April i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



757 



they told the new chums that they were fools to work 

 for 15s a week. Often I take new chum ploughmen on 

 here, hiring him in town at 20s. a week. "Well, new chum 

 ploughmen are not very good, they do not understand the 

 country or the way we have here, and consequently it 

 takes them really a year or two to get into the way of 

 doing work in the colony; but they are no longer here than 

 two or three weeks than they ask for more wages, put 

 up to it by the others, and of course we have to discharge 

 them. A new chum labourer is of very little use until 

 he has been here about from 15 to 18 months." 



I have been in India and on a coffee plantation, and 

 I am thoroughly convinced that if we got the proper class 

 of coolies from India— that is to say, the agricultural 

 class — they would do nearly as well as the kanakas, and 

 I do not ask for anything more. I prefer the kanakas 

 all round, but still I would be satisfied to have coolies. 

 I do not think there would be any probability of coolie 

 labour entering into competition with white labour. We 

 would get the agricultural class, and their traditions from 

 time immemorial has been to keep to one trade, namely", 

 that of an agriculturist. In India a man is a carpenter 

 all his life, and his children after him are carpenters, and 

 so on in every kind of trade. Harm has been done by 

 bringing to the colony a number of Sinhalese, who were 

 simply loafers about town, and were of all trades and 

 professions. These men have certainly done a great deal 

 of harm, because they have tried to compete against white 

 men. Hut these are not the men we want at all. "We 

 wish to have Tamils, and also ( 'anarese from Mysore, but 

 especially the latter. The kanaka boys make excellent 

 horse-drivers. They take great care of the horses and 

 become very fond of them. It is considered a promotion 

 for a boy to be given the care of a horse. My orders on 

 the plantation are that no one shall touch a boy. Should 

 a boy misbehave himself he is reported to me, and I deal 

 with the matter. I have dismissed men for disobeying 

 this order. 



The Marion Mill is distant about 18 miles from Mackay. 

 It is the property of the Mackay Sugar Company, and is 

 the only mill worked on the purely central system in the 

 district. The manager of the mill is Mr. A. R. Mackenzie, 

 who is in enthusiastic sugar man; indeed, his whole 

 existence appears to be merged in the determination to 

 turn out the best "first white" in the district. The Marion 

 estate, consisting of about 2,000 acres, was purchased by 

 the present proprietary from Mr. John "Walker, of Home- 

 bush, and the purchasers then proceeded to cut it up into 

 farms of from 60 acres in extent upwards, and these farms 

 were sold at the rate of £6 per acre; £1 per acre was 

 paid cash down, and instalments of £2 14s. per acre, bearing 

 interest at 8 per cent were payable at each of the two 

 crushings after the first one, these sums being deducted 

 from the cane money. The principal condition of purchase 

 in these cases was that the purchasers should supply the 

 mill with cane for seven years, the price at present given j 

 being 10s. per ton for cane as it stands in the field, the 

 millowners doing the cutting and carting, or 13s. per ton 

 if the farmers deliver the cane at the crusher. In cutting 

 the estate into farms two reserves were left, one for the 

 mill site and another of 460 acres, in order to supply the 

 mill with cane should that ever be found necessary beyond 

 the farmers' supply. This area has, however, since been 

 leased on eight years' tenure at a nominal rental, the 

 mill agreeing to crush the cane grown on it up to certain 

 quantities, and, if possible, the whole of it. 



In the course of conversation with Mr. Mackenzie, he 

 remarked: — I have found kanaka labour very satisfactory 

 so far; the boys are docile, obedient, contented, and thoroughly 

 reliable. We never have any trouble with them, and very 

 little sickness among them. We have only lost one boy— and 

 that was by consumption — since we started, and that death 

 was in the hospital. I do not think that white labour 

 could at present prices be possibly substituted for kanaka 

 labour. If black labour were taken from us the mill would 

 have to be shut up. Kanakas make invaluable horse-drivers. 

 They never ill-use the horses, but become attached to them. 

