The East Indians in British Guiana. 55 



In that year a law was passed with the approval of the Indian Gov- 

 ernment and the British Colonial Office, known as " The Consolidated 

 Immigration Ordinance of 1864" which definitely fixed the mutual 

 obligations of the planters and the indentured labourers, and laid down 

 the methods of procedure in all matters arising out of the new law. 



Broadly speaking, the duties of employers were thus defined. 

 Suitable dwelling-houses and hospital accommodation to be provided 

 free ; suitable and sufficient Medical attendance, maintenance, and 

 nursing to be secured free of charge to all indentured immigrants ; 

 wages by the day to be paid at the same rate as the wages paid to 

 Creoles and other unindentured labourers ; in the case of task work, 

 the task for each day .to be no greater than the task given to free 

 labourers, and to be paid for at the same rate ; wages to be paid weekly, 

 and no deductions whatever to be made for house rent, hospital 

 accommodation, medicine, etc. 



Failure to carry out these conditions rendered an employer liable to 

 fine and imprisonment, on conviction. 



The duties of the immigrants were to perform five days labour in 

 each week, a day's work in the fields to be seven hours in leDgth, and in 

 the factory ten hours. 



All indentured immigrants who after serving five years on an estate 

 remained for five years longer in the colony, were entitled to a free 

 passage back to India. 



The system of indentured labour in British Guiana was subjected in 

 1870 to a most searching inquiry conducted by a Royal Commission sent 

 to the colony for that purpose. 



The appointment of the Commission followed a report made to Earl 

 Granville, Secretary of State for the Colonies, by a certain Mr. Des Voeux 

 who had been a Magistrate in British Guiana. 



In this report, which was in the form of a letter, Mr. Des Voeux \ 

 made a very violent attack on the system of indentured labour. 



Referring to the letter, the " Anti-Slavery Reporter " said : " Mr. Des 

 Vceux arraigns the medical men employed on the estates, the Stipendiary \ 

 Magistrates, the clergy in Colonial pay, the Sub-Immigration Agents, and j 

 even the late Governor as swbseryieait_Jo the views _oI_ thejjlauterSj and , 

 opposed to the interest of the Immigrants who, he declares, have been long / 

 treated with gross deception, injustice and cruelty." 



Sir Clinton Murdoch, Chairman of the British and Emigration Com- 

 missioners, re porting on the letter said: "Mr. Des Vceux impugns the conduct 

 of every class in the colony except the lowest ; and imputes to the Local 



