CHAPTER XXXIX 



BUNGALOWS, COOLIE-LINES AND FACTORIES 



jyUNGALOWS. The manager's bungalow ought, prefer- 

 -D ably, to be in a central situation and always in close vicinity 

 to the factory. The advantage of this is obvious. No manager 

 worthy of the name would entirely delegate the work of manu- 

 facturing the rubber in the factory to any assistant, no matter 

 how capable the assistant might be. It is a great matter, then, 

 to have the factory close to the bungalow, as, on the way out in 

 the morning to have a round of the estates, a short call can be 

 conveniently made, and on return it is easy to look in for a 

 moment and to see that everything is going on well. The 

 factory is also a central situation for having the roll-call in the 

 mornings, and from that point of view, again, it is well to have 

 it near the manager's bungalow. 



The bungalow should be well built in a permanent fashion 

 with cement flooring below, even when it is elevated from the 

 ground, and a cement drain should run round it outside. The 

 posts, if of timber, should be mounted on cement pillars to pre- 

 vent rotting and to some extent to lessen the danger of 

 attacks by white ants. Generally it is better to have all the 

 skeleton of the edifice of iron or steel, as it is very difficult, in- 

 deed, otherwise to prevent white ants from bringing down the 

 building sooner or later. 



Mosquito-proof rooms are almost an absolute necessity in 

 certain districts, otherwise, after hours, at certain times of the 

 year, the bed is the only place of refuge from incessant and 

 annoying attacks and accounts and reports are apt to fall 

 behind. 



There should be at least a couple of spare bedrooms in every 

 manager's bungalow, a good sitting-room, and a verandah where 

 the manager can enjoy the cool of the evening after a hard day's 



287 



