They have all a strong dislike to settling down to any employment demanding the exercise of much bodily exertion, even when it is well remunerated; and the consequence is, that the extreme difficulty of procuring labour forms the greatest drawback there is to a planter settling in the Philippines, and not unfrequently causes the one or two people who have now got plantations there on a small scale, to suffer the utmost inconvenience in the management of their estates; and this operates to so great an extent, as virtually to prevent any one but a very bold and speculative man investing money in sugar plantations, or otherwise locking it up in agriculture. Government has long been sensible of this, and the present Captain-General has issued an order, containing a permission for persons engaging in plantations to import Chinese labourers, to whom, if actually engaged in tilling the soil, are conceded certain privileges which they have not hitherto enjoyed, being subject to less tribute than what is paid by the rest of their countrymen who are engaged in other avocations.
This decree had been lying ready for years in the desks of the Government officials, no Governor till recently having had the courage to publish an order so greatly in advance of their general policy. As it is, this is one of the greatest steps they have ever taken in the right direction; and I trust it may be attended with the best effects, although some of the restrictions on the China labourers may tell against it; and I fear that the large outlay necessary to import labour from China, while they have a supply, although it is a very uncertain one, at their doors, without incurring the expense and risk of doing so, may hinder the success of the scheme.
There are very few people in the colony who are possessed of the capital necessary to start a plantation on a large scale. And the existing laws prevent or check foreigners doing so, unless they get married to a Spanish or native woman, which, from their general character, few British would like to do; or by abjuring their religion, and getting naturalized, which is a measure equally or more repugnant to the human breast, unless self-interest is the beacon which directs the path, or is the motive for doing so.