Page:On the motion of Sir George Strickland; for the abolition of the negro apprenticeship.djvu/66

58 "It follows, Parliament is therefore at once entitled and bound to enforce by its power the performance of any part of the duty of the Assembly of Jamaica towards the apprenticed labourers which that body may themselves have failed to fulfil."

1. Question 5397. Mr. Jones paid about 88l. sterling for extra labour, or, according to question 5378, 128l.: he had 400 apprentices: his cultivation fell off by one-third. The interest on his whole compensation money at four per cent, would be from 310l. to 320l.

2. Question 3556. Mr. Miller paid about 150l. sterling for extra labour. Had 320 apprentices. Interest on the whole compensation money would be about 256l. His crop fell off by one tenth.

3. Question 4581, 4820, 4888, 4902. Mr. Oldham had under 4,000 apprentices. He had paid 7,000l. currency, or about 4,500l. sterling, in a year, for extra labour. He kept up his crops. But the interest of the whole compensation money would be, at four per cent., little over 3,000l. sterling.

4. Question 5037 et seq. Mr. Shirley paid the whole interest of the compensation money, and made the same crops. To charge the old colonial interest of six per cent, would of course change the aspect of these calculations; but what planter could now command such an investment on adequate security? It seems certainly not too much to say, that one half of the compensation money must be regarded as given for the time of the free children in 1834, and that of the adults from 1840. The apprenticeship in this view should, strictly speaking, be credited only with one moiety of the interest, and the remainder should be regarded as an accumulating fund, to meet the increased expenses of the approaching period of absolute freedom.