Emigrant Labor. 43 



way that the Queen's charity would be amply repaid, in time, 

 by important services to the nation. The introduction of 3,000 

 persons would add materially to the strength and security of the 

 frontier, and the cost of transportation and temporary mainte- 

 nance would be more than met by the masts, tar, pitch and 

 hemp in which the Palatines were to pay for their grants. The 

 returns would necessarily be delayed for several years, but it 

 was urged that capital so expended would ultimately be repaid 

 with interest.^ 



The details of Colonel Hunter's plan were worked out as fol- 

 lows :- After the Palatines had been transported, they would 

 be settled on such lands as were deemed suitable for their pro- 

 posed occupation, and encouraged to work in partnership, i. e., 

 five or more families in common. Forty acres per head would 

 be granted to each family, under the seal of the province, for 

 which the usual quit-rent would be expected, payable seven 

 years after the date of the grant. The only condition of the 

 grant should be the prohibition of any " woolen or such like 

 manufactures."^ Inasmuch as the people were wretchedly poor, 

 it would be necessary to maintain them for a year or two at the 

 public expense, because, until they should have built them- 

 selves huts and cleared land enough for tillage, they could not 

 make much progress with the naval stores. The rate of sub- 

 sistence suggested was six pence sterling per head a day, for 

 men and women, and four pence for children. Colonel Hunter's 

 estimate of the quantities of stores which the Palatines, when 

 once established, would be able to produce in a year shows an 

 optimistic faith in the success of the venture. He computed that 

 one man alone could make six tons of stores in a year : a num- 

 ber of men assisting one another could double the quantity in 

 proportion, so that, supposing six hundred men to be employed, 

 the result of their labors would equal seven thousand tons a 



1 Address to the Queen from the Board of Trade, B. T. New York, 

 Aa: 122. 



2Ibid. 



nt was observed at the time that the exports from New York 

 greatly exceeded the importation of British manufactures. 



