October i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
261 
p,S. — I submitted this letter to a cinnamon 
planter of intelligence and long experience, ?.nd he 
has been good enough to send me some notes. 
They are so much to the point, and touch upon 
aspects of the question omitted by me, that they 
well supplement my hasty remarks : my friend 
has kindly consented to their being published with 
my letter. W. J. 
No. 2. 
Dear Sir, — I endorse all you say in reply to "B.'s" 
letter denouncing the system ol advances to peelers. 
The evils attendant on the practice are magnified 
and not a word is said as to the mutual benefits 
derived from the system by planter and peeler. 
While one man misuses his money, another lays it 
out to the best advantage, and if drunkards and 
gamblers are to be found among the peeler class 
so are there sober and thrifty individuals. During 
the course of a long experience, on a large estate 
where the system obtains, I have, of course, met 
with instances where the funds received as advances 
were misapplied by the peelers, but I have always 
found that the great majority of the men spent 
the best part of the money so received in the 
purchase of food and clothing for themselves and 
their families. In a few instances something more 
substantial is secured as when father and sons 
jointly invest their advances in buying the rent 
of a small garden. 
But would the deferred payment of wages insure 
their being put to right uses ? A man addicted 
to drink or gambling would not pause to consider 
whether it was with wages earned by work or money 
received in advance that he was indulging in his 
pet vice; and he would spend the one as readily 
as the other. 
As to the other aspect of the subject, does "B." 
really mean to deprecate the contract of service 
entered into by the peelers. What would he sub- 
stitute in its place to regulate the services of 
these men ? Would he have them come and go 
according to their own sweet will ; working wheu 
they liked and idling when they pleased ? 
If so, how precarious would be the planter's pros- 
pect of securing his crop ? Even if no outside in- 
fluence were brought to bear on him by crimping 
kanganies, self-interest would prompt him to leave 
an estate as soon as it became exhausted of the 
best wood. He would be quite intractable and apt 
to be careless in the performance of his work; for 
the temporary character of his services would not 
tend to create in him an interest in any one 
estate. 
My experience leads me to think that the know- 
ledge of the fact that he is legally bound to serve 
the estate which gives him advances, operates 
beneficially on the mind of the peeler, and, instead 
of having a " depressing and demoralizing effect," 
it stimulates him to liquidate the debt by regular 
attendance and good work, so that he may become 
entitled to fresh advances ; and the fact that season 
after season, for the last dozen years or more, the 
tme peelers have regularly received fresh advances 
and readily renewed their contract is, to my mind, 
conclusive proof that they do >not consider them- 
selves " virtually slaves who have sold their 
liberty for the amount of the advance each 
has received." 
Without the stimugus of advances the average 
peeler would I fear do no more work than would 
bring him enough monoy to eke out an existence, 
and where two peelers under advances would suffice, 
threo or perhaps inoro would bo required when undor 
no duoh obligation to work. ANTI-SLAVERY. 
ADVANCES TO CINNAMON PEELERS. 
9th August 1889. 
Dear Sir, — I must thank Mr. Jardine for reply* 
ing to what he is pleased to sneeringly term my 
"moral essay." 
I must at the outset admit that I freely acknow- 
ledge that the suppression of the advance system, 
like every other change, is beset with difficulties ; 
but they are not such as cannot be overcome by 
combination. I am asked if, because some men 
make bad use of their weekly advances, therefore 
these ought to be stopped. Why does Mr. Jardine 
stop there? He might have gone farther and asked 
me if I am of opinion that the wages of all those 
who put them to a wrong use should be with- 
held. No, Mr. Jardine, there is a broad and well 
defined distinction between what one earns as his 
wages and an advance. You cannot honestly with- 
hold the one, while you can the other. I see that 
one argument for the giving of advances is to 
allow peelers " enjoying themselves for a day or 
two according to their own fashion " at the time of 
the New Year. Does Mr. Jardine show the same 
solicitude for the enjoyment of all those who happily 
serve under him ? Was that the practice he adopted 
with his Tamil coolies for their Tevali and Ppngol, 
or did he by their own wish withhold some of 
their salary and give them a good round sum 
to allow them to enjoy themselves " according to 
their own fashion" ? At the time of the Sinha- 
lese New Year is it not customary to square up 
the accounts of the peelers, after deducting their 
advances, and immediately after to give them 
advances? So that you give out with one hand 
what you have taken in with the other. If, instead 
of giving them an advance, you gave them their 
salary, they will be as able to enjoy " themselves 
according to their own fashion," purchase clothes 
for their wives and families, and do all Mr. 
Jardine says is done with advances, only, as is 
natural, they will be more careful how they spend 
their hard-earned wages than their advances. 
To admit that for the last few years the supply 
of- ; peelers is not equal to the demand is to 
admit, either that the acreage under cinnamon 
during that period has increased, that peelers 
have diminished in numbers, or that they have 
taken to other pursuits. I do not admit any of 
these propositions. All I say is, that owing to 
the difference in the make of cinnamon, estates 
want a larger force of peelers now than before, 
and also that, owing to temporary causes (illness, 
chiefly fever), there has been a slight diminution of 
peelers on estates giving advances. Men who are 
too ill to work on estates to which they are 
under advances; work readily where they are not 
indebted. 
The great argument for advances is, as is as- 
serted, to secure year after year the same men, men 
whom you have trained to your standard of work. 
I sympathize fully with those who are actuated 
by his motive, but cannot the object be attained 
by different means ? I don't say it can, I simply 
put the question. I am asked whether I am so 
simple as to believe that if estate owners do not 
give advances, the system will die out. Certainly, 
as far as estates are concerned, it will, but peelers are 
indebted to kanganies and to everyone who will lend 
them money. I will detail further on my experience 
of the system of advances by kanganies. 
I do not think I anywhere said that the terms 
of the three years' engagement are enforced. That 
the engagement entered into is for three years 
cannot be denied. That peelers undertake prun- 
ing I am aware of, but they might I think bo 
enoouraged to do mamoty work by giving each kan- 
