Nov. 1906.] 



873 



Saps and Exudation!*. 



given us souud advice as to how we can please our masters, the Loudon manu- 

 facturers. As far as I can gather, the matter, put into a nutshell, is that we must 

 go for purity, and that we may expect not only to keep up the present high 

 standard of our rubber and in time to improve upon it after manufacturers have 

 had more experience with our rubber and be able to rival Para. As to the machine 

 Mr. Ryan has kindly referred to, soma two years ago I was interested in trying 

 to devise some simple machine which would test the resiliency and elasticity of 

 rubber, and I brought it here because I thought it would interest visitors to the 

 Exhibition. Unfortunately, ever since I have arrived, 1 have been practically 

 judging from eight o'clock in the morning until dark, and with this were inter- 

 spersed various hospitable functions and other things which left me no time to 

 put it together. I promise to do so to-morrow, so that any one may see it and judge 

 it for himself. 



A hearty vote of thanks to the lecturers was proposed by Dr. J. C. Willis 

 and was heartily accorded. 



THE INDUSTRY IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. 



The Labour Problem : Lack op Nerve in Rubber. 



An interesting interview with Mr. E. Val Carey, a well-known planter of the 

 Federated Malay States, is published in the Ceylon Observer (Oct 8th). In reference 

 to the future labour supply Mr. Carey said :— 



" The future seems to be perfectly bright. With regard to Indian labour 

 I can see no reason why we should not be able to get all the coolies we want, mainly 

 because the fixity of exchange at 2s. id. has sent up the remitting value of the dollar 

 by 20 per cent; and while the dollar wages remain stationary from the point of view 

 of the local currency equivalent, the actual result of the fixture of exchange is that 

 we get an enormous pull in remitting value. There is no doubt, if there is, as 

 suggested, competition over at the coast between Ceylon and the Straits for labour, 

 the higher rates which — from a remitting point of view — we are paying over in the 

 Straits must attract labour to us rather than Ceylon, especially in the case of new 

 districts in either country which have not previously been established or known to 

 coolies. Apart from Indian labour, anybody who is interested in labour over in 

 the Straits must always remember there is the absolute assurance against a labour 

 famine in the proximity of Java. The Javanese cooly, who is imported direct, 

 enters into indentures to work for three years, and his cost at the end of that period, 

 approximates, and in fact is rather less, than the wages paid to the Tamil." 



"Are Javanese plentiful and easily obtainable? " 



" The last census of the' island of Java was taken in 1902, I think. Java was 

 then shown to possess 32 million inhabitants who are increasing at the rate of 

 600,000 per annum. The Dutch Government are face to face with this enormous 

 population, and the need for finding supplies for them, which means increasing 

 importation obligations every year— because they are growing so tremendously, 

 and the country is practically cultivated up to the hill-tops— are only too anxious to 

 place these people in localities where they feel they are being well looked after. So 

 that to sum up, the situation, it seems to me as regards Tamil labour, is bright in 

 the extreme. We in the F.M.S., most of us old Ceylon men, have naturally been 

 anxious to employ Tamils rather than Javanese; but supposing for the sake of 

 argument we cannot at any time get sufficient labour from India, we are in the 

 impregnable position of being able to get as many Javanese as we can possibly 

 want." 



49 



