24 TRINIDAD. 



robust as the negroes, they nevertheless are preferable to all 

 other immigrants, as they have little to learn and nothing to 

 forget or to forgive. It is much to be regretted that one of the 

 conditions imposed on us is to send back the immigrant to his 

 country after he has completed his industrial residence in the 

 colony ; that is to say, after he has become acclimatised and has 

 just begun to become imbued with notions of a civilised life. Is 

 the Coolie better off in his own country ? No ; reliable reports 

 speak to the contrary; and are there not millions of people in India 

 who are kept under such servile and galling degradation, through 

 the prejudices of caste, as absolutely to constitute them the most 

 miserable race of beings under the sun? Encourage by all 

 means the emigration of these poor creatures to a land of freedom 

 and Christianity, where their social and moral condition becomes 

 vastly improved. The British Government cannot reasonably 

 demur to the immigration of these people ; for, allowing that 

 2,000,000 should leave India for our shores, can it be said that 

 the country would suffer thereby ? Certainly not. And, on the 

 other hand, hundreds of thousands who periodically perish 

 through the joint agencies of famine and hardships would thus 

 be saved. 



Several schemes in succession have been adopted and Ordi- 

 nances passed for the promotion of paid immigration. Our 

 Ordinance on the subject is comprehensive enough, and fully 

 protects the rights of the immigrants. The expenses of their 

 recruiting in India and their passage to Trinidad are defrayed 

 from a common fund. To that fund the Government ' contri- 

 butes three-tenths and the planters seven-tenths, by paying 

 indenture fees and an export duty on sugar, molasses, rum, 

 cacao, and coffee. The indenture fees are paid by those who 

 engage the immigrants. This I consider a fair arrangement. 

 However, the question arises whether the Government ought 

 not to pay for the fixed establishment, which costs the sum of 

 £3,612, or the sum of £8,412, including the salaries of the 

 district medical officers, amounting to the sum of £4,800. They 

 are not appointed exclusively to attend the immigrants on 

 estates, as they act as visitors of the poor and paupers, of the 

 police, and in other capacities; in fact, in the interest of the 

 public generally. 



A liberal system of public instruction based on sound 

 principles is, I believe, the most powerful instrument for good 

 which any Government can use. Primary instruction should be 

 offered to all. I have heard many persons object to this plan, 

 on the ground that instruction tends to create, in the lower 

 classes, a desire to retire from menial and prsedial occupations, 

 and an aspiration to pursuits above their condition. This 



