February 1, 1913] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



273 



NOTES FROM BRITISH GUIANA. 



(From Our Regular Correspondent.) 



FAILURE OF ANOTHER BAI.ATA COMPANY, LABOR AND 



CAPITAL. 



THAT 1912 has been a bad year for the balata industry is 

 becoming only too evident by the official returns. We are 

 now coming very close to the end of the year, and the export 

 returns make lamentable reading. From January 1 to December 

 5, 1912, the amount exported has been 554,453 pounds, against 

 987,287 pounds during the same period last year. The difficul- 

 ties of the season appear to have been too much for the Amster- 

 dam Balata Co., which has gone into liquidation, with an in- 

 debtedness to laborers of $18,000, it is reported. The situation 

 thus precipitated is an exceedingly unfortunate one ; a number 

 of laborers, about 300 it is said, have been dispatched to the 

 interior, where they have been working for some months. It is 

 known that two of the expeditions of this company have been 

 involved in river accidents, caused, it is presumed, by undue 

 recklessness in negotiating falls, which have had disastrous re- 

 sults, and there has been a certain amount of sickness in camp, 

 in some cases with fatal results. The survivors of these expedi- 

 tions return to town, find that their employers' business is in the 

 hands of the Public Trustee, and that they can only get a small 

 percentage of their earnings. This has precipitated a situation 

 which was anticipated at the time the Balata Committee was 

 investigating the conditions of the industry. No recommenda- 

 tion, however, was made to the committee. The Institute of 

 Mines and Forests has now applied to the Government to remedy 

 the situation by applying to the industry the following regula- 

 tion that has been enforced for the past seven years in the gold 

 industry : "No company or co-partnership, whether duly regis- 

 tered in this colony or not, shall be allowed to register laborers 

 to work in any capacity in any mining district, otherwise than 

 in the name of an individual resident in the colony, who must 

 be the duly authorized attorney or representative of the said 

 company or co-partnership, and who shall be held personally 

 and individually liable for all the liabilities imposed by these 

 regulations upon an employer of labor." Mr. James Winter, 

 secretary of the Institute of Mines and Forests, has advanced 

 the following reasons for taking this step on behalf of the 

 Council of the Institute, in his letter to the Government : "Along 

 with other witnesses that gave evidence before the Balata 

 Commission, I urged the need of Mining Regulation No. 102 

 being made applicable to balata collecting. There is, however, 

 no reference to this point in the report of the commissioners. 

 Just at this juncture there have arisen circumstances in con- 

 nection with the Amsterdam Balata Co., which very aptly illus- 

 trate the need of the regulation referred to. Many of the laborers 

 of that Company now in town cannot get the wages due them, 

 and the same will be the plight of some 300 who have not yet 

 come to town. These men are without resources, and depend 

 entirely upon the wages they earn in the interior, and after per- 

 forming their duty it is extremely hard on arrival in George- 

 town to find there is no money nor an attorney of the company 

 they have worked for during months, to whom they may look 

 for payment for services rendered. My Council are strongly of 

 the opinion that this matter should not be overlooked, but dealt 

 with when the matters connected with balata collecting are be- 

 ing considered, as foreshadowed in His Excellency the Gov- 

 ernor's reference to that industry in his speech to the Combined 

 Court." 



ATTORNEYS AND LABORERS: QUESTION OF LIABILITY. 

 Mr. W. Maynard Payne, legal adviser to the Institute, in an 

 interview, has given the following reasons in support of such 

 legislation : "I always have been of the opinion that a clause 

 similar in effect to that prevailing as regards the gold industry 

 should be inserted in the balata regulations. If the employer 

 receives a due and proper report on his concessions or grants, 



he should be able to cut his coat to his cloth, and there is no 

 excuse for any employer who cannot give that remuneration, to 

 which his laborers are entitled for their labor, the fruits of which 

 he has himself disposed of. Such provisions I consider would 

 be most advantageous where the balata industry is concerned, 

 in fact I ventured to urge the necessity for them before the re- 

 cent Balata Commission. I consider when work is paid for it 

 should carry with it a certain proportion of responsibility. In 

 the absence of any such enactment in the balata regulations, as 

 I referred to, what is the position? The moment any trouble 

 arises, the attorney of the foreign companies, can any day when 

 it no longer suits his book, relieve himself of the responsibility, 

 chuck up the power of attorney, throw everything on the broad 

 back of the official receiver, and look on while the band plays. 

 It is a case under certain implied conditions, namely that a 

 certain amount of balata is to be obtained from a certain spot ; 

 when it is obtained it will be paid for at certain prices, and the 

 laborers undertake to do a certain duty. If they do not do so 

 they go to gaol, and what is sauce for the goose ought em- 

 phatically to be sauce for the gander, too. Introduce this sec- 

 tion and a stop would soon be put to the indiscriminate accept- 

 ance of powers of attorney, without making due inquiry, or still 

 more without being secured against possible eventualities as 

 regards the financial status of the principals of the companies." 

 The "Daily Chronicle," commenting editorially on the pro- 

 posal, says : "To what extent w ill a remedy be found by mak- 

 ing the attorneys liable, it will be asked. Why should an at- 

 torney be held responsible for the failure of his principals? 

 There is no reason, however, why attorneys should ever be 

 called upon to discharge the liability they have incurred. The 

 regulation proposed does not seek to be punitive, it seeks to 

 be precautionary. . . . The object of such a regulation is to 

 make the attorneys more careful in despatching expeditions. 

 With such a regulation in force, attorneys would require their 

 principals to give adequate security for their laborers' wages, 

 before despatching expeditions to the balata forests ; the ab- 

 sence of any such conditions does not remove the position far 

 from Mr. Maynard Payne's definition— a gamble with other peo- 

 ple's labor." Opposition to such a proposal appears unnecessary 

 to say the least of it. If the regulation was deemed to be good 

 for the gold industry, why should the Government deem it to 

 be bad for the balata industry? That it has been good for the 

 gold industry there can be no doubt. It has inspired caution 

 in men who might otherwise have sent laborers to do work that 

 is attended by some hazard and some risk." 



THE GOVERNOR AND A HINTERL..\ND RAILWAY. 

 The chief need of the balata industry at the present time, as 

 the Balata Committee emphasized in its report, is improved means 

 of communication. As I have indicated in previous letters public 

 opinion is rising in favor of a through line to Manaos, on the 

 Amazon, which line could easily be made to take three-fourths 

 of the balata output. It was anticipated that the new Governor, 

 who was sent out here with a reputation as an administrator of 

 constructive ability, would have favored this project. He 'has 

 somewhat dampened the ardor of the enthusiasts by announcing 

 in the course of a lengthy speech in the Legislature : "While 

 guaranteeing the construction of a line to the far interior seems 

 to me beyond the means of this colony, I wish to acquire per- 

 sonal knowledge of the country and there can be little doubt 

 that a direct line from Georgetown to Manaos would be a great 

 benefit to British Guiana, and that this Government should not 

 put any obstacle in the way of capitalists who might be willing 

 to undertake its construction." He also stated that "for the past 

 year a specially engaged railway surveyor (Mr. J. Tew) has been 

 employed in the surveying of a route for a railway from near 

 Rockstone, the terminus on the Essequibo of the short line join- 

 ing the Demerara and Essequibo Rivers, to the Potaro and the 

 Goldfields of the Konawarook. His report has only just been 



