248 THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



receiving flange. This wheel revolves at slow speed 

 inside a casing, into which hot dry smoke is forced from 

 below and drawn away at the top by an exhaust fan. 

 The flange of the wheel is fitted with rills at every 3 or 

 4 feet, and a knife-edged arm works over the surface 

 to keep the latex spread at uniform thickness. The 

 invention has been tested in Europe, and declared to be 

 efficient so far as the working model is concerned, and 

 a full-sized machine was ordered to be in actual use in 

 1913. It was to be installed on the Sennah Company's 

 estates, and a thoroughly practical trial made of its 

 capabilities, but up to the present nothing definite as 

 to results has been made public. 



The majority of the labourers on the Sumatra rubber 

 plantations are natives of Java. They are recruited 

 through agents at a cost, at present, of not less than 

 1 20 guilders per coolie, 15 guilders only of this sum 

 being recoverable from the wages paid. Both men and 

 women are indentured for a term of three years, and 

 at the end of the contract they are entitled to a free 

 passage to their homes. Government inspectors visit 

 the estates from time to time, to see that the regulations 

 in regard to housing and general treatment are carried 

 out by the employers. 



The hours of work are nine hours per day, beginning 

 about 6.30 a.m., and with an interval of two hours at 

 noon. Work is compulsory on six days in the week, 

 and optional on the seventh. On a large number of the 

 estates the bulk of the work is by task which can be 

 finished by an industrious coolie by 2 p.m., and he then 

 has the remainder of the day to himself. This system 

 of tasks extends to all branches of ordinary labour on 



