§ Mr. HENRY WALKERasked with reference to the statement in the Report of the Committee on Coolie Immigration as to the existence of a law in Trinidad which limits the amount of wages that may be paid to free and unindentured labourers, if he could state when this statute was first enacted; whether its object was to prevent a rise in wages at a time when labour was scarce; what penalties are imposed upon the employer who pays and the labourer who receives wages in excess of the statutory maximum; and what advantages the labourer is supposed to obtain in return for the restriction of his bargaining power as to the scale of his remuneration?
§ Colonel SEELYMy hon. Friend is misinformed as to the existence of a law in Trinidad limiting the amount of wages that may be paid to unindentured labourers. There are, on the contrary, several provisions, designed to prevent under payment of indentured labourers, which incidentally tend to prevent indentured labour underselling unindentured labour. I am sending my hon. Friend a memorandum explaining fully the provisions of these complicated regulations.