F— ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 135 



Colonel Gill's Report emphasises the fine work done by the planters. 

 Both in South India and Ceylon the hospital facilities on the estates are 

 of a high order ; for the planters have to maintain a continual fight not 

 only against malaria but also against the hook-worm, which enters through 

 the bare feet of the workers when they tread on infected matter. During 

 the epidemic the planters took charge of their own people and also of 

 adjacent villages. Dr. Gill concludes that in certain rural areas, and more 

 especially on estates, the prevention of malaria epidemics is a practicable 

 proposition. He ventures the opinion that another major epidemic is 

 unlikely within the next five years, and meanwhile he submits a pro- 

 gramme of preparation and co-ordination of effort. It is useless, for 

 example, for the planters to clear their estates if the neighbouring village 

 land continues to breed the mosquito. 



A final thought emerging from this crisis concerns the relation between 

 plantation agriculture and village agriculture. Too often the hope of 

 village agriculture is thought to lie in the export market when there is 

 a better one at home. The plantations by their great demand for supplies 

 offer a considerable local market. Secondly, though the workers on them 

 have hitherto been immigrants, it is by no means certain that they will 

 always be, especially as the standard of living on the estates rises. It 

 may be expected, therefore, that there will not be the disinclination 

 which there has been in the past on the part of the native Sinhalese to 

 work as daily paid ' coolies ' under a regimen which to him was servitude. 

 In the old days the housing on the estates was not what it is to-day. Now 

 in addition to excellent medical facilities and (in a few cases) to excellent 

 co-operative stores, the housing itself of the labourers has been greatly 

 improved. Thus the new lines which I saw on the estate of the English 

 and Scottish Co-operative at Westhall, Kotmale district, Ceylon, are 

 Government-standard huts made of cement, with concrete walls, iron 

 frames, and verandas 6 ft. wide with a low wall in front, inside which the 

 family can rest and play when it is too hot or too wet to be outside, while 

 some yards away in the rear, and apart, are tidy latrines, also made of 

 cement. Each room has its own chimney and fireplace, three or four 

 inhabitants to the room. It must be remembered that the climate is 

 such that much of the day throughout the year can be spent out of 

 doors, while the nights are often so hot that many prefer to sleep in 

 the veranda. 



8. Tea Control. 



It is customary to use the leading cash crop of a country as the source 

 from which funds are derived for purposes common to the growers con- 

 cerned ; and in addition the Government may add in this way to general 

 revenue. In the Canadian wheat pools expenses were met by deductions 

 from growers' receipts, and at any pool meeting or general agricultural 

 conference it was frequent to hear suggestions that this or that desirable 

 purpose could be thus financed. The planters of Ceylon have their 

 Planters' Association, to which the members subscribe on an acreage 

 basis. But the tea planters in addition pay a number of export taxes or 



