250 THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



contract service, they prove much more expensive than 

 the Javanese. 



Free Chinese labourers are also employed on the 

 plantations. For these the usual wage is from 50 to 60 

 cents per diem, but in some cases as much as a 

 guilder a day is paid when their services are urgently 

 needed. 



The Malay population in Sumatra rarely work as day 

 labourers on the estates, although occasionally they take 

 contracts for felling and clearing forest lands. 



At present there is no scarcity of labour on the east 

 coast of Sumatra so far as the principal rubber and 

 tobacco districts are concerned, but the demand will 

 increase greatly as tapping becomes more general. 



The only skilled work required from estate coolies is 

 for tapping and factory work, and any fairly intelligent 

 labourer becomes proficient at both in a very short time 

 under careful supervision. On many estates in Sumatra 

 quite as good tapping is done by Javanese as any ac- 

 complished in Malaya by Indians or Chinese, and the 

 same remark applies to the work in the factories. 



Throughout the east coast of Sumatra the health 

 conditions are exceptionally good. There is, compara- 

 tively speaking, very little malarial fever or dysentery, 

 and the parade of coolies for the daily muster seldom 

 shows a greater proportion than 2 to 3 per cent, 

 on the sick list. Sanitary regulations are enforced 

 by the Dutch Colonial Government, and properly- 

 equipped hospitals are maintained for all estates. The 

 large plantations each have their hospital and resident 

 doctor ; the smaller estates, when possible, combine to 

 establish a central hospital for the use of three or four 



