560 HISTORY 



to be done by daylight; no Sunday labor was allowed; no slave could rake 

 salt until he was proved to be the property of a British subject. Penalties 

 were imposed for removing marks in the ponds, for leaving sails on board a 

 vessel in the harbor at night and for other offenses. The most common pen- 

 alty was the deprivation of the privilege of raking for the remainder of the 

 year. All shares tlius forfeited were at the disposal of the commissioners to 

 be applied for the defense of the Islands. The regulations were annually 

 read in public by the commissioners."" In the other islands the salt ponds 

 were not held by the Crown. They were worked under one general system, 

 under regulations made by statute. Commissioners enforced the regulations 

 just as in the Turk Islands. Each holder of shares was required to furnish 

 laborers in proportion to the number of shares he held."'" Xone of the other 

 islands outside of the Turks attained any considerable importance in the salt 

 industry. 



The regulations of the salt ponds at the Turks Islands were never satis- 

 factory to all classes in the community. Although petitions had gone up for 

 the continuance of them, discontent was frequently manifested and diffi- 

 culties were constantly arising. These regulations imposed limitations on 

 the production of salt. The annual distribution of the shares precluded the 

 application of machinery to the raking and handling of the product. As no 

 holder would make improvements which he would be obliged to surrender to 

 the enjoyment of another at the end of the year, the work was still carried 

 on in the most primitive manner. The probability of losing the whole or a 

 part of the crop was not lessened."" Capital and skill were thus denied their 

 natural advantage.""' The one-third of the ponds distributed gratis for the 

 benefit of the poor conferred no real benefit on them. Idle and indigent 

 holders regularly sold their shares to larger producers or to speculators. 

 Head-rights valued at $25 to $40 were often disposed of in this way for $4 

 or $5. The speculators furnished the sellers clothes, provisions or rum in 

 lieu of money. These things were sold to tlie shareholders in advance, thus 

 keeping them indebted to the speculators wliile the latter reaped an enormous 



^"4 Geo. IV, 5. These regulations, sent out first in 1781, were enacted into 

 law by the legislature in 1824. Petitions were sent in to the Assembly to make 

 them into a law of the Colony in 1802. 



«'« See 4 William IV, 45. 



^'' Ds., S. St., 1844, No. 35, memorandum on the salt ponds enclosed in this 

 despatch. 



""^Loc. cit., 1843, No. 127. 



