UJC 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[September i, 1883. 



iudebteduess, coui)led with diminisbiiig industries and- 

 business activity is not an economic combination upon 

 which apeopleslioulJlook withcouiplactncy. The sooner, 

 therefore, the prime and greatest cause of tijis state 

 of aft'ciii-s is rtmoved, the sooner will the country be 

 able to meet its difficulties with chances for overcom- 

 ing them. To continue this cause, on the contrary, is 

 to court inevitable disaster. 



In its international relations, .also, the settlement of 

 this question is no less important and urgent. It must 

 be remembered that the status of slavery is no longer 

 au open questiou in the general opinion of the world. 

 Slavery is simply a crime, and has been so stamped 

 over and over again. Like many of the other crimes 

 which are now forbidden by the statutes of civilized 

 nations, it has cost years of constant etJ'orta and education 

 to crush out the selfish personal interest and advantages 

 through which it had been sustained, aud to trans- 

 t'orin it into an offence against society. Tliis great re- 

 volution which has had the whole civilized world for 

 its theatre aud a century for its period, has made 

 the traffic of slaves a crime against civilization to be 

 put down as piracy, and it has also made the hold 

 ing of slaves a crime against humanity, to be tolerated 

 only because its violent suppression would require au 

 arnu'd interference in the domestic affairs of friendly 

 nations. Slavery does not exist here and in Cuba 

 because of any recognized right, but simply because 

 the World chooses to tolerate it for the time being, 

 wiiile pacilic measures are employed to secure its ex- 

 tinction. ^Vhat these measures- have beeu in Brazil 

 is known to not a few, aud more than one foreign 

 power has beeu led to believe that the emancipation 

 law of lff71 was an honest effort to redeem many a 

 promise made, and to meet the desire of civilized 

 society that the great evil of slavery should speedily 

 be extinguished thoughout this eiripire. A" the time aud 

 since this law was adopted every effort has been made 

 abroad to cieate the impression that Brazilian slavery 

 is to be rapidly abolihed, and tbat r.o efforts are 

 to be spared • to secure that result. In justice to 

 the expectations thus aroused and iu keeping with 

 the I'romises thus formally and tacitly made some 

 better and more effective measure of emancipation 

 should be ac once adopted. 



Eeferring to the statistics contained in the latest 

 olUjial reports, covering the period from the adop- 

 tion of the emancipation law dowu to the close of 

 last year, we find ttiat only 12,898 slaves have beeu 

 liberated throrgh the operations of li>e fimil, while 

 the number liberated by voluntary gift was 65,056. 

 Tlie total expenditure on the p.art of tl:e state for 

 the liberation of these 12,898 slaves, iuchuiing the 

 expenses of eo'lection aid administration and the 

 private contributions of the slaves, was 10,476,102$ 

 220 making an average cost of 812$ for each liber- 

 ation. 



According to the official returns the slave pojiulation 

 of the whole empire on the 30th June, ISS2. was 

 1,346',048, showing a total diminution of only 194,148 

 snce the luatritulatiou of JS71-73. 'J his gives an 

 average annual decrease in population from all causes 

 of only 22,188, or, a little over H per cent. This re- 

 sult must certainly be erroneous, or else it proves that 

 the slave po|jUlation of the emjure is being illegally 

 increased. The returns account for 87.005 of this 

 total decrease, leaving a 1 alanee of 107,14.3 to be 

 accounted for by death. As this is equivalent to an 

 average mortality of only a little over ti<]hlper thousand 

 2;er'aHnH»i, it is evident that there is something very 

 wrong with the returns, or S' mething criminally wrong 

 in practice. 



One ot the most common and most emphasized argu- 

 ments agalust the abolition of slavery is that they 

 are improvident and will network except under com- 

 pulsion, Aud yet, according t? these official returiuB, 



compiled by the very men who hold these opinions, the 

 12,>^98 slaves liberated by the emancipation fund con- 

 tributed to that fnud from their own private savings 

 the sum of G9o,554S3.32, or an average ot nearly 54.$ 

 apiece. This certainly is not a proof of improvidence ! 

 If these poor wretches have managed to gather to- 

 gether a sum like this from their earnings from over- 

 work, from the stray pennies now and then thrown 

 to theui, or from whatever other source, then certainly 

 something better may be expected from them after 

 emancipation. If to these be added the unrecorded 

 hundreds who have actually earned and purchased 

 their own freedom, and in some cases that of wife and 

 children, wc have a record which affords au un. 

 anewerable proof that the freeduian does work aud 

 save. Everyoue is familiar with instances of this 

 character, and also with others where the negro has 

 secured an education aud has made his way through 

 life shoulder to slKiulder with men of the more favored 

 race. This charging a ('own-trodden, untried race with 

 idleness and improvidence— faults far too common 

 among the whites, be it said — is simply gratuitous 

 injustice. — Rio News. 



" FRESH FIELDS AND PaSTUKES NEW ": 

 NEW ZEALAND. 



(Iju a Ceylon Planier.) 



I promised you a letter from New Zealand, and am 

 somewhat late iu fulfilling that promise. Behind time 

 as I am I would even put off yet, so disinolinefl am I to 

 write, but the promise must be fulfilled, and the task 

 completed in some way. 



In regard to New Zealand as a suitable place for the 

 Ceylon planter to go to, there are differences of opinion. 

 Men of considerable local experience have views so 

 opposed to each other en this question, that it is some- 

 what hard to know which to accept as valuable. 

 When seeking information I tried as far as lay iu my 

 power to give a lair idea of what a Ceylon planter was 

 like, his habits and style of life ; and there seemed to 

 be a consensus of opinion that he would have very 

 much to unlearn, and a good deal to learn, ere he 

 approached the standarl of the true type of colonist. 



In a new country, agricultural or pastoral farming 

 must of necessity take the first rank, aud it is the 

 free grants of land, with the .smiling homestead, and 

 the future of peace aud plenty we hear of, which tills 

 the heart of the hard-tried planter with envj', and 

 creates the desire to rise and possess such a land. Now, 

 whether this farming El Dorado was a vision or a real- 

 ity was made a subject of enquiry by ine, aud that 

 diversity of opinion which was so puzzling aud so pro- 

 minent iu almost all things relating to New Zealand 

 came out here in its strongest form. The simple ques- 

 tion was — Does farming pay ? Icinnotdo better than 

 give you one or two answers I got to this enquiry. A 

 [ gentleman for thirty years a colonist, and many of 

 them as a farmer, said to me: "I never made niouey 

 by farming ; where I did score was iu the rise in the 

 piice of land." He held that to have even a fair chance 

 of getting along meant some practical knowledge of 

 the industry ; without this a man was at a great dis- 

 advantage : almost certain to come to grief. He had, as 

 a further article of belief, that the man who followed the 

 plough anywhere never did make more than a living. 

 Another farmer told me that twenty-five years ago he 

 took to farming, did not then kuow one end of a 

 plough from another hut had been so successful, that 

 all his sons are now following the same profession, 

 and if he had fifteen other sons he would put them to it. 



Auotlier har<l-headed Scot said to mo in his mother 

 tongue: " Twa things are wanted to mak farmin pay: 

 ^st a gnid heid, 2i)d a thusand or twa"— adding, tbat 



