and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— September, 1911. 260 



THE HEALTH OF SUPERINTENDENTS 

 AND COOLIES. 



The maintenance of health on eastern plan- 

 tations is a subject most Company Directors 

 have had to consider within the last year or two- 

 Good health among both Superintendents and 

 coolies is absolutely essential if shareholders 

 are to profit to the fullest from their proper- 

 ties, and many of the annual reports recently 

 issued show that great improvements in the 

 housing arrangements are being effected, in 

 better bungalows for the Europeans and more 

 up-to-date and more sanitary lines for the labour 

 force. The Planters' Association in Ceylon is 

 fully awake to the importance of a healthy 

 labour force and has offered a prize of R250 for 

 the best practical essay or. "Cooly Linos, how to 

 build and how to keep smitary." In the F.M.S. 

 labour is better housed generally than ever 

 before, the favourite type for new lines being 

 one with raised floors supported on brick 

 pillars and corrugated iron roof, and plans have 

 been adopted which must be conformed to in 

 the building of lines in future. 



The most highly approved lines, however, are 

 of little avail if the cooly is allowed to disobly 

 the most ordinary laws of Hygiene, and it re- 

 mains for the Superintendents and their assis- 

 tants to see that the coolies regularly and care- 

 fully carry out a thorough clean-up of their lines 

 and surroundings. Mr Wallace Westland gives 

 us a few hints or how this has been done in 

 British New Guinea and the results obtained are 

 truly remarkable. 



In New Guinea. 



Referring to the health of his labour force 

 Mr. Westlaud remarked that he had to thank Sir 

 Allan Perry for the present condition of things 

 on his estate, for while coolies round about were 

 dying off fast from dysentery and fever his own 



COOLIES WERE QUITE FREE 



and not a single case of fever has he had to 

 report during the last eight or ten months — 

 in fact not since Sir Allan Perry's advice in the 

 matter was followed. The whole crux of tho 

 situation is 



SANITATION. 



Every day the lines and surroundings Mr. 

 WeBtland reports, are carefully cleared and all 

 rubbish removed and burned. Once a week the 

 cleaning is of more thorough order, and after the 

 scavenging brigade has done its duty the sanitary 

 brigade sprays the place with disinfectant 

 powder while another gang follows witha sprink- 

 ling of quicklime. This keeps the lines sweet 

 and clean, but further precautions are taken. 



A GOOD WATER SUPPLY 



is necessary and every house has its own water 

 ipe laid on. Latrines are provided and must 

 e used. The lines, too, are only used for a 

 couple of years or so when the coolies are 

 moved on to a new set aud the old ones are 

 burned down. The old site is not built on again 

 for perhaps a year or two during which time 

 it is allowed to fallow as it were, and plantains 

 may be grown on it. 



Each cooly on his arrival on the estate is 

 provided with 



A BLANKET AND A MOSQUITO NET. 



The mosquito net must be used and even 

 should a cooly be sent to a neighbouring estate 

 with a letter he must take his net with him if 

 he has to remain away the night. These nets are 

 cheaply produced, being made of hemp. 



The coolies are not huddled together in lines 

 as they are in Ceylon. Their accommodation is 

 much more spacious and almost every one of 

 them has his little piece of garden, in which he 

 cultivates vegetables. On Sundays a regular 

 marketing goes on when the cooly disposes of 

 the produce of his plot. 



IN JAVA 



the cooly gets even more attention. There, 

 many estates have a theatre in which a bios- 

 cope exhibition is held for the coolies' edifica- 

 tion or which native touring theatrical com- 

 panies may occupy. This entertainment of the 

 cooly costs some estates a considerable amount 

 of money but, as Mr. Westland points out, the 

 estates are prepared to meet the expense when 

 it means a settled and contented force. 



We would now give the following which was 

 contributed to our daily paper by a Peermade 

 (South Indian) planter. It contains very prac- 

 tical and valuable instructions on the treat- 

 ment of sufferers from fevers and should be care- 

 fully studied by all planters : — 



Fever. 



Some Personal Experiences: Hints to Plan* 

 ters on Treatment of Coolies. 

 Some personal experiences of fever, which 

 is painfully to the fore just now, may not 

 come amiss. I think this is my only excuse 

 for presuming to dilate upon the subject, 

 writes a Peermade Planter to up, for I am no 

 medical authority, only a humble planter but 

 one who writes from his own painful per- 

 sonal knowledge of the disease. When one has 

 suffered from it oneself and seen a hundred 

 coolies daily down with it and doctored most of 

 these coolies onoself for some years, one may 

 fairly consider, it seoms to me, that one knows 

 something about fever. 



The Causes of Fever. 

 So much by way of preface : to come to 

 the subject itself, first a word, diffidently, as 

 to causes. It seems to me that too much 

 is often put down to mosquito and too little 

 to other causes. In my own case, as far as 

 I could see, the former had nothing to do 



