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entrusted with small supplies of Medicine with 

 the uses of which they they were of course as 

 ignorant as the men to whom they administered it : 

 in other cases unqualified Medical Officers were sent 

 in charge; laborers were embarked in some instances 

 almost in a dying state ; over-crowded Flats were 

 lashed to Steamers day and night, and the Coolies 

 on board were thus deprived of their only chance of 

 free ventilation. The Committee found that there 

 was no uniformity of system in the despatch and 

 recruitment of Coolies ; laborers, in most cases, were 

 provided by Native Contractors at so much per 

 head ; practically the supply of laborers was, they 

 found, an ordinary commercial transaction between 

 a Native Contractor and the Planter, " all parties 

 considering their duty and responsibility discharged 

 when the living are landed and the cost of the dead 

 adjusted." There appeared to be no specific engage- 

 ment on starting between employer and laborer, a 

 state of things which opens a road to an immense 

 amout of false statement and exaggeration on the 

 part of the Native Recruiters. They found an entire 

 absence of any efficient Medical inspection of Coolies 

 before shipment-, and even when the men were inspect- 

 ed by the Planter's Agents, feeble and sickly persona 

 were, it was believe, substituted for the healthy men 

 accepted and passed, persons at the point of death 

 having been known to be sent on board. There 

 no inspection, of the boats employed. The 



as 



