THE NEW SCHEME FOR SUPPLYING LABOUR FROM AFRICA.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVI, 2 December 1857, Page 3

THE NEW SCHEME FOR SUPPLYING LABOUR FROM AFRICA.

[From the Neio York Herald.] Concurrent advices from London, Paris, and Madrid, all indicate that the cabinets of Western Europe have abandoned the policy in relation to the African slave trade which England initiated at the Congress of Vienna, and which for more than half-a-century has been the theme and aim of self-styled philanthropists everywhere. The Leon Espanol, the organ of Marshal Narvaez, announces that Cuba, " through an adequate supply of labour in the future, will recover from the evils inflicted upon her agriculture by fhe (slave trade) treaties of 1817 and 1835." The London Times tells us that " not only the British colonies, but even those American States which have, to their credit* abolished slavery altogether, will find it advantageous to bring over Africans," under sdme system of apprenticeship or contract. Aud the Assemblee Nationale, of Paris, gravely states that the French Secretary of the Navy has contracted with Messrs. Regis, of Marseilles, to "send sixteen hundred Africans to Martinique and Guadaloupe this year ; " and they may hereafter be obliged to send twenty thousand.

This is the retroactive effect of fifty years' pursuit of abolitionism. Hayti, Jamaica, and the French West Indies, subjected to the erro« neous social and economical theories of a school of mistaken humanitarians, have exhibited a continuous industrial decay, while the world, in its progress, was demanding from them an increase of industrial energy. As it is now the fashion to phrase it in commercial circles, consumption has overtaken production, aud Europe must have more cotton, sugar, coffee, rice, and " other articles of almost the first necessity to European life." The argument that is now adduced to sustain this abandonment of errors that have been so long maintained, is forcibly put by the London Times. In substance it is this : — While we have been demanding from the tropical communities an increase of their staples of production, we have been striking at the root of that production by depriving them of their supply of labour from Africa ; we have sought to destroy slave labour without finding a substitute ; this was an omission in our policy which has nearly proved fatal, and we must now destroy slavery in America by supplying it with free negroes, under contract, or as apprentices.

This abandonment of error is a homage to the truth, but it is not an acceptance of the truth. The world requires an increased supply of the products of the tropics. But how is this to be procured ? The white man will not go there in large numbers to found prosperous communities based upon his own labour* Not only are the climate influences destructive of his energies there, but deadly fevers await him. Besides, under the stimulus of tropical rains and a tropical sun, trfe power of the forest growth is developed with a rapidity and luxuriance that can be overcome only by the action of men in masses, combined with capital and directed by the highest human intelligence.

These are conditions to which the white man will not willingly submit, for they are the conditions that constitute African slavery. Born in a climate favourable to the exercise of his physical powers, he is crowned with an intel* lect capable, as yet, of unlimited individual development, and he consequently seeks those regions that offer the best theatre for his individual advancement. Yet civilization requires that the fertile soils of the tropics must be cultivated ; and if the white man will not or cannot do it, others must.

It was this necessity that first gave rise to African slavery, which the humanitarians of Europe have so long been endeavouring to destroy. Having partially effected their ohject, they now find that its attainment reacts upon themselves, by depriving them of the "articles of almost first necessity for European life." Therefore do they seek to re-establish it in a new form ; and we find the cabinets of Madrid, Paris, and London apparently agreed upon a course of action. The importation of African apprentices, or negroes contracted to labour in the colonies for a term of years, is this new form, and we have not the slightest hesitation in pronouncing it a worse system of slavery than that of holding a negro for life in involuntary servitude. It is wanting in every incentive to care for the health and comfort of the negro and his offspring that exists in the life interest of the master in the slave. By destroying the claim whjch the slave has in his declining years upon his master, it gives a stimulus to the selfish desire to get all out of the labourer that is possible during his term of service, regardless of the effect of overwork aud bad food upon his remaining years of life. It is, in fact, giving a premium to the using up of negroes. That we may not be accused of exaggeration in these statements, we will recite the principal features of the existing code of laws for the importation of free apprentices to labour in the Spanish colonies. They may be contracted for any term of service that may suit the contracting parties ; the contract working hours per day may be fifteen ; ships importing them shall not bring over four persons to the ton ; mr-porters and purchasers may dispose of and transfer them by sale of their contracts ; they cannot acquire any new rights while their contract stands ; they cannot marry, nor leave the plantation or workshop, withont consent of their patron or master ; patrons may punish them by the use of stocks, ball and chain, and imprisonment for thirty days ; a daily account shall be kept of the number of hours during which the apprentice has worked, so that the actual number of days he has laboured in each month may be known, and at the expiration of the term of the contract it may be prolonged to cover the full number of working hours stipulated. What chance a negro apprentice has for freedom under such circumstances as these we leave others to determine. We fancy, however, that we sec the King of Dahomey coming down to the coast of Guinea with a herd of free African apprentices ; the contractors there, who have superseded the old slave traders, inquiring minutely into the free agency of each contracted labourer, and extending the written agreement ; the commodious ships bringing them over " not more than four to the ton ;" the humane patron working them fifteen houii a-day ; and the jolly labourer, after ten y«MI

of such service, prepared and elevated to become a freeman and a useful member of society. This is the scheme that is to destroy the slave | trade, and give to Europe an abundant supply of cotton,sugar, coffee, rice 3 and other "articles" of almost thefirstnecessity toEuropean life. Truly, the ways of humanitarianism are wonderful.