49 



CHAPTER IV. 



PURCHASE. 



HAVING attained some idea of the kind of land 

 required to grow Coffee, and the usual methods 

 by which labour for its cultivation is obtained, there 

 come the questions as to purchase of land, taxes, 

 surveying, accessibility (i.e., roads, communications, 

 outlets), house sites, &c., &c. 



Of acquiring land there are, of course, many 

 ways. The simplest is the permission of a native 

 Raja, or Chief, and the subsequent selecting of such 

 a slice of woodland as may suit means and ideas. 

 The next simplest is when a local government gives 

 the same permission with the proviso that the land 

 selected shall be surveyed and the cost thereof 

 borne by the planter ; a few conditions being, per- 

 haps, added as to roads to be opened, and rent to be 

 paid at a future date. Either of these is, no doubt, 

 the pleasantest way of becoming a landed proprietor 

 known. Unfortunately, both are practically things 

 of the past, at least as far as India is concerned. 

 Now-a-days land must almost everywhere be rented 

 or bought, and native sovereigns are becoming 

 very wideawake to the value of freeholds in good 

 districts. 



