Plantation Rations. The last major topic of discussion was a pair of disagreements over plantation rations. The first disagreement concerned ration indebtedness. By this point in the practice of inden- ture, plantations by law provided to their workers shelter and food, among other necessities, in exchange for a portion of their wages. In the draft ordinance that Xxxxxxxx sent to Xxxxxx, planters were permitted to issue rolling debts.128 This departed from the practice of British Guiana, where planters could deduct from their laborers’ weekly wages only the cost of rations supplied in that same week.129 By closing the ration ac- count weekly, the immigrant was protected from falling into debt that carried over week to week. In contrast, and as Xxxxxx noted, a rolling debt system could quickly produce a “very serious” evil.130 ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 121 See Dec. 4, 1877 Letter, supra note 101 (comparing penalties in a draft ordinance of Fiji to an analogous indenture law from British Guiana); see also A.M. XXXXXX, BRITISH GUIANA LAW OF SUMMARY CONVICTIONS COMPRISING ORDINANCES FROM THE YEAR 1837 TO 1883, at 175, 184– 85 (Glasgow, Xxxxxxx & Co. 1884) (describing the corresponding offenses in British Guiana’s law). 122 See Dec. 4, 1877 Letter, supra note 101. 123 See COLONIAL OFFICE, supra note 70, at 26–27. 124 Dec. 27, 1877 Letter, supra note 105. 125 Id. 126 Id. 127 See Feb. 15, 1878 Letter, supra note 89. 128 Dec. 4, 1877 Letter, supra note 101. 129 Id. 130 Id. 2021] THE AGREEMENT AND THE GIRMITIYA 1843 Xxxxxxxx did not relent. To him, closing accounts weekly would serve only to harm the “industrious” immigrant.131 His skepticism, he ex- plained, arose from his experience in Trinidad, which had no provision analogous to the one suggested by Xxxxxx.132 Xxxxxx responded by at- tacking this explanation as logically unsound and empirically false.133 He parried Xxxxxxxx’x description of Trinidad with his own description of the Caribbean island of Nevis, where the average laborer was in debt to the tune of many months’ wages due to the ration debt system Xxxxxxxx was proposing.134 While Xxxxxxxx would continue to defend his position on the ration debt scheme, he agreed to change the law in the final exchange, subject to the wishes of the Governor of Fiji.135 The Council never approved the amendment. In the end, the ration debt system that Xxxxxxxx proposed was final. The second disagreement concerned the volume of rations provided. Compared t...
