September i, 1S85.] tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



^57 



as owing to the competition the last three or four 

 years his wages have been greatly increased, and he 

 certainly would expect to get as much as the cooly 

 receives. This, planters would not object to pay, if 

 they could get the men and have an ordinance 

 enabling them to get a fair day's work for a fair 

 day's pay, or to be able to get the men duly 

 punished in default. The present ordinance is 

 no good. If the man likes to work, he does so ; 

 if not, he can pretty well do what he likes, and 

 it is so difficult to get him punished under the 

 present law, and, even when he is punished, the pun- 

 ishment is of such a slight nature, that planters 

 won't go to the trouble of taking theni to court. In 

 the country jails the hard labour ia a jierfeet force: the 

 prisoners have no task to do every day that I am 

 aware of, and I have often seen them idling away 

 their time, emokiog and talking and, an outsider would 

 certainly not look upon them as prisoners. It is now 

 no punishment to any man being in the country pris- 

 ons, and it won't be until strict discipline is enforced 

 and he has to do a hard day's work. I have actually 

 known cooly prisoners receive food and tobacco from 

 their wives and leave the jail to ccme up 4 miles dis- 

 tance, to sleep with their wives and leave early so 

 as to get back to their quarters, without being found 

 out. This state of things is wretched. Coolies have 

 often told me they would rather be in jail even with- 

 out pay, than work on the plantation. This would 

 not be, if the jail discipline was as it should be. 

 Malingering amongst coolies is a serious evil and will 

 continue to be so as long as they can pay a paltry 

 fine of Is to 3s without being imprisoned. It 

 is not worth a planter's while to be constantly 

 taking malingerers to court, especially should it be, as 

 is usually the case, a long way cff. He may make 

 a determined stand at tirst and take some of the men 

 down and get them fined most probably Is each for 

 the first complaint. .Shortly afterwards he takes the 

 fame people clown agam and get them fined, say 2s. 

 If the new men are a lazy lot, this will only have a 

 slight efiect ; in a few days' time they will commence 

 shamming again, jou don't like to be done, so take 

 the men down a third time and say they get the max- 

 imum tine inflicted if convicted, viz , 3s. After this, 

 your patience gets worn out, the game is not worth 

 the candle, if you have to travel far. In my 

 opinion the cooly ought not to have the option of 

 paying a tine after the second conviction. If he knew 

 he would suffer imprisonment fr third and subsequent 

 ofifencea of a similar nature and it he really found prison 

 life irksome and the work as it should be hard, it 

 would act aa a deterrent. Enough .about labour. 1 

 am sick of the subject as it 's tuch an unsatisfactory 

 one. I may as well mention, though, before conclud- 

 ing that the wages of Polsnesians have been raised, 

 lustead of receiving £3 a year as before, the men 

 niiw have to get £3 for Itt year, i.'t 2nd, and 

 £r) for 3rd year. Youths and boys in proportion. 

 Men who have worked in (,luecnsland or Fiji previously 

 get it) per year. Of course all clothing, food, to- 

 bacco, &c., are given to the men in addition to wagts. 

 Return pasage money has also been raised. 



Cofie I look upon as a failure. I do not know 

 of any estate, except one, which is giving enough 

 crop this year to pay woiking expenses — this, too, 

 in spite of a favouiable blossoming seasen last year. 

 The price is now so low that you require a large crop 

 to make the estate pay when your lalmur is dear. I 

 know of six estates that have bsen aliandoned since I 

 last wrote to you. The owners of the others would, 

 I am iure, be only too glad to sell even at a heavy 

 sacrifice. Lenfditease vi-its us annually in a pretty 

 teverc form, and traces can be seen all the year round. 

 The export of Arabian ccitlee from Fiji has never 

 been much and for some years to como won't be 



worth calculatirg. It is not at all likely that 

 new comers will embark in the enterprize, at 

 any rate for some time to come. The few 

 patches of Liberian coffee I have seen, look 

 lie.%lthy and are bearing well, but it is too soon to 

 judge whether the speculation will prove a remuner- 

 ative one. rhe fine curing establishment which Mr. A. 

 R. Wilson erectetl in Taviuni has very little work to do, 

 — it 's a great pity, as Mr. Wilson went to great expense 

 and trouble and has completed the work in a most 

 substantial and workmanlike manner. I doubt it he 

 will have any ccfi'ee to cure this year except his own. 

 This, of course, will never p.ay. His estate is the ex 

 ception as regards bearing which I have already re- 

 ferred to. The coffee has a decent, but not by any 

 means what I should call a heavy crop. 



Tea. — As I told you in my l.ist we have embarked 

 in this product and I have now about 200 acres 

 planted up and wish to get in 100 more before 

 the end of the year. The ages of the different fields 

 vary from 4 year old plants to some just planted out. 

 The major portion of the 200 acres has only lately 

 been planted, and we have only about 30 to 40 

 acres off which we pluck. Owing to want of seed 

 and plants we have not been able to plant up our 

 land so rapidly as we wished to. The growth of the 

 plants is rapid, and the oldest tea seems to flush 

 well. I am a tyro in tea planting, and so am unable 

 to tell you myself whether the trees are doing so 

 well aa they should do, but two Indian planters 

 who have been here, thoroughly looking over the 

 place, were so satisfied with the appearance and growth 

 of the trees, that they have bought land and are 

 planting it up. This looks well, and I sincerely trust 

 that tea will yet do something for us. It is much 

 appreciated by the local public, and as yet we 

 have not been obliged to export any. I have a Ko. 1 

 Davidson's .'^irocoo at work which does well, and a 

 Thompson's Challenge Roller fur hand or other power 

 — I am not fatisHed with its work: it does not 

 twist the leaf to my satisfaction and takes too long 

 over its work. The maker, strange to say, never for- 

 warded any instructions either how to erect or work 

 the machine, and, although he was written to months 

 ago for the rtquisite particulars, none have as yet 

 reached us. In the meantime I have tried the 

 machine with different charges, leaf withered in teveral 

 ways &c., but without the outturn in woik I calcul- 

 ' ated on. This may all be remedied on receipt of the 

 instructions. Strange to say, Davidson also never 

 sent instructions till a long time after we had received 

 and erected the Sirocco. Surely makers of tea machin- 

 j cry would find it to their interest to forward 

 ' pamphlets full of instuctions by post either before, 

 I or at the sunie time as, they dispatch the machines 

 ordered!* I will write further about tea when I 

 have gained more experience : at present I cannot do 

 \ so with confidence. 



] Cardamoms. — At the end of February 1884 I 

 } planted up a patch under partial shade of original 

 i jungle. The bulbs were grovin from seed procured 

 Irom Ci-ylou, and when planted out were nearly or 

 quite a year old. The plants were so tall that I had 

 to lop them all. They were plinted out !) x 9 ft. 

 The growth eiuce then has been most satisfactory. 

 The stools, if I may so term them, are in some cases 

 over ?4 ft' '" diameter, and on the 13th February 

 this ytar I noticed for the first time some were 

 llowering— a few days ago I picked some fruit, only 

 a small quantity. If the plants go on as they have 

 dune, I slall certainly expect a decent crop next 

 year. They cover all the ground already. The cultiv- 

 ation promises so wdl that I have been induced to 



♦ So one would think ; but our correspondent is by no 

 means singular in his experiences.— Ed. 



