THE COST OF A COCONUT ESTATE 55 



Rubber Co. paid 40,000 for the mere option to 

 purchase an estate of some 10,000 acres for the 

 sum of 400,000. 



The labour conditions are equally divergent. 

 Thus, in the Congo it is available on a large scale 

 for 2|d. per day ; in German East Africa the rate 

 is from 6d. to 8d. ; in Malaya it is at least Is. ; 

 in the Pacific Islands and East Africa it seldom 

 exceeds 6d. ; but in Malabar, Ceylon, Papua, and 

 the West Indies it varies from Is. to Is. 3d. per day. 

 According to one authority, a great deal of this 

 labour is based upon contract, the prices working 

 out approximately as follows for each thousand 

 nuts : Picking, Is. 8d. ; husking, 2s. 6d. ; split- 

 ting for copra-making, 2s. ; copra-making (sun- 

 drying in four days' sun), 9s., which brings the total 

 cost of gathering and converting into copra 4,000 

 nuts, representing one ton of copra, to about 

 3 Is. Cutting, bagging and carriage aggregate 

 another 1 per ton, making a gross total of about 4. 

 This, however, may be considered a very conserva- 

 tive estimate, the average cost working out at 

 about half this figure. 



Then there is the question of the manager and 

 his salary. The man who is sufficiently experienced 

 and gifted to act as administrator and planter on 

 a large coconut estate is comparatively rare. He 

 must be able to control the staff, white and native, 

 keep the accounts, prepare the reports and statistics 



