August i, i888 ] THF. TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
117 
along a narrow causeway which forms a lane through 
the dismal forest, and crosses the Laboean Biver by 
an iron bridge i of a mile long, which has cost the 
Bailway Company about XWO.OOO and which requires 
constant tinkering to keep it from sinking in the 
oozy bottom. From the bridge can be seen the former 
entrance to the river, now "barred" up, which was 
used before Belawan was " invented." There is 
all the red tape on this strip of private railway 
that the nations of the European continent have 
been able to invent. First the baggage must be 
removed, at the passenger's own cost, in a blazing 
sun to a shed, where a miserable Malay, who can- 
not even speak Dutch, gesticulates, turns things 
about, goes to ask somebody what he must do, 
hunts for a piece of chalk, and, after marking the 
box, assists another Malay coolie to demand an 
extortionate fee for carrying it 200 yards. A quarter 
of an hour before the train starts a bell rings 
violently, as if something were going to happen. 
As there are about two first-class carriages to 
each first-class passenger, the guard does not insist 
upon your sitting in a given compartment as in 
France and Germany, but he glares at you just 
as suspiciously, and takes a vicious snip out of 
your ticket. About 10 minutes later the ticket is 
examined again. One luckless passenger, who has 
been waiting two hours for the train to start, dis- 
covers at the last moment that his baggage 
(30 or 40 lb) is more than it is allowed by law to 
carry gratis ; but as there are only five more minutes 
before the train aotually does start, the box is 
hustled, amid a great flush of excitement, into the 
luggage van, and half a dozen officials make hasty 
arrangements for payment to be made at the other 
end where there is time. After a comparing of 
watches, blowing of whistles, waving of hands, ring- 
ing of bells, etc., (during which a luckless Chinese 
ooolie hastening up with a load of fresh fish, is told 
it is too late to enter the train), the coupling-chains 
jerk and we are off. The first station of any im- 
portance is Labuan, and here there is 20 minutes 
halt whilst the train makes various manoeuvres, 
changes from one line to the other, &c. The "cabs " 
which come to meet the traveller at Laboean may be 
described as a square box on two wheels. 
After diving in head foremost across the horse's 
tail from a small iron step which nearly pulls 
tho whole concern over the would-be inmate, the 
traveller rolls himself round right way up, thrusts 
his legB straight out, leaving part of the splash- 
board for the Malay to sit on; gets his feet en- 
tangled in the reins, alarms the horse, and goes 
careering at a good pace round a nasty corner up a 
dusty street, over wobbly wooden bridges, through ruts 
and ditches until heat last reaches tho Imperial Ger- 
man Consulate. This is ono and tho same place as tho 
Labuan IJotel, and is also tho office of a mercantile 
linn. Labuan is practically a Chinese town of one street 
about a mile in length, but perhaps one third of 
the population consists of Malays and Madrassees. 
As usual, tho gambling, spirit, and opium farms 
aro tho chief features which distinguish this town 
from one which has not enjoyed the civilising in- 
daenoes of tho West. About twenty milos above 
Labuan is the thriving and interesting town of 
Medan, the iiifirupolis of the great tobacco 
industry. A vory fine aquaro, at least a 
quarter of a mile in diameter, intersected by 
a ditch, servos at once as a drain for 
1 xci ive moisture, a drill-ground, a promenade, and 
a pioplo's park ; but somehow or other the Chinese 
ih> m>t ;cein as h ippy in liutch towns as elsewhere, 
and do not bWSgger about with that sleek though 
harmless bumptiousness whieh the easier-going 
British colonies develop in such a high degree. 
Even in the French colonies, in Bpito ot over- 
legislation, the Chinaman seems happier than in 
Sumatra, and it must be admitted that the French, 
when once they have got their many-fangled rules 
into working order, treat the Chinese with liberality 
and public spirit even though they may be strict, 
and perhaps severe. In Deli tho Dutch do nothing, 
everything is left to private enterprise. Around 
Medan, and far into the country in every direction 
aro the tobacco estates which have prospered so 
much within tho past ten years that an annual 
profit of 100 per cent has come to bo looked 
upon as a natural state of things, and a 
planter expects to make his fortune, aad usu- 
ally does so, in five years. All foreigners 
are admitted on an equal footing with the Dutch. 
Chinese alone are debarred from the covetted 
distinction of being plantation owners. Amongst 
non-Dutchmen, Germans are in a decided majority, 
but most nationalists are represented. The foreigner 
receives his concession from the native Kajah, with 
the approval of the Dutoh authority, and then at 
once commences to cut down the trees and set fire 
to both the timber and the thick overgrowth. No 
manure is required, and a few hundred Swaton coolies 
soon transform confusion into order. The tobacco 
is then planted in rows two feet apart, and the mag- 
nificent climate, which hitherto has always enjoyed 
a happy distribution of rain and sun, does the rest. 
The tobacco is gathered in July, and is sorted out 
into qualities and dried. It is then hung 
up to dry in the huge sheds which are such 
a prominent feature in the Sumatra landscape, 
and finally thrown into heaps and carefully 
stirred up under the personal superintendence of the 
planter : it is important during this process to pre- 
vent heating or sweating, and to preserve the exact 
aroma and the oiliness which give ihis tobacco such 
a peculiar value. It is exported in bales, of about 
l^piculs each bale, and nearly all goes to Holland, 
where the Deli Company exercises a sort of mono- 
poly. The price in Sumatra is about 2s. the pound, 
and tho selling price in Amsterdam is seldom under 
■is. Over 20,000,000 pounds were exported last year, 
chielly by the blue funnel line of steamers via 
Singapore ; and consequently about 500 planters 
divided t;2,000,000 profit between them. The largest 
employer of labour is the Deli Company, which owns 
24 large estates, and pays 50,000 Chinese coolies. 
The Sumatra tobacco is utilized for one purpose 
only— that of making the outer skin of cigars ; 
the taste for it is spreading in America, 
whither, as also to Bremerhaven, a considerable 
quantity of the weed is shipped. The planters 
find it difficult to obtain a suffioient supply of 
cheap Chinese labour, and therefore, in order to 
avoid the " bounties " which tho Chinese dealers 
in Penang make them pay, they have lately 
endeavoured to arrange for tho direct shipment to 
Deli of coolies from Amoy and Ssvatow. — N.-C 
Herald, July 7th. 
♦ 
'• ALL ABOUT GOLD " IN CEYLON. 
Colombo, July 28th, 
At the Nanuoya terminus on my way down 
two days ago I met Mr. Moorhouse who looked 
quite innocent and chatted on indifferent subjects 
just as if he were not conscious of being art and 
part in a dark design to tear asunder and enter 
" tho bowols of tho land." The secret has been well 
kept, but is now out, although it was not ovon 
hinted at to me by Mr. Moorhouse. A corre- 
spondent writes to me : — 
''You saw Moorboune at the statiuu. Did be tell 
you what he was there for ? It was to transport to 
Blackpool bridge three railway tvaggon-lond» of pUnka, 
postsi, talipot*, \c, for tbu croctiou ot liuci Bomo- 
