The Labour (Question 285 
when it was strong, minus the slave tribute, and once more the country 
is filling up with people. On this point Mr. Hazzledine writes: 
“Quite recently the traveller came across village after village, silent, 
black and empty; but now the hum of one hardly dies away behind him 
before he hears the stir and hum of another. ” 
There is promise here not only of a present supply but of a growing 
supply of labour. Mr. Hazzledine’s book is full of promise in other 
directions. He does not put wages at the Lagos rate, but quite low 
enough to show that in the country where such rates abound labour is 
abundant, and their rates we could easily outbid. I submit that if from 
Mr. Smith’s hint, and Mr. Hazzledine’s book, I have been able to add a 
sixth place to the five mentioned by Mr. Ireland, there is every reason to 
hope that a Governmental enquiry would bring to light others. 
GOVERNMENT SHOULD HAVE CONTROL. 
But if a new source of supply is tapped, and free immigration is 
established, it is evident there must be changes in British Guiana itself. 
The Government would have to have absolute control over the numbers 
brought in. And to enable them to exercise such control wisely, they 
would have to be much better informed as to the trade outlook in the 
country than I take it they are to-day. But in divising an immigration 
scheme intended to last some time, every effort must be made to provide 
for all possible contingencies. As races vary in physique there would 
have to be a minimum weekly earning fixed for each race. It would not 
do to apply the coolie scale to powerful blacks from West Africa. I 
would give power to the Government also in case of an employer having 
more people than he could properly employ at a minimum wage in an 
average year, to remove a portion of the people, the people to be removed 
in ship-lots. And to provide for the possibility of a case arising of an 
unscrupulous employer eyading all safeguards and getting an excess 
amount of labour on his property at a time when the Government could 
not place them with other employers owing to their being fully supplied, 
I would give the Governor power to suspend such a man’s. right to indent 
for a term of years. This may sound severe, but the attempt is so easily 
avoided that the man who committed it ought to be made an example of. 
I think also that when a new source of supply is first tapped the 
establishment of any thing like an elaborate agency ought to be avoided, 
until a first year’s favourable verdict on the immigrants had been 
endorsed in two or three succeeding years. Asan example, let us suppose 
we had decided to import Yorubas. Apparently we might do worse. 
Here is what Mr. Hazzledine says of them: ‘They do as they are 
told.” Obedience is not a virtue in Central Africa; it is a habit; 
a national trait.” Here I imagine readers would try to picture 
in their minds, and fail utterly, employees who do as they are 
told, not as the outcome of a special effort on their part to be good, but 
because “ They can’t help it ; they are built that way,” But to return to 
