ADVANCE SYSTEM. 123 



against the advance system, it might be abolished within a very 

 short period. There is no doubt that the system places the 

 labourer more completely in the power of the employer, and it 

 may have had its uses amidst the lawlessness of former days ; 

 but there can be no justification of its use at present, and its 

 continuance as an institution connected with the employment of 

 labour in the colony is to be greatly deplored. Associated with 

 the advance system', and indeed an integral part of it, is the so- 

 called truck system, which requires, or at least encourages, the 

 labourers totake a portion of their wages in goods from their 

 employer's store. When in the remote woods of the interior, 

 with no stores within some thirty or forty miles, the employer 

 must naturally supply the labourers with necessary food and 

 tools; but under every circumstance,, and especially in the 

 neighbourhood of settlements, it would be far better to pay the 

 workmen in cash once a fortnight or once a month ; and allow 

 them to make their purchases wherever they please. The 

 nocking to Belize at Christmas-time of nearly every one connected 

 with the mahogany works, tends to foster the spirit of dissipation 

 and recklessness which characterises the mahogany and logwood 

 cutter ; but unless hiring-places are established at different 

 places in the colony, and recognised by a mutual arrangement 

 between the employer and employed, it is difficult to break 

 through an old-established custom ; and the more so, that to 

 many it is an absolute necessity to visit Belize, at least once or 

 twice a year. For the most part, I believe, employers in the 

 colony treat their workpeople fairly and honestly ; and it is 

 with no desire to reflect upon them that exception is taken to 

 systems which they did not create, but which, nevertheless, are 

 quite inconsistent with the spirit of liberty and personal free- 

 dom, to which they, no less than their workpeople, lay claim as 

 the birthright of Englishmen. 



