20 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



rain ; others followed in their wake, but not 

 always with the same advantage to the invest- 

 ing public. It was the Ceylon men, helped 

 perhaps by their fellow-planters in India, that 

 gave the boon its reputable, creditable side. 

 Another main reason may be owing to the fact 

 that she is placed directly upon the highway of 

 the greatest ocean route that from the Far 

 East to Europe and, up to the time of writing, 

 to America as well. The Panama Canal may 

 make a lot of difference, as it should cause 

 the West India Islands to become favoured 

 centres in an equally striking manner. Person- 

 ally, we sincerely hope it will, but meanwhile 

 Ceylon remains the favourite. 



Take Java, for contrast. Here we have 

 probably the most-favoured-by- Nature centre 

 on earth, and at the same time one of the 

 largest, if not the largest, islands in the Tropics. 

 She has over 30 millions of teeming, diligent, 

 and thrifty natives ; yet, because she lies away 

 off the main route, up to now she has not 

 Deceived an equal share of attention. It is 

 true that the Hollanders have done wonders 

 with the marvellous material placed in their 

 hands, but they must yield the palm to the 

 " spicy isle" for general recognition from the 

 world at large. 



The Ceylon planter deserves his fame ; the 

 men who went through the coffee plague of the 

 eighties with spirits undaunted were not the 

 ones to give up in despair and go elsewhere. 



