( 2 4 I ) 



Sir Hugh Low also took a great deal of interest in intro- 

 ducing high class cattle, chiefly Jerseys and Alderneys, and NelL n i 

 cattle from India, which were kept at Kuala Kangsa and on the 

 Taiping Hills, w here the descendants of these cattle still remain 

 to this day. 



Men like Sir HUGH Low are, alas, rare. Possessed of a 

 charming personality and an enthusiasm for the development 

 of agriculture in the Peninsula at a time when the importance 

 of this was not appreciated by others he laid the foundation 

 of this great work, and though much of his work was undone or 

 abandoned under later regimes, he will always remain as the 

 pioneer of agriculture in the Malay States. — Ed. 



RUBBER IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. 



Mr. W. D. BoSANT^tJET's letter to the "Ceylon Weekly Times" 

 concerning the superiority of the Malay Peninsula as a planting 

 ground for rubber over Ceylon, has caused a storm of indignation 

 on the part of the various correspondents of the Ceylon paper-. 



Most of the correspondence thus elicited adds nothing to our 

 knowledge of any advantages possessed by Ceylon over the 

 Peninsula. One correspondent points out that Ceylon has a 

 great advantage in possessing a gold standard and fixity qi 

 exchange, which the Malay Peninsula has not. It is, however, 

 quite conceivable that this advantage may also be possessed by 

 the Peninsula at no distant date. 



Another correspondent writes, under the signature of 

 "Agricola," stating that he has been to the Malay Peninsula, and 

 is most anxious to deter people from going there to plant rubber. 

 On account of the intense heat and deadly climate, whole villages 

 are wiped out by the deadly malaria, and even the Tamil dies. 

 The climate is as bad as West Africa, and so on. This is 

 certainly news to those who have lived and worked healthfully 

 and comfortably in the Malay Peninsula, and have never found 

 out how dangerous a country it is. However, any would-be 

 settlers here w ho are scared at " Agricola's " appalling account 

 can be reassured by the latest report of the United Planters" 

 Association in which it is proved conclusively that "The death 

 rate on our estates is only 19 per mille against the general death 

 rate of the Indian population of 32.87 per mille; that the birth- 

 rate of planters' free coolies is 24 per mille against the death rate 

 of 19, and that after the first six months in this country the 

 improvement in physique of the coolies is very marked." 



This hardly bears out " Agricola's " statements, and w e have 

 no hesitation in seating that such a false description of the 

 healthiness of the country should never have been published, and 

 still less have been reprinted in a local Singapore paper as it has 

 been. 



