396 



Mr. Jarvis, asks whether it would not be possible to arrange for 

 a bonus scheme by which a coolie if he worked on an estate for two 

 or three years would have his passage paid home again. 



The Chairman said he knew several places where that was done 

 but he did not think they could get legislation on that point. It was 

 more a matter for individual arrangement. 



Mr. Gibson says the matter was a serious one and was growing 

 in importance every day. It was not only the unhealthy but the 

 healthy estates which suffered. They got their coolies over from 

 India and as a rule they were an unhealthy lot, suffering from 

 cholera, small-pox and other diseases. There were a certain number 

 in the planting industry, not associated with their association, who 

 quietly kept in the background and after they had got their coolies 

 fit and healthy and skilled to tap, their efficiency made them valuable, 

 they immediately left the estate and got into a kampong or some 

 Chinese place where the planters did not recruit, and there instead of 

 getting their ordinary 30 cents, they were paid 35 or 40 cents. They 

 hunted round for the coolie, after paying their registration fee, and 

 after finding the coolie brought them before a magistrate, and, as the 

 Chairman had said, some would not recognise that a coolie who had 

 left his employer without giving a month's notice had committed an 

 offence. The magistrate would simply order the coolies back to the 

 estate, they took them back, and the next morning they would find 

 the coolies had gone again. The Enactment was not adequate 

 to meet the case and there should be something introduced to 

 prevent the coolies leaving in that way. He moved that the Labor 

 Enactment be amended so as to make it a criminal offence for a free 

 laborer to leave his emyloyer without giving a month's notice. 



Mr. Jarvis asks, whether it was not a criminal offence already, 

 for coolies to leave without notice. 



The Chairma^ says that was just the point in dispute. The 

 interpretation of tne law was uncertain amongst various magistrates. 

 What they wanted was a law so that all the magistrates could be of 

 one mind on the subject. 



Mr. Bailey seconds the motion and mentions that in Ceylon if a 

 coolie left without a month's notice he got three months in gaol. 



The motion is carried and the Secretary is instructed to consult 

 with the Association's solicitor, 



7. LONDON RUBBER EXHIBITION. 



The Secretary lays on the table conditions for Silver Shield 

 presented by Tne India Rubber Journal and reads the following 

 correspondence : — 



A. Staines Mandtrs, Esq., 



Lond(jn, 6th July, igio. 



Dear Sir, — In reply to your letters of January lOth and 



February 24th, we agree to besjoeak 2806 sc;. ft. of space at the 



