The wide range of their duties naturally imposed a severe strain on the Stipendiary Magistrates,

many of whom were incapacitated by old age and sickness. The regular visiting of estates was the
most arduous and most unpleasant part of their work especially as climatic conditions were
unfamiliar and hostile to them. Their duties entailed a great deal of travelling and that, especially in
the mountains with improper roads, could be painful and even fatal. No provision for housing was
made for Stipendiary Magistrates on overnight duty to remote estates.

Conditions of employment were discouraging. For the first year, the salary of Stipendiary Magistrates
was -300 sterling each but their expenses far exceeded this amount. Their financial position
improved from July 1835, when they received a travel and housing allowance of 150 sterling
annually. Even so they had to exercise the strictest economy to make ends meet. If Stipendiary
Magistrates died in service, there was no pension for their dependents. If they were invalided out of
service, or were dismissed, they had to pay their own passage home. There was no sick leave.
These examples of bad working conditions explain why some Stipendiary Magistrates performed
their work unsatisfactorily and why some fell prey to the inducements offered by the planters.
No Stipendiary Magistrate who performed his duties conscientiously could have much leisure for
body or mind. Stipendiary Magistrates had been given specific and important tasks to perform but
they were not put in a position of being able to carry them out fully. One result of their rigorous
conditions of service was that many Stipendiary Magistrates died in office and nearly all suffered
severe illness. Some preferred just to resign.
If Stipendiary Magistrates acquired a reputation as friends of apprentices, such as Norcott and Hill of
Jamaica, or when it was evident that they were not amenable to the wishes of the employers,
hostility towards them, already latent, developed rapidly. They were persecuted and obstructed in the
performance of their duties. The minute attention directed to their activities by such bodies as the
missionaries, the Anti-Slavery Society, the West India Committee, the Colonial Office, Parliament,
and planters and their associates, and the criticisms sometimes offered from all quarters made it
difficult for them to perform their duties properly.