478 TRINIDAD. 



from absenteeism, or from that reluctance to agricultural pursuits 

 which is characteristic of the emancipated population. 



More than one-half of the sugar-estates of the colony has 

 become the property of merchants at home — a natural conse- 

 quence of the exorbitant rate of interest paid to those capitalists 

 for loans of money, supplies, and other charges, a result, also, 

 greatly encouraged and hastened by the extravagant tactics, and 

 the laissez a Her (almost allied to fatalism) of the planters. 

 Those merchants who have by force become proprietors find 

 themselves in nearly the same predicament as the former owners 

 — a want of good managers, whilst attorneys unable efficiently 

 to superintend or control the general management of their pro- 

 perties are active agents in their ruin. It is therefore to be 

 anticipated that the absentee proprietors, labouring under the 

 same disadvantages as the old proprietary body of the island, 

 will be ultimately roused to a sense of their own interests, and 

 adopt some better system for the management of their properties. 

 The following would be, in my opinion, the best and most 

 advantageous, both for that class of proprietors and for the 

 general welfare : — The manager should become a participator in 

 the net profits of the estate : but, as it would be but justice to 

 insure him a regular maintenance, he should also receive a small 

 fixed salary — say of 500 dollars — in addition to 10 per cent, of 

 the net proceeds. Under this system, the manager would have 

 the sole and entire superintendence of the property, except in 

 such cases in which material changes should be required, such as 

 alterations in the general disposition of the buildings, apparatuses, 

 &c. He should be allowed to procure his supplies at the lowest 

 rate, instead of drawing them from the attorney's store. The 

 attorney would be furnished with the pay-lists and all other 

 accounts ; he would ship the produce and pay the necessary 

 duties and expenses thereon ; as also all amounts due by the 

 manager in service of the property, after being furnished with 

 authentic vouchers. The manager would prepare a detailed 

 estimate of probable expenditure for the ensuing twelvemonths 

 — from the 1st of July, each year. On the other hand, he should 

 be entitled to demand and receive the exact accounts of the sales 

 and proceeds of produce. 



This plan is simple, just, and safe. The manager, placed in 

 this position, will have the same interest in the estate as the 