 I have known a boy to cry because his horse was taken 

 from him to be given to someone else. Of course there 

 is a white man in charge of the stables. I really do not 

 think that white men would do the work, or if they could, 

 we could not atford, at the present price of sugar, to 



pay them what they would require. There is not one of 

 the farmers attached to the estate today who could do 

 without black labour. Coolie labour would do us. I have 

 been seven years among coolies in India. The agricultural 

 coolie in India is very different from the few Sinhalese 

 who were imported to Mackay, and who proved a great 

 failure. In Ceylon there are a number of coffee plant- 

 ations, and they are worked entirely by Indian coolies, and 

 never by Sinhalese. The word 'coolie' means wages, and 

 a coolie is a wages man. I believe they would do very 

 well here, though I do not say they would be better than 

 the kanakas. I do not believe the coolie would enter into 

 competition outside of the cane-field with the white man. 

 In India trades are all regulated by castes. If a man be 

 born of the carpenter caste he will never become an 

 agriculturist, or rice versa. He could not do so. In the first 

 place, his own prejudice would prevent him, and in the 

 second his fellow workmen would stop him. Beside this, 

 the work done by the Indian carpenters and artisans is 

 of such a rough description that the Englishman would 

 have nothing to fear from it. In the 'Indian Coolie Act' 

 it could easily be arranged that "nly agriculturists would 

 be eligible, artisans could be made ineligible, as coal-miners 

 are under the Queensland "White Immigration Act. The 

 cost of a kanaka for the time be is in Queensland would 

 be about £26 in cash to get him, then £18 in wages for 

 the three years, and beside these, rations and clothing, 

 housing, &c. and then there is always certain proportion 

 of sick ones, whose wages have to be paid the whole time 

 of their sickness, and these, together with those who die 

 and those who are inferior labourers, would make it a 

 considerably large sum per head. If the kanaka trade 

 were abolished, the white man certainly would not benefit 

 by it, because a vast number who are now employed 

 consequent on kanaka labour being available, would be 

 thrown out of employment. No wages are paid on this 

 estate to white men under 25s. per week, and some receive 

 as much as £2 10s. and £3 per week, with rations and 

 housing in all cases. — Sydney Mail. 



AGRICULTURE IN COORG, SOUTHERN INDIA. 



(Report on the Administration of Coory, for the t/ear lSSJ-SJ.) 

 From the Report we quote as follows: — 

 Agriculture: — The extent ofland under food grains remained 

 stationary. 73,021 acres are shown as cultivated with rice, 

 and 1,433 acres with dry crops or 6 acres less than in 

 the previous year. The most important industry in the 

 Province is that of coffee planting. There are altogether 

 218 coffee estates owned by Europeans and 4,428 by Natives, 

 comprising a total area of 74.074 acres. The area of the 

 land held by the former is 38.213 acres on an assessment 

 of R69,398, and by the latter 35,861 acres on an assessment 

 of R65,8!>2. Much coffee is also grown on the banes 

 (uplands attached to rice fields), the extent of which is 

 roughly estimated at 13,000 acres. The average size of 

 each coffee plantation held by Europeans is 185 acres and 

 by Natives 8 acres. The number .'of persons resident on 

 European coffee estates and large Native estates is 26,893, 

 according to the last census, which was taken on the 17th 

 February 1881, but this number is augmented by about 

 20,000 during the picking season which closes in January. 

 Of the whole area of land under coffee cultivation 41,600 

 acres are said to be in full bearing. Owing to the heavy 

 crop picked, the outturn, estimated at 2 cwt. the acre 

 on Native and 4 cwt. on European estates, came to about 

 5,109 tons, being nearly 'double the yield of the previous 

 year. Taking the average cost of cultivation at I! 100 per 

 acre on European estates and R40 on Native, each cwt. 

 of coffee costs on an average R23 to produce. The cost 

 of cultivation at the rates per acre assumed above comes 

 to nearly 29 lakhs of rupees. Of this not less than 60 

 per cent may be estimated as having been paid to laborers 

 as wages. The value of coffee produced, taking the selling 

 price to be on the average R25 per cwt. on the spot, 

 came to R25,54,500. It would have been R5.10.900 more 

 had the prices of previous years been maintained. 



Labor. — For the first time for several years past, the 

 planters experienced great difficulty in procuring a sufficiency 

 of labor for plantation work. The Mysore coolies were 

 late in coining in, and, when the batches did arrive, the] 

 were less than half the number for whom advances had 



