PRODUCTIVE RESOURCES OF CEYLON. 117 



crushing null and tile hydraulic press ; yet it was beyond question that to 

 manufacture a given quantity of oil, a sufficient number of bullocks and 

 checkoos could be purchased at one-fifth of the price that would have to 

 fee paid for setting up the European mill. In the matter of working 

 expenses, the native manufacturer could save twenty per cent., and his oil 

 realise the same price in the English market. In the seasons when it was 

 expedient to stop the manufacture, the mill-owner was at the same ex- 

 pense, except in the item of fuel, as in the busy time ; for he must keep 

 his staff of skilled lalwurers in pay, for once dispersed they could not be 

 obtained again when wanted. The native competitor placed in the same 

 circumstances would lose nothing. He would put a covering over the 

 checkoo to protect it from the weather, turn the bullocks into the field to 

 plough, or yoke thera to a cart, and either dismiss the driver or find other 

 occupation for him. This was a somewhat ungracious topic to dwell upon, 

 but the truth must be told, that in certain departments of industrial effort, 

 we could not compete with advantage against the despised natives, working 

 with imperfect tools, and considered to be in every way beneath us. 



But underneath the story of those laudable but fruitless efforts, a 

 great lesson was hidden, that large manufactures could only exist when 

 they were in gear with the state of things by which they were surrounded. 

 Our laws, our arts, our literature — nay, even our religion must suffer a 

 change, in being adapted to the wants of strange nations. All that could 

 hope to live must grow, and become racy of the soiL The only excep- 

 tions were the railway, and to a limited extent the steamboat, and steam 

 machinery for agricultural purposes. The first was complete in itself ; and 

 once made, it asked no aid from native brains or native resources. Wood 

 and water were to be found everywhere ; and having these, the engine 

 went on its way and did with certainty its appointed work. 



The Lecturer then discussed the subject of fibrous plants, with which 

 the country abounded He exhibited specimens of the Plantain, the 

 Sanseviera, the Aloe, and the Pine Apple, and said that no one who handled 

 those beautiful products, and reflected that they grew wild everywhere, 

 could wonder that immense sums of money had been spent in endeavour- 

 ing to perfect machinery for extracting them. The man who could devise 

 a simple method of drawing out fibres would not merely make his own 

 fortune, but confer an inestimable benefit on his country, by relieving the 

 perpetual strain on the cotton market. But there were as yet no signs of 

 such a desirable result. The last experiment was that of the Messrs 

 Sturge, who spent 10,000.?. on a machine which was no improvement upon 

 all previous efforts, in a pecuniary sense. Fixed machinery, requiring 

 steam power to drive it, could scarcely pay under any circumstances, 

 owing to the fact that the average weight of fibre in textile plants was 

 only four per cent. To make a ton, it was necessary to cut down, cart, 

 and pass through the mills, no less than twenty-five tons ; so that it would 

 require an immense breadth of land to furnish material, and a large 

 establishment of carts and labourers to work it up. Hand-labour was out 

 of the question in fibre-making, for a man could not make, at the outside, 



