CHAPTER V 

 THE LABOUR-SUPPLY 



No relief suggested by Federal or State Government Recruit- 

 ing of labourers Engagement and transport of labourers 

 Relations between master and man Housing accommodation- 

 Allotment of work Percentage of labour force employed as col- 

 lectorsRates of wages Supervision of work Women and 

 children Discipline on rubber estates The truck system 

 Methods of payment Effects of truck system Truck system in 

 Bolivia and Peru Food- supplies. 



r I ^HE labour-supply is one of the most important 

 JL questions confronting the rubber producers of the 

 Amazon Valley at the present time. No practical 

 solution has been offered by the Federal or State 

 Governments to afford relief to the industry in the 

 direction of a more plentiful provision of hands at a 

 wage rate proportionate to the severe decline in rubber 

 values throughout the markets of Europe and America. 

 The suggestions put forward from time to time for the 

 encouragement of immigration from Portugal, Italy, and 

 Spain, meet with little support, for the climatic and 

 sanitary conditions of the Amazon Valley are not con- 

 ducive to the employment of full-blooded white men in 

 field and forest. The proposal to introduce Chinese 

 coolies was rejected on the grounds of the initial 

 expense connected with recruiting and transport, a fear 

 that the control of any large number of Orientals would 

 prove to be a difficult matter, and, finally, on account 



51 



