72 Coffee Planting. 



able to retain in his service those coolies whom he 

 has actually secured, often by means of heavy money 

 advances, the coolies having a tendency to abscond 

 or to change from estate to estate on very trivial 

 pretexts. It is much to be regretted that the Madras 

 Government has not yet endeavoured to provide 

 against these difficulties by drawing up a suitable 

 Labour Ordinance, similar in its provisions to that 

 which has been found to work so advantageously 

 in Ceylon. At present the coolies are perfectly 

 free in law to come and go as they please, not being 

 required to give any notice before leaving, unless, 

 indeed, they should have signed a written agree- 

 ment, which is seldom the case, as they usually 

 object to doing so. By the Ceylon Ordinance, on 

 the other hand, a day's labour is held, in the absence 

 of a declared understanding to the contrary, to con- 

 stitute an agreement for a month ; a month's notice 

 being always given and required before coolies leave 

 an estate. With this rule, which no one ever dreams 

 of complaining of or regarding as an injustice to the 

 coolies themselves, the planter's interests are pro- 

 tected from mere native caprice, and he can calcu- 

 late beforehand to some extent what labour he will 

 have available at a particular season, as it is most 

 important he should be able to do. 



The Canarese, or Mysore, coolies come into the 

 Wynaad usually between April and July, in gangs, 



