170 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [1847. 



CHAP. Improvements in this direction should be effected, not by 



I large and costly gin houses, like that erected at Coimbatore, 



but by small establishments set up in each Cotton locality. 

 The gins should be of simple construction, and should be pro- 

 vided at the cost of the Government, until the people adopted 

 them ; after which the Government should immediately 

 withdraw. Again, it must be borne in mind that although 

 foreign substitutes for cleaning Cotton are most valuable, 

 yet the Native means of hand-picking, in a country 

 where so many women and children belong to the cul- 

 tivators, will always constitute an essential element in pre- 

 paring Cotton wool for the Indian market. But besides this 

 improved system of culture, and improved means of gather- 

 ing and cleaning the crop, it is essential that the Madras 

 Government should, where there is no water carriage, create 

 good roads from the Cotton districts to the several Ports, in 

 order to give the Cotton of Southern India a chance of 

 competing in Europe with the produce of other countries. 



221 Limits to Government agency: the Manufacturer 

 should purchase direct from the Ryot. The Marquis 

 of Tweeddale expressed his opinion that the Government 

 could effect nothing beyond the three objects already laid 

 down ; viz., an improved system of cultivation, better and 

 cheaper means of preparing the Cotton for the market, and 

 better communications to the marts or Ports. But even 

 these, he considered, would fail to secure the desired end, 

 unless the manufacturer or his agent were placed in imme- 

 diate communication with the cultivator, and purchased 

 direct from him. He drew attention to Mr. Finnie's state- 

 ments already noticed, that inferior and dirty Cotton was 

 the more profitable article to the Native dealer, and even to 

 the European merchant ; and that consequently their inter- 

 ests were not identical with those of the manufacturers or 

 of the Government. The object of the manufacturer was to 

 raise and bring into the market an article of such quality, 



