118 COTTON IN THE HABEAS PRESIDENCY. [2ND. SEASON. 



CHAP, however involved the relative merits of cattle labour and 

 IV * manual labour, and therefore may be first discussed. 



167 Purchase of Cattle Driving Machinery sanctioned: 

 relative cost of cattle labour and manual labour. 



Dr. wight's Mr. Finnie's proposal for the purchase of the Cattle 



letter, lith 



NOV. 1846. Driving Machinery, was strongly supported by Dr. Wight, 

 tU 338 (1857) an d accordingly sanctioned by the Madras Government. 



There was some discussion about the locality, but finally 

 Mr. Fin- the village of Sevacausey was chosen in the district of Tin- 

 sist ocY. nevelly, as being the centre of an extensive Cotton growing 

 ijeturu country, and also as containing many establishments for se- 

 Finnie'? 11 " P ara ^ing the Cotton staple from the seed with the Madras 

 Dec?' 1846! churka. As regarded cattle labour and manual labour, Dr. 

 lldp ' 317 ' Wight had already tried both methods in Coimbatore. For 



the first three seasons he had worked his gins by hand la- 



Dr.Wight's J 



Nov 184? hour, the coolies contracting to gin so many maunds of seed 



t ? uTn' (1857) Cotton for a certain sum. Subsequently he had employed 



p> 338 ' cattle labour, and then he had discovered that cattle labour 



in ginning was more expensive than coolie labour. But still 



Dr. Wight strongly urged that the experiment should be 



tried, as coolies might be dearer in Tinnevelly than they 



had proved to be in Coimbatore. 



168 Change in Mr. Finnie's views as regards the Cat- 

 tle Driving Machinery. By this time Mr. Finnie'smind 

 had undergone an apparently unaccountable change. The 

 proposal for purchasing the driving machinery had been made 

 in October 1846. In November it had been forwarded to 

 Government with the recommendation of Dr. Wight ; and 



Mr. Fin- on the 2nd January 1847, the purchase had received the ne- 

 ilS lo ja".' cessary sanction. On the 1 3th January, Mr. Finnie acknow- 

 ttetu'm dr ' ledgedthe receipt of the authority to purchase, but'stated that 

 350. P> be had changed his mind as to the expediency of employ- 

 ing cattle labour, and was considering whether by lessening 

 the friction of the gins, they could not be driven best by ma- 



