co * — Harvest — Focd , 153 



to 8 cents. The same weight of rice costs 2 cents or 

 nearly so, and a catty weight of rice-flour 6 cents. 

 The prices fluctuate a little. They are imre or less 

 than here stated. 



It is of consequence to notice another species of la- 

 bir distinct from day-labor, and perhaps in some res- 

 jxcts peculiar to this country. In 1820, The Hon'hle 

 Mr, Phillips, then Governor of Penang, by humane 

 and just regulations, paved the way for the speedy 

 extinction of slavery. This was chiefly effected by 

 taking 1 , as a stepping -stone to the final object, the 

 system then co-existing with slavery, of selling service, 

 — or the debtor-servant system, as it is here called. 

 When at length slavery was abolished by Act of 

 Parliament, the system alluded to remained under the 

 wise restrictions which had been established, and it 

 still continues to operate, but with diminished strength. 

 Wherever a debt is incurred by which the debtor is 

 bound to a certain service, the period of that service 

 is fixed by the magistrate of the locality, agreeably to 

 equity, and the debt, at the expiration of the period, is 

 total 1 v cancelled. Formerly a man would bind him- 

 self and his whole family to repay his debt. Now he 

 has not the power to include the latter. No debtor* 

 servant agreement, not signed and acknowledged be- 

 fore a magistrate should be valid, and if the debtor- 

 servant be a female, and her master should place her 

 in his harem, she Is immediately release 1 fit jiu her 

 debt. 



Persons must have attained to the age of discretion 

 before they can iucur a debt of this kind, and neither 

 parents or guardians can contract such in their names. 

 Debtor-servants, especially the men, as might be ex- 

 pected, are indolent and improvident, and the worst of 

 labourers; still the settlers, from long custom, do not 

 seera yet quite sensible of their inefficiency. 



