SOME HOME TRUTHS. 



By Edgar Beckett. 



When slavery was abolished, this necessary act of justice and 

 humanity was fellowed apparently by a laissez-faire policy which was 

 unjust in the extreme. 



In the days of slavery such institutions as our Savings Banks were 

 unknown but as the slaves under British Government were allowed to 

 cultivate their own little provision patches and to rear fowls, ducks, and 

 pigs, they were enabled to effect considerable savings, which they buried 

 generally in the soil. The,result was that those who were hardworking 

 and possessed of any degree of thrift, accumulated considerable sums of 

 money. To the amazement of the planters their old bondmen came for- 

 ward and purchased for cash the estates which their masters were unable 

 to cultivate for the want of reliable labour — villages like Plaisance, 

 Beterverwagting Buxton, etc., were bought outright by the free people, 

 who clubbed together and carried their silver dollars, literally by the 

 wheelbarrow loads, to the place of payment. To their credit we may 

 recall that many offered to help their poverty-stricken ex-Masters with 

 ready cash. 



When these villages were taken over by the freed bondmen they were 

 in excellent order, drainage conditions were good and everything was 

 in a satisfactory state. Soon this state of affairs passed away, the 

 industrious portion were made to suffer for the negligence of other 

 proprietors, the very ones who had been themselves field labourers began 

 to feel the effects of the want of a steady and reliable labour force at 

 given times ; the older proprietors died out, neglect and decay followed, 

 so-called " education," and a not unnatural disinclination to work on 

 the soil by the then rising generation led to further neglect, until the aid 

 of the Government was required. The Government assisted by helping 

 with loans, granting village administration and what not, until now the 

 Government is perhaps looked upon as the remedy for all evils. 



We are reaping to-day the aftermath from the sowings of the people 

 responsible for the freeing of the bondmen, without making any adequate 

 preparation for teaching and training those emancipated to distinguish 

 between liberty and licence. 



As time passed, this repugnance to the soil became more and more 

 marked. A little learning awakened ambition, and though in very many 

 instances this has been ambition in the right direction, in many others it 

 is an ambition which scorns manual and honest labour and aspires to a 

 high collar and a pen behind the ear. 



Even the horny-handed farmers of to-day feel it their duty to make their 

 sons either teachers or clerks — anything rather than an independent farmer. 



