THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July 2, 1883. 



suitability of the Territory for the growth of cinchona, 

 a tropical product than which probably none more 

 profitable obtains. The price of the bark varies from 

 ■Js to 15s per lb., according to the percentage fo 

 quinine — at its lowest calculation, two shillings, 1,600 

 lb. per acre will give a bi-yearly return of £160 au 

 acre. Think of this ye wheat-growtrs on the im- 

 poverished lands of your sunny 8outh. The produce 

 of a forty-acre clearing w.-is sold by public auction 

 in London, and realized £11,000. Outside the nur- 

 sery is a clearing of about tun acres, which is under 

 a fair crop of maize. It must not be thought from 

 this that the Manager has any intention of growing 

 maize for market, as he considers that the ground 

 can be much more profitably employed. The crop 

 is merely grawu for home consumption, and Mr. 

 Poett intends yearly growing a few acres to save the 

 Company the great outlay which would othei-wise be 

 incurred ii^ feeding the horse stock. A small patch 

 of peanut, which perhaps, is the best fodder-plant 

 grown in the Territory, will also be cultivated for the 

 same purpcse. 



Tropical fruits, also, do as well here as m any 

 other parts of the Northern Territory, and oranges, 

 limes— in fad, all members of the cittus family-sour- 

 sop, mangoes, bananas, jack, etc., are flourishing 

 splendidly. The whole of the ground at present 

 cleared is well-fenced, and another fence of post and 

 four wires is being erected. 



The most serious difficulty in connection with coffee 

 and cinchona growing is undoubtedly that which exists 

 in the employment of suitable labour. This plantation, 

 when in full swing, will require fully 300 labourers. Let 

 it be remembered that that numiier must be employed, or 

 theground return to its original state of unproductiveness. 

 White men in the territory are paid £2 jjer week and 

 cooked rations. It will be plainly seen thattheir employ- 

 nieatis out of the question. No cinchona, coffee, or other 

 estate of 500 acres could afford a weekly outlay of 

 :^700, even if the supply of labourers could be ob- 

 tained. And equally as impossible to meet would be 

 the lesser expense of 300 Cidnese at £1 per week, ex- 

 clusive of r.ations. Lalour of the cheapest is required 

 and must be obtained if tliis impoi taut industry is to 

 flourish. Are the resources of the country to be con- 

 tinually ruined by the clap-trap cry of — Aiistralia 

 for the whites ? This will be the case assuredly if inter, 

 ferente is offered to employers in getting tuitable labour- 

 ers at a suitable figure. This they can do easily by incur- 

 ring the expense of bringing coolies from the coffee and 

 cinchona countries. 300 lVIalab;ir coolies can be engaged 

 at Is. a day, which is an acivauce of 4d. on the sum they 

 receive in Ceylon, and it is to this description of labour 

 that Mr. I'oett looks for the development of this 

 industry. The Malabar coolies would be brought to 

 the country under engagement for a term of years. 

 They would live together on the plantation for which 

 they w-ere hired, speaking their own language, and 

 workin" only at the work for which they were 

 engagec?, after which their passages would be paid 

 back to their own country. They would know nothing 

 of other work, and even if they did the law could 

 step iu to prevent employers of labour for other pur- 

 poses than plantation work from importing them to 

 compete with thr whitep. The case lies in a nutshell. 

 With them a great industry is inl;roduced and fostered, 

 which will add an immense amount of wealth to the 

 country : without them that industry cannot exist, 

 and the land will again lie waste, or at most feed a 

 few sheep or cattle. Mr. Poett condemns Chinese as 



a fraud meu who, beyond putting in the time 



necessary to ensure the w<agcs, Jo nothing for them, 

 and have not, and show that they have not, the 

 sli'ditest interest in common witli their employers. 

 Kv'en if they were good woikmcn they cannot be relied 

 on to remain on the place, and are as likely as not 



to desert en masse whenever their inclinations or 

 interests prompt them. 



I close this lent;thy report of Poett's plantation 

 with a few remarks on the grand field au industry, of 

 which it is the pioneer in Australia, opens up to young 

 Australians with energy and limited capital. Hund- 

 reds of young meu have availed themselves of this 

 magnificent field for investment, both iu Ceylon 

 and India, with profit to themselves and benefit to the 

 couut:-ies in which they have invested them. There is 

 no reason, in a grand country like ours, that the only 

 outlet for the energies of young Australians should be 

 the growth of meat and wool ; and should, as they 

 must do if no obstacles are thrown in their way, coffee 

 and cinchona growing, prove profitable, there is a 

 great field open for them on the vast plantations 

 which will doubtless before another decade be opened 

 iu the hitherto despised Northern Territory of South 

 Australia. — Adelaide Observer. 



PROGRESS IN BRAZIL. 



In Brazil, as in other tropical countries, the two 

 great difficulties with which planting enterprizes have 

 to contend have been labour and transport, and the 

 Imperial Government has of late years earnestly striven 

 to remove— or, at any rate, to mitigate —them both, 

 though not, it must be confessed, with equal success, 

 It is now generally admitted that the rapid develop- 

 ment of the splendid resources of the country is in 

 a great measure due to the enlightened policy of 

 opening up the interior by means of railw.ays con- 

 structed chiefly by British capital, interest on which 

 at 6 or 7 per ceiit, has been guaranteed by the Go- 

 vernment for thirty years. The routes of these trunk 

 lines have been so well selected, and the traffic upon 

 them is growing so fast, that in a very few years it 

 is evident the net earnings will be sufficient to pay 

 handsome dividends to the shareholders without reck- 

 oning on the state subventions. During last week the 

 Minas Central Railway Company was brought out here, 

 subscriptions being invited for 15,625 preference shares 

 of .£20. each bearing 7 per cent preference dividend, 

 and there is no doubt that the capital will be forth- 

 coming, as the shares of other Brazilian railways, 

 sinularly guaranteed, all stand at a high premium. 

 The line will be 138 miles in length, and the con- 

 tract for it has been taken at the exceptionally low 

 rate of £8,600 per mile, owing to the easy gradients 

 .and the absence of engineering difficulties. The pro- 

 vince of Minas Geraes whicli it will traverse is ones 

 of the prmcipal coffee-growing districts, and it is also 

 s.aid to be one of the most fertile in the whole em- 

 pire. This line will bring it into direct railway com- 

 munication with both Rio and Santos. The Govern- 

 ment subsidy amounts to £60,500 per annum, and 

 only a little more than a third of this is needed to 

 provide 7 per cent on the shares now offered. 



As regards labour, the Government has made several 

 not very successful attempts to attract it from Europe 

 and elsewhere, but it is now going to try a new 

 field. A correspondent informs us that arrangements 

 have been made between Brazil and China for the 

 introduction into the former country of 20,000 Chinese 

 indentured labourers. It is estimated that they can 

 be landed at Pio for a little more than £2 per head, 

 and it appears they are to receive wages at the rate 

 of scventeen-pence per diem, and to provide their 

 own food. They will therefore cost less than negi-o 

 slave labour, upon which the Brazilians have hitherto 

 relied. Our correspondent states that no guarantees 

 are given for the fair treatment of the Chinese. In 

 the interior of Brazil there is a total absence of any 

 judicial machinery for the protection of the labouring 

 class, and the Chinese possess no diplomatic or con- 

 sular authority to secure redress for their grievances. 

 It is said tliat the labourers are not to have pass- 



