190 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



water and find a lai'ge number of larvse of the 

 anopheles in it. Today the swamps are all 

 absolutely dean, planted with splendid rubber 

 and with no stagnant water whatever; and in 

 his more recent investigations the Doctor has 

 found an utter and complete absence of the 

 anopheles in the water. Contemporaneously 

 with this the health of the coolies improved 

 enormously until the outturn nuw is veiy large 

 and the coolies look happy and well, and one 

 day, while I was there, 95 per cent, turned out 

 to work and there was hardly a case of sick- 

 ness. We are now enabled to lend a large 

 number of coolies from both these properties 

 to the adjoining estates. Every credit is due 

 to both Dr. Watson and Mr Quartley, 

 the Superintendent, and I think the re- 

 sults are well worth publication. Incidentally 

 I might mention that at first we had diffi- 

 culty in keepirg our coolies and lost several 

 thousand dollars in advances. Now that we 

 have a splendid labour force established we 

 can get as many more coolies as we require, 

 this Ordinance has been passed by which we 

 will be compelled to pay 5 dollars a head to 

 Government on the outturn of coolies. In 

 individual cases of this kind 



The Ordinance is Certainly a Great 

 Injustice, 



but one must look at it from a broader 

 point of view ; and when we find in 

 the Straits that it is almost impossible 

 to get a warrant against an absconding 

 cooly, that a large number of Tamil Railway 

 and Government contractors and Chinese mine 

 owners simply crimp the coolies after they 

 have been brought over and contribute nothing 

 to the cost of importing labour. I think it is 

 probably worth while giving the Ordinance a 

 fair trial in order that everybody may help to 

 contribute to the cost of bringing labour into 

 the country. It is hoped that Government will 

 see the justice of giving a reasonable rebate to 

 the estates that have already had their trials 

 and difficulties and at great cost established 

 their labour force. 



Coolies' Pay; 



" How about coolies' pay ?" asked our repre- 

 sentative. 



" There is one aspect of the question that 

 Ceylon planters would do well to seriously con- 

 sider. Undoubtedly the cooly in the Straits 

 can save a considerable proportion of his pay 

 and large amounts are remitted to India. Is 

 this the case in Ceylon today ? If not, when 

 it is remembered the Straits' cooly is given in 

 addition to his good wages a free ticket right 



from his village to his destination on estate 

 in the Straits, I cannot help thinking it will 

 have a considerable effect on the labour 

 supply of Ceylon. Undoubtedly the question 

 of Sunday names will help to balance 

 the matter, but Sunday names are by 

 no means given all over the Straits, bat only 

 in certain districts ; and although the hours of 

 work may, with advantage to the proprietors, 

 be extended in the Straits, from what I saw I 

 do not think even then the Straits cooly will 

 be so hard worked as his Ceylon brother is in 

 properly managed estates in this country; so the 

 planters here should not lay too great stress on 

 that. After all a man's wages, whether he is 

 white or black, is not what he does draw per 

 diem or per memsem, but the crux of the 

 whole question is what balance remains at the 

 end of the month after he has clothed and fed 

 himself. The Straits cooly has certainly a big 

 advantage over his Ceylon brother today. 

 Cost or Production : Ceylon the Straits. 



" I have not got sufficient statistics to make 

 a fair comparison yet between the Straits and 

 Ceylon in regard to the cost of rubber f.o.b., 

 but this I can tell you, the cost of tapping last 

 year on 4 estates there (of which Mr. Davidson 

 gave the names) was 13 dollar cents per lb.; 16 

 dollar cents per lb., 16 dollar cents per lb. and 

 21 dollar cents per lb., and I do not know any 

 estate in Ceylon which has been able to produce 

 its rubber at anything like this average 

 price. This is no doubt in part due 

 to the fact that the rubber is older and more 

 regularly planted in those estates than it is in 

 Ceylon, but it is also, so far as I can judge, a 

 fact that the latex flows much more freely in 

 the Straits than it does in Ceylon. This is 

 especially the case in trees that are widely 

 planted and I saw one field (and not a small 

 one) of 10 to 11 year old rubber (70 trees to 

 the acre) that gave an average of nearly 6 lb. 

 a tree for the last two years. On the good 

 estates in the Straits the growth is undoubt- 

 edly much greater than it is in Ceylon. On 

 Seafield, for instance, a lot of the 3J-year old 

 trees are from 20 to 26 inches in circum- 

 ference and they are tapping trees of this 

 age on the adjoining estate, while on an- 

 other estate close by last year the 3£ to 4J 

 year old trees tapped averaged 1 lb. rubber 

 per tree. Personally I do not advocate 

 this early tapping at all, especially if the rubber 

 is closely planted, becaufe it has been found 

 that, although the trees are large, the bark is thin 

 and, being tapped at this early age, it is very 

 difficult to get the bark to renew properly. 



