Native Ownership and Husbandry 21 



They turned their minds and energies to other 

 things, and made a success because they 

 brought system and intelligence to bear on 

 their undertakings. Theirs is an example that 

 could well be held up to, and followed by, 

 many a weak-kneed bread-winner at home as 

 well as in the Tropics. On the other hand, 

 the bulk of the native population of Ceylon 

 has always been a sore trial to the men who 

 have attempted to make something of them, 

 as they have done of the island. Indolent, 

 flighty and treacherous, hard, honest work with 

 the majority of them seems to be anathema. 

 Possibly this majority own a small patrimony 

 just sufficient to keep them from want, but it 

 can be no more than barely sufficing ; yet 

 although there are over seven millions of such 

 "lotus eaters" in the island, the bulk of the 

 labour to work the plantations has to be 

 brought from outside, and it is lucky for the 

 white planters that they have the teeming 

 and willing multitudes of the adjacent Madras 

 Presidency to draw upon. But the query is 

 will this supply last ? What will happen when 

 these thousands of Indian coolie labourers are 

 needed in their own land is too gloomy to 

 dwell upon, from the Ceylon planter's point of 

 view. One can only hope that they will never 

 be faced with such a dilemma ; but when the 

 fatal day arrives if it ever does no doubt 

 they will be quite equal to overcoming it. 



