380 TRINIDAD. 



be left to those who actually require their services the funds of 

 the colony being pledged only as a security to parties who would 

 introduce them ; but, as a compensation for risk and expenses, 

 the services of the immigrants should be secured to those who 

 would incur and pay the same. The immigrant, however, should 

 always be at liberty to free himself from all engagements on 

 reimbursing the money advanced for his passage. But whereas 

 the risks of acclimatisation are greater during the first year of 

 residence, I think it would be but fair that a certain per centage 

 on the passage-money should be reimbursed, as a compensation 

 to any planter who would have first engaged the immigrant ; 

 except, however, it were proved that the latter had been free of 

 ailment during the time of his indenture. 



In no case should the immigrant be granted a free return 

 passage ; for not only is the principle absurd in itself, but, as 

 regards those islands, it implies a contradiction, since a pledge is 

 thereby given to send back to their country the very people 

 whose labour is so necessary, and for the importation of whom 

 such heavy sacrifices are made ; it is highly impolitic, since the 

 return passage-money, together with any amount the immigrant 

 may take back with him, is so much of the circulating specie 

 abstracted from the colony. This is an evil much greater than it 

 appears, or perhaps has ever been thought. The only reasonable 

 pledge the colony should be expected to give, would be whenever 

 a sufficient number of immigrants are found willing and ready to 

 return home, to procure for them a vessel and a passage on the 

 same terms as those on which they were introduced. 



The home government should not herein interfere beyond a 

 strict surveillance with regard to the arrangements of the immi- 

 grant vessels, the selection of the vessels themselves and the 

 amount to be paid for the passage, being left to the parties 

 concerned. The introduction of each coolie costs the colony 

 at present 14 sterling. The introduction of the same individual 

 costs the inhabitants of Martinique 337 francs, or 13 sterling ; 

 and it is calculated that, in general, they could be imported here 

 at the rate of 10 sterling per head the contractor thereby 

 realising a profitable return. Supposing two thousand to be 

 introduced every year, it would make to the planter, or to the 

 immigrant who should redeem his time, a difference of 4 ster- 



