AND THE MALAY STATES 21 



tapping on the plantations of the white men. Of course, once they have 

 the rubber, it is impossible to prove title to it. 



In chatting with Director Willis, it was easy to see that he was 

 enormously interested in the success of the Hevea experiments in Ceylon, 

 and, indeed, in the whole of the East, and that he was doing much to 

 further them. That the whole of the tropical world in the East was fully 

 alive to the opportunity that rubber offers, he acknowledged. The 

 botanic gardens at Peradeniya, and the plantations as well, are constantly 

 receiving visitors from Java, Sumatra, French Indo-China, Siam, and 

 similar countries, who are investigating the subject, and often trying to 

 contract for seed on the spot. 



As the oldest planting of Hevea rubber in the island is at Henerat- 

 goda gardens, which is one of the government gardens, under the direct 

 charge of Mr. Willis, he thought that ray plan to go there first was a 

 good one, and at once gave me a letter to the contractor in charge, Mr. 

 William Perira. 



On the following morning, therefore, I had coffee at 4.30, and took 

 a 'rickshaw" to the railway station, and ere long was speeding along 

 the seacoast toward my destination. The rising sun disclosed long 

 stretches of swamp and jungle, stretches of sandy shore crowded with 

 cocoanut palms, native villages just awakening, fishing villages where 

 the whole population was engaged, in pulling nets that had been filling 

 up all night, and in time we reached the railway station at Heneratgoda. 

 Here as I could get neither gharri nor rickshaw, I was obliged to charter 

 a bullock "hackery." 



