THE NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES 279 



for growing Para rubber is situated as a rule in un- 

 healthy districts and inaccessible localities, where food- 

 supplies and other necessaries are expensive and not 

 easy to obtain. 



The rate of wages paid to coolies varies in every dis- 

 trict, and often even on adjoining estates in the same 

 district. On some tea estates in 1912, the daily pay- 

 ment was 17 cents for men and 15 cents for women, 

 while children of twelve to fourteen years of age earned 

 8 to 10 cents a day. A small present was given at the 

 end of the month if the output of leaf was particularly 

 good, but the average payments to men were only at 

 the rate of 5 guilders per month, and to women and 

 children in like proportion. These coolies were resi- 

 dent on the plantations, and appeared perfectly satisfied 

 with the conditions. At a rubber estate only a few 

 miles distant the men were receiving 40 and the women 

 30 cents per day, but the labour force was dissatisfied 

 and constantly changing. The average daily wage paid 

 on rubber plantations throughout Java may be taken 

 as 40 cents for men, 30 for women, and 15 cents for 

 children for ordinary work; and 45 cents to men and 

 35 cents to women daily as tappers. There is not any 

 marked indication of an immediate alteration in these 

 wage conditions, for it happens nearly always that 

 when an estate succeeds in obtaining labour for a lower 

 rate of pay, some neighbouring planter who is short of 

 hands offers an additional money inducement and the 

 coolies go to him. There is no cohesion among planters 

 to check this state of affairs. 



The working hours are nominally from 6 a.m. to 

 4 p.m. with one hour of rest at noon. As a rule, how-. 



