152 



It was necessary to think now of an alternative, if Tamil labour 

 proved inadequate. The Chinese were not ideal coolies, but neither 

 was the Tamil. The latter was of poor physique, and lived under 

 unhealthy conditions. He could not be induced to stay in the 

 country, the average stay being about two years. If the average 

 were three years, there would be a fifty per cent increase in the 

 estate population. 



According to the figures of the latest official reports, there were 

 78,000 coolies employed on estates in the Colony, F. M. S. and Johore 

 at the end of 1908. Allowing for sugar, tapioca, coconuts, etc., the 

 coolies employed in rubber cultivation cannot be put much above or 

 below 70,000. At that date a very small percentage of the 241,000 

 acres then under rubber was being tapped, and the resulting propor- 

 tion is only one coolie to three and a half acres- The area now 

 under cultivation may be estimated at 300,000 acres of rubber, all of 

 which in five years' time may be tappable, and if tapped will 

 require, for tapping and general estate purposes, not less than one 

 coolie to two acres. But in five years time, even if extension goes on 

 at a considerably slower rate than during the last three years, the 

 total area under rubber will still have been doubled. If these extra 

 241,000 acres of new clearings can be worked with one coolie to three 

 and a half acres, if the old cultivations do not in the aggregate 

 expand by a single acre, and if the development of the new northern 

 states makes no drain whatever upon our existing resources, our 

 agricultural population, to be adequate for the needs of 1916, will 

 have to amount to 228,000. This is more likely to prove an under- 

 estimate than an over-estimate. 



• 



It is claimed for the present immigration policy that it has put 

 Tamil recruiting on a satisfactory footing, but the present rate of 

 Tamil immigration will have to be doubled if these requirements, 

 very moderately estimated, are to be made good from the source. In 

 what other direction are we to look for a new supply at least as 

 productive as our existing one? I can see no other source but 

 China. We know we can get them. If there is no organisation, it 

 would be very unsatisfactory. We should be crimping the towkays' 

 coolies. It would be an expensive matter, more expensive than if 

 we make arrangements before the demand arises. We should 

 further be independent of the Immigration committee, and pay our 

 own men and our own expenses. 



Mr. E. B. Prior, in seconding the resolution, said that labour was 

 the one and only question. When in Sumatra recently, he learned 

 that the manager of a European Estate had been informed that the 

 Dutch Government was going to stop the exportation of coolies. 

 There had been applications for 5,000 in one month for the F. M. S. 

 It was pretty certain that in the near future Java would be a blank 

 field. He heard that even the interior of Sumatra was to be opened 

 up. If they did not do something soon, they would be left behind. 



