AtrcysT I, 1883,] 



THE TROPICAL AGSICULTURIST, 



S27 



unless they brought the uiouey to plant tropical products 

 and could aft'oi'd to wait years" for luicertain results. 



rernk in Malay means silver, so perhaps silver in quant- 

 ity may have been found here in days gone by, but 

 meanwhile tin mining is the staple product, and very 

 difficult is it to obtain and prepare it for export, as the 

 following description mil show. 



Like all mining operations, the scene of action is ugly 

 and unsightly, though the motto is " Never mind the ap- 

 jiearance and discomfort as long as the dollars are forth- 

 coming," so the Chinese swarm like bees in a hive in the 

 Larut tiu mines, near Thaipeng. 



The flourishing httle city of Thaipeng is in the centre 

 of the Larut tin nvines, and supplies stores to the miners: 

 many of the Chinese storekeepers, having also an interest 

 in the tin mines, keep their miners or r.ather mining coolies 

 together by keeping them in dabt, and, whilst to all ap- 

 pearance paying them very highly for their labour, 

 sijueeze a good profit out of them in the distribution 

 of stores and by giving long credit. 



The Chinese mine owners, however, are getting more 

 liberal-minded fi'om necessity ; they have made the dis- 

 covery that European appliances in machinery of a first- 

 class order work their mines like magic compared to the 

 old jog-trot modtts opei:a)idt. For instance, instead of 

 their oldfashioned wooden waterwheel aud chain pumps, 

 they are substituting large steam engines, the Perak 

 Government allowing them a paid olficial to superWse 

 the working thereof, and right well and disinterestedly 

 does Mr. Givan do his duty by them. 



Ou bis daily rounds, Mr. Givan of the P. W. B. woiild 

 call for me at o'clock in the morning, drive en route to 

 the tin miues called " Kamuntiug" to the north of the 

 townshij) of Thaipeng, dismount from the pony chaise, 

 and weudmg our way through cooly Unes, piggeries, 

 duck-houses and caddies or Chinese shops find oui'selves 

 surrounded on all sides by a series of terraced pits, vary- 

 ing in dimensions from one acre to four or five in ex- 

 tent, and varying in depth of cutting according to the 

 length of time the tin mine had been in working, the 

 cooliejs employed carrying wet earth and sand on their 

 heads aud ou sticks weighted at end with tin washings. 

 There w-as a vast cUtfereuce in the work performed by the 

 coolies in different mines : in some workings they carried only 

 half baskets, in others their baskets well full or nearly so, 

 aud it strikes the casual observer that either Johnny China is 

 loafing or else there must be adiiference in the w-eight of 

 the stuff in the respective tin mines rmder operation. 

 Whichever it may be, there is little doubt that more work 

 might be done than at present, and the tin mine owners 

 must know by compaiisou, that one mine pays better than 

 auotiicr, not because there is more tin taken out of it, but 

 because the crowd of Chinese cooUes are better supertuteuded 

 on one mine than they are on another. Machinery will 

 tj some extent cheapen labour aud hurry up the sleepy- 

 headed-opium-eating-heatbeu Chuiee. 



I accompanied Mr. Ciivan to many of the engine-rooms 

 and saw the water being pumped up from below in fine style, 

 but will not tire your readeis with Chinese names given to 

 their varied arrangements nor intrude on 3'our space with 

 particulars of how the men are paid and what they do with 

 their mouey : suffice it to say that a great number of Chinese 

 coolies are employed in the pits digging and terracing and 

 a great number carrying the rich deposit of tin dust mixed 

 with sand and clay up a notched log and shunting their loads 

 into the place wliere others are employed puddling and 

 washiug the tin; that the engines should be kept working is 

 obvious, for the rains are heav" in Larnt, and with an an- 

 nual rainfall of about 300 inches all mining operations would 

 be brought to a standstill unless the mines are pumped 

 nearly dry, yet should dry weather set in, water is used 

 to drive cut water by the Chinese chain pump aud water- 

 wheel whtrj the owner is not in possession of a steam en- 

 gine and centrifugal pumps, therefore without some cert- 

 ain quantity of water to drive their wheels and chain pumps 

 it woidd be next to impossible to eflicicutly drain their mines 

 constantly producing water by percolation and covering the 

 bottom of the mine where the men want to get at the tiu 

 dust deposit. 



Gwyuue's centrifugal pumps are in use here, and if I re- 

 member correctly Jlr. Givan informed me that uo less than 

 eighteen steam engines arc daily working on the Kamun- 

 tiui mines alone. 



