COOLIES, or COULIES, originally the name of one of the aboriginal or hill tribes of Hindustan. From the circumstance that many of this tribe are employed as laborers and porters in Bombay and other places, the name is applied by Europeans in Hindu stan to porters in general; and it is now used to denote emigrant laborers from India and China to tropical and other countries. The importation of this useful class of laborers to the 31auritius, West Indies, and British settlements op the mainland of South America, has grown up as a result of negro emancipation—the emancipated slaves showing an indisposition to become regular laborers. Hence the necessity for resorting to imported labor from India or China.
Much difference of opinion prevails as to the propriety of coolie immigration. It is one of those vexed questions on which something can be said on both sides. We would refer to Mr. A. Trollope's West Indies and Spanish Main (1860), for some general observations on the introduction of C. to certain British West India settlements. A later work by Mr. Jenkins, The Coolie. his Rights and Wrongs (1871), though relating exclusively to British' Guiana, is full of most interesting matter. The conclusion at which be arrives regarding the system is thus expressed: "Taking a fair review of the whole system, it is one which, spite of its disabilities, its difficulties, its present evils, is full of promise, and, in my belief, can be made, with care, and skill, and honest endeavor, not only an organization of labor as successful as any hitherto attempted, but one leading to almost colossal benefits" (p. 36'7). Mr. Jenkins further asserts, that "any one who has seen the coolie in British Guiana is forced to admit that be has undergone a change for the better. In illustration of this, we may mention that the number of immigrant depositors in the British Guiana savings-bank on June 13, 1870, was 1817, whose deposits amounted to $138,425, or over $70 a head. The commissioners appointed by her majesty to take evidence on the working of the system at the time Mr. Jenkins went out, state in their
report (pp. 854, 855): "From papers submitted by the immigration agent-general, the commissioners gather, that in 12 ships which sailed with returning Indian immigrants between 15th Nov., 1834, and the 11th Nov., 1869, 2,828 immigrants took away with them money acquired in the colony to the amount of $433,369, or R94,452." The great drawbacks of the system appear to be the reckless mode of recruiting in India; the inse curity, if not the actual worthlessness, in Guiana of contracts drawn up in the former country; the severe penalties attached to breach of contract, and the practical difficul ties, as the law stands at present, In the way of the coolie obtaining a remedy for any injustice inflicted on him. Immigration from China was stopped for all the West Indies in 1867, on account of the Chinese government insisting on a return passage at the end of five years, which the planters find will not pay them for their outlay. The total number of C. at present in British Guiana is about 50,000.
The reports (1872 and 1877) of the governor of Trinidad on the coolie question are satisfactory. In 1870, various laws were passed, all of a just and beneficent character. " Among the most important provisions," says governor Longden, " are those which regulate the allotment of immigrants upon their arrival in the colony, the supply of food to them during the first two years of their residence, their lodging, the medical attend ance and hospitals provided for them, their wages, the exemption of women from labor, the prevention of vagrancy, and the right of repatriation." In proof of this it may be stated, that although the coolie has a right to a free passage back to India at the public expense, after a continuous residence in the island for ten years, in many cases he has preferred to commute this right for a grant of ten acres of crown land, and to settle per manently in the colony. The number of Indian immigrants in 1871 amounted to 27,400. In addition to these must be reckoned 1400 Chinese.