Contracts with Cane Cutters. 



By A. R. Gilzean. 



jHIS estate (Anita ReginaJ has for many years 

 depended on black men from the neighbouring 

 villages for its supply of cane cutters. For- 

 merly it was the custom for the manager to order certain 

 fields to be cut and for the overseer in charge of the cane 

 cutters to make a bargain with them for the cutting of 

 each field. The price depended on the quantity of canes 

 in the different fields, the demand for cane cutters in the 

 distridl and the necessities of the estate at the time. 

 The labourers often wasted days in wandering from one 

 estate to another in search of higher wages before 

 setting to work for the week. They never worked on 

 Mondays and could not be depended on to begin work 

 until Wednesday or Thursday. The labourers naturally 

 took full advantage of our necessity when they saw the 

 supply of cut canes running short, and organised strikes 

 were of weekly occurrence. The consequence of this 

 was that a large stock of cut canes had to be left on 

 hand at the end of a week to keep the mill supplied for 

 the first part of the next week. When the men began 

 work they insisted on having enough work to last them 

 for several days allotted to them at once. The canes 

 which they cut first were at the bottom of the heaps 

 placed near the trenches for removal by the punts, and 

 were frequently the last to be loaded up for grinding. 

 As the canes deteriorate rapidly every hour they are 

 left after cutting before the juice is converted into sugar, 



