A MANUAL 
COFFEE PLANTERS. 
First catch your hare—then skin him—is the dic- 
tum of an eminent culinary authority. Sotothe young 
Planter I would say first ‘‘catch” your land—then 
open. Catch is not so expressive a word in our Eng- 
lish as in the native idiom. In our style it implies 
the act of running away. Now the land will not 
run away. Select your land, so and so, is the gen- 
eral advice given by writers on this subject. But 
select is not the proper word. You may select and 
yet not get the land. Some one else may be before, 
or outbid you. Choose it then. No, choose will not 
do either,’ as for the above reason you may choose 
your land and not get it. It may even not be for 
sale after you have chosen. Secure is the _ better 
word. Well, secure and catch to the native idea are 
equally applicable and equally express- ive. Foa ex- 
ample, a native friend once consulted me on the 
subject of a quarrel he had with another man. After 
hearing him state his case, and seeing the difficulties 
surrounding it, I advised him to engage a Proctor. 
Natives do not often require to be advisedto do this. 
They do it intuitively—generally too happy to have 
a case in Court. Well! my friend replied, quite 
pleased, ‘‘then shall I catch a Proctor, Sir?” ‘This 
word is expressive to the native for to secure, to 
engage, to seize. The former of these is however 
our proper term. 
First then SECURE YOouR LAND. This may be done 
in a variety of ways. You may buy it from the 
Crown at public auction. All such sales are held 
periodically, at the Government Agent’s Office, after 
being duly advertised in the Government Gazette and 
other newspapers, and are by auction. The land is 
put up generally at the upset price of £1 per acre, 
and may be knocked down at that if there be no. 
competition. If it be bid up, it may bring—30/, £2, 
£3, £5, or any price to which competing bidders may 
