November i, 1882,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



37* 



this colony are anxious to secure. These alterations, 

 I have no doubt, will be acceptable, as I observe, 

 in looking through the correspondence on the subject 

 of coolie emigration, that it is the desire of your 

 Government that coolie immigrants should, if possible, 

 be confined to fiild labour. 



"You will note that a slight addition has also been 

 made to the form of contract, whereby the immigrant 

 binds himself, before leaving India, not to work for 

 any emiiloycr in the colony other than one engaged 

 in tropical or eemi-tropical agriculiure. 



" With regard to the appointment of a special officer 

 with Indian experience and a knowledge of the Indian 

 \ languages, as Chief Protector in Queensland, I have to 

 r inform you that the Government will have no objec- 

 tion to the appointment, provided his salary be not niade 

 a charge upon the public funds of this colony. There 

 > is, however, no necessity for the appointment of 

 » auch an officer by the Indian Gevernment, as our 

 Immigration agent, who is also chief inspector of 



• Pacific Islanders, has a well-organized staff, con^isling 

 ^ of officers residing in the several districts of the 



colony charged with the duty of carrying out the 



• . provisions of the Pacific Island Labourers Act, whose 



work would be available for the performance of the 

 • usually undertaken by the Chief Protector." 

 ' . Since then — or on July '26th — a meeting, largely at- 

 tended, of the citizens of Brisbane, has been held with 

 the Mayor presiding, at which the following resol- 

 utions were carried : — 



That this meeting views with alarm the proposal to 

 introduce coolie labour into Queensland, being firmly 

 convinced that such a course must entail the most 

 serious consequences to the European working class of 

 the colony. 



That this meeting emphatically protests against the 

 industrial classes of Queensland being brought into 

 competition with semi-civilized and underpaid coloured 

 labour, and is determined to maintain this colony as a 

 home for the European races. 



That this meeting urges the establishment of branches 

 of the Anti-Coolie League in every town in the colony, 

 so as to unite the people for the purpose of averting the 

 threatened danger. 



That a petition to the Legislative Assembly bo pre- 

 pared in support of the bill f.ir the repeal of the Coolie 

 Act, iind signed by the chairman of this meeting on 

 its behalf, and that the senior member for the city 

 be requested to i resent the same. 



After this, Mr. Ciriffith, the leader of the Opposition 

 in Parliament^, tried to steal a march on the Slinistry, 

 by moving for the repeal of a Cooly Act passed .some 

 years before. The matter is thus referred to editori- 

 ally by the Queenslander : — 



Without going so far as to say that Parliament can- 

 not restrict the importation of coolies unless by virtue 

 of an agreement with the Indian Government for their 

 introduction, we agree — nor do we think that Mr. 

 Griffith will deny — that legislation of some kind is 

 imperative. There is nothing to prevent employers at 

 present from introducing coolies in the manner sug- 

 gested by Mr. Macrossan, and the agreements made 

 with them in Ceylon would unquestionably be valid- 

 ated by the Masters and Servants Act in this colony. 

 There can be no question that if we desire to restrict 

 coolie immigration, or even to entirely forbid it in 

 the form of hired labourers, we can do so by legislation 

 in the colony, apart altogether from the regulations of 

 the Indian Government. On the whole the better course 

 will probably be to amend the present Act in the 

 manner proposed by the Government — that is, as a 

 tentative measure to enact that .any regulations that 

 may be adopted shall require validation by resol- 

 utions passed by both House of Parliament. This bill 

 may be passed by common consent in an hour, and 

 will provide for present exigencies. If when the regul- 



ations come before Parliament they are deemed im- 

 politic they can be rejected, and such further legis- 

 lation be carried out as the circumstances of the case 

 appear to require. 



Altogether it seems to us that there will be no peace 

 in Queensland over this Labour Question, until the 

 colony is divided into two : the northern and tropical 

 portion being founded as a Crown Dependency, in 

 which the fact will be recognized that Europeans must 

 supply the capital and do the supervising, but not 

 the field- woi-k. For the latter "native" labourers 

 ^whether Kanakas, Indian coolies, Chinese or Sinha- 

 lese — must be employed or farewell to the success 

 of sugar, cofi'ee, cocoa and other plantations in the 

 promising settlements of Northern Queensland. 



PLANTING IN THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO. 



The Jaea Bode of the 31st July contains a report 

 laid at Amsterdam before the shareholders of the 

 Company formed to turn the island of Batchian 

 to commercial account, in which it is stated that the 

 Company's operations will be chiefly directed to trad- 

 ing, until sufficient coolies have been engaged from 

 Java and elsewhere to promote extensive cultivation, 

 which is intended to be the principal business con- 

 ducted. Coffee and nutmeg planting will be first 

 taken in hand. Cocoa growing will only be under- 

 taken when that plant shall be found n"t liable to a 

 disease which attacks it in many places. In the 

 meantime, the preliminary operations will also com. 

 prise the collection of dammar and other jungle 

 produce. Turning the sago forests to account awaits 

 better rueans of transport. During the short time 

 the Company has had an establishment at Batchian, 

 that island was visited by a British coaster, besides 

 other vessels. 



PLANTERS AND THEIR AGENTS. 



(From the Madras Mail, Sept. 12th.) 



"Dry Cherry ' writes: — "The natural exoitemene 

 attending the prosecution of the gold industry in the 

 Wynaad is, I fear, hurtfully drawing away from the 

 study of their own interest the attention of thojf 

 entirely dependent for their future on the success of 

 coffee and cinchona cultivation. I am myself nought 

 but a baby-planter of a few years' experience, but 

 that experience has be n long enough and close enough 

 to convince me that it is not the seasous which have 

 been or are the plunters' sole enemy, but those gentle- 

 men yclept agents, who certainly look after No. 1. 

 As a text for further observation, I will detail my past 

 season's experience. I sent down to my agents 4,800 

 bushels of cleimed coffee, almost entirely consisting of 

 parchment. The out-turn on theaverage was lUO bushels 

 to the ton, that in the case of dry cherry reaching in one 

 instance to the unprecedented number of 187 bushels. 

 Let my readers connote the foregoing with the fol- 

 lowing facts : (1). I had taken every precaution to 

 thoroughly dry my coffee, — the best samples I weighed 

 here strangely enough are bulk for bulk a trifle 

 lighter than the coffee after it was cleaned and put 

 on board shin ; (2). I took one lot which had been 

 all picked from the same field, pulped at the same 

 time, and dried for the saiiie period ; I divided this 

 into three consignments, and sent it to the agents 

 under three marks, and the out-turns varied from 

 9S'5 to 122 bushels to the ton ; (3). The large quantity 

 I sent down was delivered to the agent exactly to the 

 number of bushels I had measured it here on the estate. 

 Putting these facts together, it will not require much men- 

 tal exertion, either deductive or inductive, to conclude 

 that my 4,800 bushels never entered the agent's yard in 

 their fulness, and that the receipt I hold to say they 

 did, is but one of those happy literary figments that 



