408 
THE TROTVCAL AGRICULTURIST. [December r, 1888. 
AN OLD CEYLON PLANTER IN BRITISH 
NORTH BORNEO. 
Mr. P. Christian, for many years a planter in Ceylon 
during the old coffee days, sends the following 
letter to a friend here, who has kindly placed it 
at our disposal. Writing under date Oct. 3rd, 
he says : — 
"Your letter received, but I still think you should 
stick to Ceylon, unless you can go somewhere else 
with £1,000 in your pocket, or to a certain situation 
with a good salary. Land here costs $1 per acre, but 
planting operations must be commenced within 12 
months after selection, or it is forfeited. This is to 
prevent speculators obstructing progress, and the 
same rule is carried out in India, Burma and 
Australia. 
"I am the only English planter here; all the rest are 
Dutch and German, from Sumatra. They plant to- 
bacco, which is a most profitable cultivation, but only 
people with very large capital can go in for it. The 
Government do not need any more people as far as I 
know ; in fact I think they might do the work with 
the half of them. Yon just wait a bit and see how 
thiDgs turn out. But you might study Malay. It is 
very easy to learn. _ Get Marsden's grammar and 
dictionary. Blalay is the language in the Malay 
Peninsula, including Singapore and Penang, also in 
Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, &c„ and is of course 
a useful language to know. If I had travelled all 
through the planting world 15 years ago when I could 
have done it, I would never have been ruined. That 
nonsensical idea of ' Coffee is King ' did for us. It 
gave the trees leaf disease and us hemileiaon the brain. 
Many thanks for the paper you sent ; Ceylon seems in 
a worse plight than 1. thought it was. I fancied 
that tea was selling well and people making 
money. I was sorry to learn from your letter than 
I and \V were dead. I never heard of it. 
I never get a letter, but someone dies that I would 
like to see again. 
" So B .and I— are in America. Well I hope 
they will get easy times some day, that is, if they are as 
tired of hard lines as I am. Burma is a good place to go 
to, with a few hundred pounds. In Tavoy they give up 
to 1,200 acres of land for nothing- till 1895, and then 7 
annas an acre, but one could pay by that time. There 
is a fine field there too for surveyors. A railway is cer- 
tain to be made into Yiinnan in China, either by Bamo 
or Moulmein, or both, and perhiips from Assam. Bead 
up Burma, and China bordering oo it and Siam. I will 
have ripe Liberian in a month or two from 20 acres, 
but I can't afford apulper or pulping-house, but I dare- 
say I shall manage someway or other. I lost 4 or 5 
acres newly planted land at the beginning of the year 
by deer. They bite the plants in two. and the supplies 
they pull out. I never was troubled with that in Cey- 
lon, and we had the same deer there— the sambur or 
elk as we called it. There were cheetas in Ceylon to 
keep them in order, however, and we have none here, 
so deer, pigs and wild cattle are too plentiful for 
farmers." 
♦ 
Toeacco is accepted by Rev. W. J. Woods, b. a., 
of Clapton, as " a gift from heaven," and those 
religionists who condemn its moderate use are 
regarded as " successors in office of the Pharisees', 
Mr. But Woods, who contributes a paper on smoking 
to The Young Man, pertinently adds, " I hold it my 
duty as a smoker to maintain perfect mastery 
over the habit ; to discourage the practice in all 
whose phyi ical stature is immature : to forbear 
from obtruding tobacco upon those who dislike 
it ; to consult my wife's wishes respecting the rooms 
in which I smoke at home ; and never to light 
pipe or cigar in any other house except by invita- 
tion of my host. In a word, I hope I take my 
pleafuro as becomes a Christian gentleman." 
- Christian World, Oct. 25th. 
Tea from the South Sea Islands. — The Grocers' 
Chronicle in a late issue writes : — Those who have 
watched how in India, Java, and Cej Ion, the experiments 
in tea planting have, after much patient effort, proved 
commercially successful, will Le somewhat prepared 
to note that in the South Sea Islands similar ex- 
periments are being made. Messrs. Pringle and 
Crichton, tea merchants, of Glasgow, have called our 
attention to the fact that they have just added to 
their wonderfully interesting and instructive exhibit 
of the teas known to commerce in the Glasgow Ex- 
hibition, two samples of tea — Pekoe and Pekoe Sou- 
chong — grown in Fiji. Although we have not had 
an opportunity of examining the samples of this, the 
latest attempt to extend the growth of tea, yet we 
are quite prepared to take the word of this well 
known firm that " they are very well made, fair liquor, 
with trace of Java flavour, and considering the new- 
ness of the undertaking, very promising, " and we 
congratulate this firm on the enterprise they have 
shown in thus demonstrating to the public what is 
beiDg done in the way of developing the production 
of tea. Although we believe so far the attempt to 
grow the plant in South Africa has not been followed 
by any very marked success, yet the samples we have 
seen would indicate that with increased experience 
something might be done there. But this new de- 
parture in the South Sea Islands has apparently been 
patronized by the New Zealand buyers, who are re- 
ported to have taken two hundred boxes, and if in 
this early stage this leaf has thus commanded the 
market, we see no reason why we should not ere 
long hear of some being offered in Mincing-lane. 
Certain it is, as we pointed out last week, that the 
supremacy of Chinese growths in Euglish markets is 
now gone beyond probability of recovery, and it must 
be highly satisfactory to the people of Great Britain 
that her tea supplies are coming forward in steadily 
increasing quantities from various parts of Greater 
Britain. — Indian Tea Gazette. 
Progress in Upper Burma. — From the 
Commissioner's Administration Report for 
1887-8, we quote the following satitfactory 
summary ; — 
The results of the administration of thepast eighteen 
months may now be briefly summarized. The police 
force has been organized and brought up to strength, 
and the work of maintaining order, which a year ago 
was performed by troops, is now being efficiently 
done by the police under the immediate control of 
Civil officers. In the case of serious disturbances the 
aid ofthe troops is sought and is always cordially 
afforded. Except in two or three districts there are 
now no large bands of dacoits, and there are not more 
than four or five dacoit or rebel leaders of any note 
or influence in the province. Jails have been or are 
being provided. Court-houses have been built. The 
Medical department has been entirely re-constituted. 
Enquiry has been instituted into the revenue system 
of the country and preparation made for its estab- 
lishment on a firm basis. Municipal institutions 
have been introduced. The village system, the basis 
of the successful administration ol the country, has 
been organized in accordance with the customs of 
the people, and the hands of District Officers has 
been strengthened to enable them to administer 
their charges with the aid of the well-disposed por- 
tion of the community. The result has been satis- 
factory. In every district the people are daily be- 
coming more accustomed to our rule, more willing 
to aid in the maintenance of order, and more ready 
to recognize that their interests and those of the 
Government arc identical. During the period of re- 
port the Chief Commissioner has visiiud each dis- 
tinct of Upper Burma and has met the leading 
men, taking advantage of every opportunity to point 
out to them their duties, privileges, and responsibili- 
ties, and to establish coutidereo in the stability and 
justice of our rule. There is every reason to believe 
that a course of steady and continuous progress in all 
branches of the ad ministration will be sustained through- 
out tho province. 
