68 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [July 2, 1888 
PLANTING IN DELI. 
( Translated for the "Straits Times.") 
Banjarese coolies have taken to absconding from the 
estates in such numbers, that the Planters have become 
alarmed. The Planters Association have taken the 
matter up and pointed out that the only way to stop 
desertion is for employers never to engage such people 
■without discharge ceriificates. Bylaw in Deli, it is a 
penal offence to engage coolie absconders. 
Planters have to contend not only against absconders 
but also against the elements. In Upper Deli and 
Langkat, the other day, several estates were hard put to 
it on this account. A whirl-wind destroyed a great 
number of tobacco sheds and coolie houses. Hailstones 
of the size of hen's eggs also fell. 
PLANTING IN NETHERLANDS INDIA. 
( Translated for the " Straits Times.") 
British North Borneo still continues a favourite field 
for investing the spare capital available in Java. The 
Locomotief announces for instance the starting of 
another company at Samarang, for growing tobacco in 
that rising settlement. The concession for that pur- 
pose has been obtained by Mr. R. Doom, a planter 
from East Java, from the Government of British North 
Borneo. The area taken up comes to seven thousand 
acres. Should the company be floated, the land will 
be at once put under cultivation. Felling jungle will 
in that case, be taken in ) and in August, so as to 
admit of 100 acres being ready for planting by next 
April, with every prospect of raising a crop that same 
year. Tobacco enterprise in Java seems to be almost 
played out. 
A correspondent writes to the Batavia Nieuwshlad 
pointing out the need for bringing Java tea more 
prominently into notice. Tea planters there neglect 
such an obvious expedient. In the island itself, there 
is a prejudice against the local product, deeply rooted 
enough. Another obstacle is the keen competition 
of the Oeylon article, which promises to become still 
more formidable in the near future. The prospect 
is so discouraging that tea planting in Java offers no 
chance of extending and making head against the 
rival industry in Ceylon. The Java tea planters find 
hard work to make head against the prejudice which 
tells so heavily against them. 
* 
AN INDUSTRIAL ERA. IN INDIA. 
After the reading Sir William Hunter's paper on 
this subject before the Boyal Colonial Institute 
— at which there were a number of Ceylon 
Colonists present, including:— Sir J. F. Dickson, 
Major J. A. Fergusson, Mr. J. Churchill, Mr. H. 
L, Moysey, and Mr. George "Vane, the following 
speeches of local interest were made : — 
Mr. D. Morris (Assistant Director, Royal Gardens, 
Kew) : My studies are chitfly concerned with botanical 
subjects, and the able Paper read tonight may seem at 
first sight so purely statistical that it hardly falls within 
the scope of my knowledge and experience. If you 
will bear with me for a few minutes, I would desire to 
point out that we have summarised for us tonight a 
most effective and complete exposition as regards the 
production and distribution of Indian staples. To 
those not directly interested in Indian industries it 
is pardonable to consider how far the production in 
India, on a large scale, of certain articles of commerce 
will affect either ourselves or our Colonies, It is re- 
markable that although a great part of the Indian 
Empire lies within the tropics the Indian staples now 
so largely produced are not essentially tropical produc- 
tions. Sir William Hunter has adopted as types and 
dealt effectually with the production and distribution 
of three Indian staples : these are wheat, oil seeds, and 
rice. The production of wheat on a large scale will 
affect to some extent the growth of wheat in pome of 
the Australian Colonies, but in other respects it can 
only be looked upon as adding one more staple 
to the self-contained resources of the Empire. Oil 
seeds are produced in such quantities, and at such 
a low initial cost, iu India that it is impossible to 
compete with it. In fact, India in this respect fills 
a place which is not seriously sought by any of our 
Colonies ; hence in this branch of her industries she 
occupies a legitimate and a practically unoccupied 
field specially and suitably her own. Indian rice goes 
to feed our native populations in Ceylon, the West 
Coast of Africa, and the West Indies ; and in this 
way India renders valuable service to our tropical 
Colonies. She provides our labourers with food at 
such rates as enable them to follow their varied oc- 
cupations and raise the produce fur which the tropical 
lands occupied by them are especially suited. What 
I wish particularly to point out is that the Indian 
staples thus developed are antagonistic to few, if 
any, of the staples of this country or its Colonies. 
We can therefore all the more cordially and sincerely 
help forward the development of industrial subjects in 
India. Such a development adds to the suitability 
«nd wellfare of the Empire, and brings prosperity to 
millions of our fellow-subjects dependent upon us 
both for the means and the opportunity to become 
self-supporting. The influence of the Government 
is apparent everywhere in the development of Indian 
industries. It is, perhaps, pardonable in one 
not directly connected with India to venture the 
opinion that it is greatly owing to the initiation and 
the direct support of the Government of India that 
this now industrial era has been so splendidly deve- 
loped. The extension of railways in India is fostered 
by Government auspices, and thus Indian products 
are distributed over the civilised world. As a special 
instance of the success of direct Government control 
in India, I would cite the Indian Forest Deparcment, 
which is a model attempted to be copied in all tro- 
pical countries. This department is one of the most 
efficient and complete organisations known in modern 
times ; while its action in preserving land from being 
impoverished by injurious and wasteful systems of 
cultivation, and in protecting and planting valuable 
timber trees, must ultimately tend to preserve India 
in a permanent condition of fertility. Again, the 
great tea and cinchona industries of India, although 
now largely maintained by private enterprise, owe 
their establishment to the direct action of Gov- 
ernment. With regard to cinchona, it is due en- 
tirely to the Government of India that this use- 
ful, and, I might add, this indispensable tropical 
plant, has been preserved from extinction. It 
was brought from South America at great cost ; 
it was established on the hills of India — and not 
alone the hills of India, but those of Oeylon and 
numerous tropical Colonies ; and at the present time 
we owe to the enlightened and enterprising policy 
of the Government of India the inestimable blessing 
of a cheap and abundant supply of cinchona alkaloids 
and quinine within reach of all classes both in India 
and elsewhere. As the Government is practically the 
landlord, it is only natural to find all agricultural 
interests in India are fostered by special department. 
The reports of these departments, carefully elaborated 
and prepared, compare favourably with those of any 
country. I have no wish to underrate the results 
achieved by private enterprise in India, but from a 
careful study of colonial as compared with Indian 
subjects, I feel that in any account given of a 
new industrial era in India it is important to bear 
in mind how large a share of the improvement in 
Indian industries is due to the action of the Gov- 
ernment. Many of our Colonies might usefully 
copy this policy. It is a policy which has attained 
complete success in a large number of depart- 
ments of productive industry, and hence it 
is that the natives of India — so poor in themselves and 
so little able to help themselves — are enabled, with the 
powerful aid of the State, to show such wonderful re- 
sults as we have heard discussed to-night, and to make 
their influence felt throughout the markets of the civi- 
lised world. 
Major J. A. Febgusson (Rifle Brigade) : The soldier 
who serves in India, even for a life time, has no right 
to set Hp as an authority, and my service there was 
snort, I cannot lay claim to much knowledge, but I 
