6o 



States and Ceylon, and you cannot help concluding that 

 the officials in our English departments are saddled with 

 far too much work. One official has very often to take on 

 not only rubber, but coconuts, tea and coffee, and develop 

 the economic, systematic, mycological and entomological 

 sections in every one of them. Java may, to some extent, 

 have followed Ceylon in taking up new products; but 

 the fact that it now retains its sugar, coffee, and cinchona 

 shows that it is better able to improve its cultivations 

 than many other countries. The results obtained with tea 

 and coconuts, as well as with those products just men- 

 tioned, are better than those obtained in Ceylon. This 

 being the case, one is apt to contemplate on the future 

 position of the new industry — rubber — and to question 

 whether, though Java has commenced planting on a large 

 scale after Ceylon, the histories of the other products will 

 or will not be rejjeated. 



Java (?) in Thirteen Days. 



Java is a fairly big island. When I informed my 

 friends that I must see and leave it within thirteen days 

 they pronounced the feat as impossible and absurd. I 

 agree with them. But when your travelling companion 

 has served the island for i6 years, knows where motor 

 cars can be secured", and has friends who only need to be 

 wired to to send down their best horses and traps, the 

 impossible task becomes less formidable. With Mr. Noel 

 Bingley as counsellor and friend, the feat was accom- 

 plished, and to him and the good people who provided for 

 us I now tender my thanks. I left Java with a longing 

 to see more of it, its agriculture, and its people. My 

 impressions are quite distinct, but in order to indicate 

 their value I deem it advisable to give a rough sketch 

 of the parts I visited. I travelled through a part of 

 Batavia, and saw the Botanic Gardens previously referred 

 to. I then proceeded through the Preanger Residency, 

 so well known for its tea, and inspected the properties 

 of the Hevea Rubber, Straits-Java, and Langen Rubber 

 and Coconut Companies; and also Bantaradawa and 

 Bandjarsarie Estates. The next Residency was Ban- 

 joemas, where I saw the young Kalu Minggir plantation. 

 We then made straight for Soerabaja, which formed our 



