PEOPLE, LANGUAGES, AND EELIGIONS. 
35 
because of several of tlie arrangements being unwise and 
unnecessary. It no doubt was the strongest inducement 
that could be offered to the people of Hindostan to say 
to them ; “ Come with us to Trinidad, and work for five 
years, or even ten years, and we will pay you well — give 
you a fine house to live in, provide you with a doctor 
when you are sick, and at the end of five or ten years 
(according to the arrangement made) we will give you a 
free jsassage back to your own country.” Perhaps those 
who had the hard work of persuading Hindoos to leave 
their country and cross the salt seas, found that nothing 
short of such favourable terms could prevail upon them 
to agree to embark. However desirable, and however 
necessary it may have been to obtain labour, still the 
pockets, the interests of the employers should have been 
a little more attentively considered. Having had so much 
difficulty to get the labourers to come, one would haA'e 
thought that, at least, they shoidd have been required to 
}3ay their own passage back, if they would not settle 
down permanently in their new country. Experience 
has taught wisdom in this matter, and now a longer 
time of service is contracted for — ten years, instead of 
five. 
Much has been said in the interest of the Coolies, and 
a kind of crusade has been attempted by some fond of 
knight-errantry, with a view to ameliorate the condition 
of the indented Coolie. Having been familiarly ac- 
quainted with the w’orking of immigration here for 
nearly nine years, 1 can conscientioiisly say that a 
fairer system for the labourer could not well be devised. 
As remarked above, the Coolies have provided for 
them good substantial houses, medical attendance, and a 
free passage home upon the expiration of their term of 
service, or the choice of a bounty instead of a return 
passage. They are paid according to the rate of wage in 
the qrmrter at the time, and, of course, according to the 
kind of work done. In these rights, and in many privileges, 
they are protected by the magistrates and by the laws. 
