1847-48.] ME. FINNTE's FOTJE YEAES IN TINNEVELLY. 129 



Wight explained that the despatch from the Court of 

 Directors ordering the 6000 bales, limited the invest- 

 ment to gin- cleaned Cotton. Subsequently, however, 

 during the discussion as to whether or no the saw gin 

 cut and injured the staple, he, Dr. Wight, had obtained 

 permission to purchase about 500 bales of churkaed 

 Cotton to be sent along with the ginned, in order to 

 enable the spinner to ascertain the relative advantages 

 of the two modes of separating and cleaning. The 

 Directors had approved of this suggestion, but had mo- 

 dified it by ordering that sufficient seed Cotton for a 

 thousand bales should be purchased ; and that 500 

 bales should then be cleaned by the gin and 500 by the 

 churka, and the whole be sent home at the same time. 

 If Mr. Finnie could therefore purchase the seed Cotton 

 for this experiment, and would clean one half with the 

 gin and the other half with the churka, his aid would 

 be of considerable service. 



Dr. Wight's system of purchase compared with 200 

 that of Mr. Finnie. — Dr. "Wight took this opportunity 

 of explaining his own system of purchase, as compared 

 with the organized system darkly alluded to by Mr. 

 Finnie. He had ascertained that carefully picked Cot- 

 ton is never dirtied or mixed with trash in passing 

 through the churka or gin. Accordingly he had sys- 

 tematically rejected every load of ill-picked Cotton, 

 and thus was saved from the necessity, common amongst 

 Native merchants, of mixing the good with inferior 

 qualities. By so doing he was compelled to give from 

 half a rupee to a rupee per candy more than the Native 

 merchants ; but then he secured the pick of the mar- 

 ket ; and in all probability his Cotton would fetch 

 higher prices in England than the generality of Native 

 Cotton. 



Madras Chamber of Commerce confirm Dr. Wight's 201 

 valuation of Mr. Finnie's Cotton. — The opinion ex- 

 pressed by Dr. Wight on Mr. Finnie's sample of Tinne- 

 velly Cotton seems to have been fully endorsed by the 

 Madras Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber found 

 the sample to be very clean and of good Mr uch- 

 colour, but of short staple. Taking the teriony's 



K 



