52 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, 1882, 



caae delivered ou the river banks. Lots of varieties 

 are planted. Plaulers expect to cut 30 tous of cane 

 per acre on an average. They may do this for a few 

 years, say ihrc' to five, but, I very much doui t if 

 tliey will k'ep it up without manuring. 1 enclose 

 sonic metton lexical returns. 1 am ke.-jiing a return 

 of the rauifall &c , here, but, as ii. is only nine months 

 since I coiiimeuced, I cannot send you complete re- 

 turns till later on. 



Labouk. — Our supply is causing anxiety to the 

 planters. Owing to the stiict Government regulations 

 a very few, if any, vessels are ofl'ering to go recruiting 

 this season, and everyone seems to be afraid of their 

 labour force fallins; exceedingly short, as a lot of mfii 

 are being paid ofl witliout a chance of their being 

 made up again. Some of the planters are trying to 

 get men through their agents, one of whom has been 

 to the cohmies to try und chai ter vessels. Of course, 

 it is impossible to say what the cost will be in the latter 

 case, but it may be taken for granted, I think, it will 

 not be less than £1G per head, the cost estimated by 

 Government some months ago. Does it not s- em ab- 

 surd that we should have to go to the New Hebrides 

 and Solomon Islands for labourers costing £10i and 

 more per head, and even to Calcutta for coolies for 

 whom we shall have to pay £22 or more, when we 

 have a native population here of upwards of 100,000? 

 and I suppose 10,000 is more than the number of 

 laborers required at piresenl by all the planters ! ( ne 

 would naturally think that, in a new colony where 

 there are but a few planters, and which has a popul- 

 ation like this one, labour would bi- exceedingly plenti- 

 ful and cheap ; but such is not the case : the price of 

 labour is steadily increasing annually, and there is no 

 saying where it will stop. When I hrst came out 

 nearly 4 years ago, Polynesians cost £9 per head to 

 introduce ; now the estimate is £16, for which sum it 

 is doubtful whether we shall get them. The wages 

 of the men have not risen — £3 each for able-bodied 

 people — but I expect they soon will. 



FiJlANS. — The few that work, or are allowed freely 

 to engage, get more than they used to, and the cost of 

 recruiting has increased in proportion, say 20 to 25 per 

 cent more than four years ago. Coolies get Is per work- 

 ing day, and the planters have to pay introduction 

 expenses estimated at £22 per head. This sum must 

 be guaranteed when you send in your application for 

 men, and must be paid up when they are allotted. 

 Formerly we did not guarantee, and £15 was the sum 

 fixed by the ordinance to be paid in 5 annual in- 

 stalments, but, owing to the home Government not 

 sauctioniug a loan, a new s.isteni has been inaugur- 

 ated. The coolies are causing a lot of trouble wherever 

 they hapi>cn to be. The great thing they object 

 to ia tai^k-work, saying no mention was made 

 about it when they were recruited, and that on their 

 agreement it is stated that for 9 hours' work Ihey 

 are to get Is. iMy coolies have struck work and re- 

 fuse to go to any task-work whatever, although in 

 our ordinance of course task is mentioned. The con- 

 sequence has been that all of iliem have been tent 

 to gaol. About 35 were liberated the other day, but 

 still refused and were again imprisoned. The men 

 seem determined ou their point, and how the ques- 

 tion is to be finally settled remains to be seen. They 

 do not miud imprisonment at all ; so all say. As a 

 lot more coolies are shortlj' expected, the sooner this 

 question is setiled the better. If it is not (hially 

 settled, before the new lot arrives, the example set 

 by these will be so bad that we may fully expect 

 all those arriving to follow suit and strike against 

 task-work. Hindustani coolies are difficult fellows 

 to manage, and I would m.t recommend anyone who 

 is not up to their ways to engage them. They are 

 not nearly so tractable as Polyueaians. The great 

 objection to the coolies ia that they are so fearfully 



litigious, wliicli does not payout here, where you are 

 fined for the least assault or infringement of any of 

 the numerous labour ordinances. If you smack a cooly 

 on the clieek, he will lun down to the magistrate and 

 lay a complaint as sure as fate, and then you may 

 mike up .\our mind to pay from IDs upwards, ac- 

 c 'iding to the severity of the assault or number 

 of convictions against you previously I he .-Agent- 

 General of Immigration has the power of removing all 

 your labour, if you have hue" convicted more than three 

 times. It makes it very difficult to manage a large 

 body of men, when trivial a-saults are made to niucii 

 of and the labourer sees his master fined and cauti- 

 oned. Personally I am much against strikiu).' any 

 labourer, but still there are ccoasions, when a man is 

 insolent, extremely lazy, cScc , when it. is absolutely 

 n-cessary for example's sake to give him two or three 

 cuts with a small stick or cane. When occasions 

 like these occur, a certain amount of discretion ought 

 to be allowed to the magistrate to act apart from 

 the ordinance. For instance, a planter is summoned, 

 we will say, lor his first assault by one of his men, 

 who has been very insolent, and who was punished for 

 his insolence by having three or four cuts across his 

 rhoulders with a cane. Under the above circumstances, 

 I maintain that a caution to both would have the 

 desired effect, without punishing the superintendent 

 by fining him and allowing his labourer to go back, 

 crowing over what he has succeeded in doing and 

 setting a bad example to all the others. One may 

 say on the other side: "True, but why take the law 

 into yonr own hands, when you know you could get 

 the man punished by imprisonment for insolence?" 

 This is doubtless correct, but -still the effect would 

 not be nearly so good as a few cuts administered 

 promptly, when the man was first insolent, letting 

 alone the bad feeling created by taking your labourer 

 to court. 



My scrawl has reached a greater length than I 

 in'euded. Sol shall conclude now by wishing Ceylon 

 better crops than last year. — Yours truly, 



A. J. S. 



CINCHONA ANALYSES. 



16th May 1S82 

 Sir, — Permit me to suggest through your columns 

 that advertizers of seed from "parent" trees should 

 be a little more liberal in their information. It 

 certainly seems very essential that, when the analysis 

 lias been derived from one selected tree, and, 

 perhaps, from nncwid shavings from that tree, 

 such information should be in the advertisement, or 

 what are intending purchasers to think ? If nothing 

 is said about age of trees, renewed bark, or renewed 

 (Hrst, second or third) shavings, one cannot but believe 

 that the analysis given refers to orir/imdhnrk I What 

 we want therefore is more ivformution oa these very 

 essential points. I am afraid purchasers of seed are 

 too often misled by ONE-SIDED STATEMENTS. 



INDIA TEA IN COMPETITION WITH CHINA 



AND CEYLON TEA IN THE BAZAARS IN 



LIEU OF THE EXTINCT COFFEE. 



Dear Sir, — The following quotation frcun an article 

 in the Westmmster Jievieio on "the Fair Trade movement" 

 may be of interest to your readers. The revievser, 

 noticing that part of the Fair Trade piogiamme which 

 pioposes that tea from India op ether parts of our 

 empire should be imported free, a duty of one penny 

 per lb. being continued ou Chinese and other foreign 

 teas, continues: — "Hitherto the tea planters of India 

 have liad to face the competition on ecjual terms of 

 the old established tea-growers of China, and they 

 have been forced to do all in their power to improv 



