184647.] MR. FINNIE'S FOUR YEARS IN TINNEVELLY. 117 



and committed the work to some of their numerous depend- CHAP. 



IV 

 ents ; and the latter were ever ready to peculate, by charg- , 



ing heavy expenses to the working of the new machine, and 

 appropriating the surplus over the actual expenditure to 

 their private uses. Consequently, the profits whether large 

 or small were all absorbed. Mr. Finnic however had found 

 that a class of men, known as Cotton Brokers, were settled 

 in all the large towns in the best Cotton districts ; and that 

 it was the business of these men to purchase seed Cotton, 

 to separate the seed from the wool, and then to sell both 

 seed and wool separately. These men of course looked after 

 their own affairs, inasmuch as their profits were derived 

 from their own transactions. Accordingly, Mr. Finnie con- 

 sidered that the Brokers ought to be induced to adopt the 

 gin as the best mode of separating the fibre from the seed ; 

 and that therefore it would be necessary to convince them 

 of its advantages by experiments conducted on the most 

 economical scale. 



Mr. Finnie 's proposals for erecting a Gin House 166 

 and Cattle Driving Machinery in Tinnevelly. 



Meantime, that is in October 1846, Mr. Finnie had-formed 

 the design of erecting a Gin house and Driving Machinery Mr Fin , 

 in Tinnevelly, for the purpose of working his gins by Cattle 2ist sD oS.' 

 instead of by manual labour. In a word, he desired to set Return ar 

 up in Tinnevelly an establishment similar to that of Dr. 339 

 Wight in Coimbatore. He accordingly made the follow- 

 ing proposals. 1st. To erect a cheap house, in which either 

 the gin or the thresher might be worked as circumstances 

 required ; and which would give such a permanence to the 

 business, as would engage the confidence of the Natives 

 around. 2nd. To purchase a set of new driving machinery 

 which was for sale at Jaffna in Ceylon at the price of 

 <> 155. Both these two propositions subsequently under- 

 went some extraordinary transformations. The second 



