7.

A small field of six or seven acres was allowed by me to be put in plantains by the farmers.

The farmers have always enjoyed many privileges on the estate, such as houses, medicines and medical attendance for themselves and families, &c.

I am sorry to say, up to this day, the 31st December 1849, after trying the métairie system for nearly five years, that it is a total failure; and that the farmers, at my request, have given up their leases, except one, who I have allowed to continue. This last farmer had eight acres, and has done well; he has had moreover this field only one year; he has kept it up by the joint labour of his wife, father-in-law and self, besides all three working for the

estate.

Every farmer on the estate has been helped at different times by me. I have advanced them money over and over again, without the slightest use to them or myself; and whenever I found fault with the bad state of their cultivation, and inquired into the manner that my advances had been used, I invariably found that what they had spent therein for other purposes.*

I attribute the failure of the farming system on the Kitty, principally to the want of common honesty among the farmers; to their apathy and indifference to improve their social condition, to their unwillingness to work themselves, preferring to hire others, and superintending (or, as they say) driving them; to their fixed idea that three hours of work a day is quite sufficient for any man or woman, and to many other causes.

The failure cannot be attributed to a want of knowledge of cane cultivation. Every one of my farmers would have been a good and judicious cultivator, if he had thought proper to be so.

The manager was always ready to give advice when applied for it.

The farming system would succeed, could the Negro be convinced that honesty is the best policy, and that when he takes the land of another to work, and to divide the proceeds, he is morally and legally bound to work it well, and to the best of his knowledge; and that if he cannot work it well, it is his duty not to take. But when will the Negro be convinced of this; when he is so convinced, then will the farming system succeed; never before.

That the farming system can succeed here I have not the slightest doubt, but it must be quite in another mode and manner; and the proprietor must have easier redress than he has now against the farmers when they fail to fulfil their contracts.

As