October 



1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



329 



CEYLON AS A DEP6T FOR SUPPLY OF 



PLANTING SUPERINTENDENTS AND 



LABOURERS: 



Sinhalese Emioeating to Queensland. 



Ceylon has long been acknowledged to be in the 

 forefront of British Dependencies and tropical lands 

 generally in the intelligence and euterprize brought to 

 bear on her planting industries. Her numerous plant- 

 ations have, dui-ing the past score of years, afforded a 

 practical training to a much larger number of a would- 

 be planters than can, alas ! in the present time of 

 depression, find profitable employment — or employment 

 of any kind — within her bounds. The central position 

 of the island and the attention drawn by local planting 

 publications to its several industries, as well we may 

 fairh say, as the fame of the Ceylon Observer, have 

 done much to bring the Ceylon planter and estate labourer 

 into public notice all over the world. It must be re- 

 membered that during the years of prosperity — 1873-8 — 

 before any one had anticipated suoh a collapse of cofiee 

 crops as is experienced in the present season, we were 

 urging in these columns with all the energy at our 

 command, the importance of cultivating new products, 

 more particularly cinchona and tea, and catering for the 

 needful mformation from every authority and in every 

 land with which we could hold communication. During 

 that period, the Ohserrer had a Special Correspondent 

 — the late Mr. Criiwell — travelling in Brazil and Central 

 America ; another visiting the tea districts of Assam ; 

 another examining Liberian coffee in its native habitat 

 on the West Coast of Africa ; while the experience 

 of yet another planter was laid under contribution in 

 reference to cocoa in Trinidad ; and the NUgii-is, Dar- 

 jiling and British Sikhim districts were personally visited 

 with reference to cinchona and tea cultivation. It is 

 no wonder, therefore, if Ceylon planters who have 

 lieen so well served and, who have had the opportunity 

 of watching and sharing in an immense variety of ex- 

 periments in the cultivation of new products, shoidd be 

 regarded as, on the ^vhole, at the top of their pro- 

 fession, and should, therefore, be iu request as pioneers 

 and instructors in other settlements where the cultivation 

 of tropical products is engaging attention. This island 

 has supplied Southern India with a certain number of 

 trained planters from time to time : Wynaad, Coorg and 

 the Nilgii'is cofiee districts owe their beginning to Ceylon 

 men. The Travancore planting settlement was an ofi- 

 shoot from this Colony, and more lately North Peermaad 

 has been occupied in the same way. Natal and Jamaica 

 have attracted a few Ceylon planters ; Fiji has largely 

 availed itself of experience from the same quarter ; Johore 

 and Perak are taking a ;;'oodly number of om- planters, 

 as well as Sarawak and North Borneo ; while, simul- 

 taneously. Northern Australia and North-East Queens- 

 land are coming into notice and are likely to avail 

 themselves not only of superintendents Imt of labourers 

 from Ceylon. Already a consiuerable nmnber of TamU 

 coolies have been transfeiTed from this island to labour 

 on Johore plantations, and although fault was found at 

 the time with a movement which seemed to be a breach 

 of the agi-eeraent between the local and Iniiian Govern- 

 ments ; yet we are not clear that if any Ceylon-bom 



coolies — of whom there is now a considerable population 



are selected for emigi'ants, any infraction of the law will 

 take place. 



But it is not the emigration to other tropical lauds of 

 Tamil coolies — whether born in Ceylon or India — that 

 we have to notice today, but the approaching departure 

 of as many as 100 Sinhalese (carpenters and agricultui-al 

 laboiurers) on an engagement with a Sugar-estate pro- 

 42 



prietor in Northern Queensland, an engagement which 

 we have no doubt is the one refen-ed to in the following 

 article fiom tlie Quecnslaiidcr—au extract of special 

 interest in itself, to the people of Ceylon : — 



"The cooly question has assumed a new phase. It 

 would appear Irom the letti-r of our Maryborough 

 correspond--iit, publislie<l in another column, "that Mr. 

 Nott, of Bundaberg, has resolved to cut the Gordian 

 knot anil himsell import 100 Sinhalese labourers under 

 engagement for five years, at a salary of £20 per 

 annum, including, it mav be presumed, rations and 

 accommoilatiuu. This, by comparison with the rates 

 paid to Polynesians and coolies, is very hiuh, but possibly 

 these people being in a sense skilled labourers are 

 deemed to be of moi'e value than eitlier Polynesians or 

 coolies in tlieir primitive condition. The population of 

 Ceylon in 187S was 2,608,930, of whom 14,000 or 15,000 

 were British nnd other whites of European descent, 

 about 1,750,000 Sinhale-e, and the remainder Tamils, 

 Arabs, and Malays. " The Sinhalese iuhabiting the 

 coasts are a raild. timid race, obsequious to strangers, 

 and hospitable and humane. Their stature is rather 

 below the middle size : their limbs slender but well 

 shaped, eyes dark, finely-cut features, hair long, smooth, 

 and black, turned up ami fixed with a tortoiBeshell 

 comb on the top of the head. The Sinhalese of tlie 

 interior, or Kandyau Sinhalese, are a superior race, 

 being handsomer, and of more manly and independent 

 bearing, with a greater deijree of mteliigenco." The 

 foregoing is from Diackk's Enrydopcedia, published 

 last year. From other authories we learn that the 

 Sinhalese, with a tew exceptions, are Buddhists, by 

 which faith " the taking of life is strictly forbidden, 

 and falsehood, intemperance, dislionesty, anger, pride 

 and covetousness are denounced as incompatible with 

 religion, which enjoins the practice of chastity, grat- 

 itude, contentment, moderation, forgiveness of injuries, 

 patience, and cheerfulness " These labourers have prob- 

 ably been engaged in the cultivation of tobacco, cinuamou, 

 coffee, cinchona, Ac. and will no doubt be found very 

 useful in the early eff'orts of our planters to r.iise 

 tropical products. But the introduction of th>-se 

 people is likely to involve social difficulties nevertheless. 

 They are British subjects, and in making engagements 

 for service in Queensland will apparently not he in 

 any way interfered with by a paternal Govei imeut. 

 Under our Masters and Servants Act, the fivf years' 

 engagfinents with these lubotirers will be valid in 

 Queensland, and the law will treat them in all respects 

 as it treats European labourers. Yet these people will 

 enjoy no political rights, and will be an alien race 

 brouJit into close intercourse with British colonists. 

 Should the planters persist in introducing Sinhalese, 

 speedy legislation will be imperative, even if the Go- 

 veiument shoulddetermine to abandon or find themselves 

 unable to legalise cooly immigration. It seems probable 

 that if prohibitory legislation is not demanded by the 

 constituencies, some restrictions at least will be im- 

 posed upon the introduction of these people, and em- 

 ployers will be required to pay for the privilege they 

 enjoy. As the Sinhalese are British subjects, our 

 Legislature caunot put a poll-tax on them, especially 

 those who come into the colony not under engagement. 

 But with engaged labourers the conditions are different, 

 and the Leaislature will be expected to lay down 

 very specific rules under which their introduction may 

 be permitted. " 



It -nill be obsei-ved that the Queensland journalist 

 considers £'20 a year, imhidiny rations and accommod- 

 ation, ''very high"! AMiat mth cost of lines, medical 

 attendance, A'c, Tamil coolies on Ceylon estates cost 

 nearly as much as this, at least in normal seasons when 

 there is a fair proportion of coft'ee crop to pick and 

 prepare. If Mr. Nott is to get Sinhalese artificers at 

 the rate mentioned, he certauily need not complain of 

 it being too high, and yet we suppose out of the £20, 



