The British Possessions. 17 



Over half a million of thcm have poured 

 iuto this country, and thc spleudid contri- 

 bution they are making- to its economic 

 progress ts a lesson that might bc worth 

 the considcration of other governments 

 dealing with undcveIopcd territories in 

 tropical lands. Thcsc Chinese are free men. 

 They hnd thcir own way, or arc assisted 

 by their etnployers to rcach the mines. 

 And when they have repaid the advance of 

 money made to thcm, they work as they 

 pleasc and at fixed rates. They quickly 

 Icarn to refusc work by the day aud to take 

 it on some kind of a pereentage basis, 

 whereby the hard-working- coolies earn any- 

 whcrc froiu forty cents to sixty cents, silver, 

 per day. When a man adds thrift to his 

 capacity for work, he often becomes a small 

 shareholder in the mine t aud amongst the 

 great fortunes of the reninsula are not a 

 few accumulatcd by men who began as 

 plain mining coolies from China. Two 

 wretched evils besct tliis hard-workinsr 

 man. Thcy are his fondness for gambling 

 and opium smoking\ and to both of these, 

 unhappilw the government seems not to 

 oppose itself. Opportunities for the frce 

 2 