The Chines J miners though giving way to Europeans' ideas 

 of woi ki.g then mines stick religiously to their own yellow- 

 skins as iabom-ers and won't have, " Ranrasamy " for love or 

 money. They said he offended their gods by appear- 

 ing in their mines with only a crupper on ! Kama- 

 samy would do the work as well ami perhaps better 

 than Johrrny Amo, though his dress is redrrced to a nrinim- 

 um: however, Cliinese habits of exolusiveness added to 

 their superstrtion account for this difference of opinion 

 aud it was clever to say the least of it to draw the line at 

 trousers, like the old Colonel of the IStli when he asked 

 Swan to look him up at the mess and enquiries were made 

 as to how he should dress, the jolly old Colonel rephed : 

 " Come as you like, but mirrd you have breeches on, for we 

 draw the line at breeches ! " 



There is no doubt that the heathen Chinee, so engaging 

 in his habits, especially when flocking as they do to our tin 

 mines in thou.sands, must stir up the mud in the water a 

 bit aud the rubbish in the shape of decomposed vegetables, 

 dead dogs, and what not mixed up with worst impurities 

 would tend to breed disease. To grapple with this con- 

 tingency, a dollar per head was charged to maintain the 

 hospitals and large staff of medical men, aud as before 

 mentioned TOO are now indoor patients. Cholera broke 

 out last week, aud JO cases died ont of 72 reported. Small- 

 pox is always hanging about, and a disease resembling 

 your (Vyion elephantiasis called beriberi disables many. 

 Bad water is doubtless the cause of much misery at the 

 tiu mines, but everyone knows where dollars are dug out 

 of the ground in the form of tin or any other mineral 

 there will always be men ready to face the uhl (jentleman 

 himself rather than not try their luck. 



The Chinese, looking remarkably happy, may be seen 

 daily travelling backwards and forwards between the 

 shipping port at Slatang aud the mines, they don't walk, 

 oh dear no ! they ride, bless you. Even the ordinary 

 cooly, when off duty, sports a fine straw hat with ribbons, 

 silk suit of clothes and pair of wooden .shoes, his face 

 beaming with smiles, and a cheroot, a kind of penny pick- 

 wick, in his mouth occasionally — his cares in this world 

 of trouble ascending with the smoke to the wind. 



To return to the subject of the tin urines— we next enter 

 the smelting-housc, and to explaiir to yoir the rrunrber of 

 ingenious contrivances here to be seen prrzzles the brain of 

 your correspondent. The Chinese furnace for smeltiug^ is 

 a cylindrical shaped arrangement about a. man't. height 

 and made of yellow clay with a piston-rod and bellows 

 made of wood. Charcoal is used to get up Ihe required 

 heat, and the tin may be seen flowing out in a bright glitter- 

 ing strearn. It is put up in moulds of 3, certain weight, 

 passed through the Treasm-y, and the duty paid, and 

 Goverument stamp put on each block : then it is free for 

 shipment foi' Peiraug or elsewhere. I could enlarge on this 

 subject but fear to make my letters too long and tira 

 your readers with statistics of dollars and cents, piculs, 

 bharas and kattics, with other Chinese moasuremeuts aud 

 currency in Perak. 



The tin cnteiin-ize has attracted the attention of Aus- 

 tralian miirers, and several are here prospecting the coun- 

 try aud in some cases puttiirg up their machinery to 

 commence operations. Johnny Chinamair has been making 

 his pile, and thinks nothing of producing champagne 

 when Einopeans call to see him. Captain Ah Quee was 

 offered S.)00,000, or a sum equal to £100,000 (one hund- 

 red thousand pounds), to sell out, and refused ! ! 



Most of these wealthy Chinese reirt the gambling fai'm, 

 spirit farm, pawnbroking, opium farm and other pay- 

 ing speculatioirs, aud by strict attention to brrsiuess and 

 honesty in their deaUngs gain the confidence of both 

 natives and Europeans both at homo and abroad. From 

 the writer's first voyage m 1S02 to Shanghai and in 1803 

 to Hongkong down to the present date, nearly twenty-two 

 years, he has always had a favourable ojiiuiou of t'ae 

 Chinese, and individually they appear to like us, though 

 of course always jealous of our getting the eggs out of 

 the nest they may hapjien to find before us. 



Europeans here do theii- best to advise them well in 

 mining matters. Messrs. Scott and Givan, the former In- 

 spector of Mines f.r the Government of I'crak, scttlj 

 theii' daily disputrd about watercorrrses, bourrdarics, building 

 sites, squabbling amongst the working miners, &c., and 

 \\i speaks well for Mr. Scott aud his mauaeemeiit of Chiues 



