186 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Sept. 1, 1903. 
the Singapore oil have bonght the whole plant for 
transfer to Portland. Thua America has secured a 
new industry, and the Straits Settlements have lost 
what has cost a great deal to create, and what wonld 
have been very valuable in the futme. The peculiar 
hardship in the case of the Straits Settlements lies in 
the fact that Ameiican lards are allowed to enter the 
Straits Settlements, free of duty, and kill the local 
demand for Br local product, while in America these 
same larda are protected from the oompeticioa of the 
Singapore oil by a duty of 60 per cent. It is a glaring 
injustice to the community of the Straits Settlements 
to permit a state of things which enables Americ-m 
competitors to bodily lift an industry from the Straits 
to America, and monopolise the consumption not 
merely of their own country, but also of this country. 
Singapore, 23rd July. Nemo. 
COOLIES AND DEBTS IN CEYLON. 
PROPOSED DRAFT BY MR, ADVOCATE H. CREASY. 
Whereas it is expedient to protecb persons com- 
monly known as Coolies from legal proceedings in 
respect of certain liabilities. Be it therefore 
enacted by the Governor of Ceylon, by and with 
the advice and consent of the Legislative Council 
thereof, as follows : — 
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Coolies 
Protection Ordinance, 1902. 
a. Ooolie means every labourer other than a 
Cangany employed on an Estate, whose name is on 
the Check Roll of such Estate. 
Cangany means any person whose name is on 
the Check HoU of an Estate on which he is 
employed as such Cangany with Coolies working 
under him and entitled to head money or pence 
money for such Coolies. 
Estate means any land on which labourers are 
employed of which 10 acres or more are actually 
cultivated. 
- Emoloyer means thechiet person for the time 
being in charge of an Estate and includes the 
Superintendent. 
Action includes legal proceedings and process of 
every description other than criminal and includes 
proceedings in Insolvency. 
3. No action shall be maintained against a 
Coolie. 
(a) Upon any promise expressed or implied to repay 
money paid or advanced to him or another person at 
his request. 
(b) Dpon any promise expressed or implied to be 
answerable for the debt or default of another 
person, or 
(c) Upon any Bond, Bill of Exchange, Promissory 
Note, or other Security, made, drawn, accepted, 
endorsed, or given by him. 
Provided however, that the provisions contained in 
this Ordinance shall not apply to money lent to a 
Coolie for the bona fide expenses of his journey from 
India to Ceylon, or from any part of Ceylon to the 
Estate on which he is to be engaged as a Coolie, or to 
money not exceeding the sum of Rs. bona fide 
advanced to the wife, or relations of a Coolie im- 
mediately prior to his leaving India for Ceylon, or to 
clothing, rice, or other food, advanced to a Coolie by 
his employer. 
4. All proceedings and documents, in or inci- 
dental to an action in contravention of this Ordi- 
nance shall be void and where complaint is made 
by a Coolie or by an employer, that such Coolie 
is dealt with in contravention of this Ordinance by 
any piocess, execution or oider issued out of any 
Court and is made to that Court or any Court 
superior to it, the Court or some Judge thereof 
shall examine into the complaint and shall if 
necessary discharge such Coolie without fee and 
may award reai-onable costs to the com- 
plainant, which may be recovered as if costs had 
been awarded in his favour in an action in such 
Court. 
5. The Provisions of this Ordinance shall not 
apply to any liability contracted before the com- 
mencement of this Ordinance. 
6. This Ordinance shall continue in force 
until the 
<» 
JUBILANT MALAYSIA. 
COCONUTS AND RUBBEE. 
In regard to tropical products— Coconuts 
and Rubber especially— the Malay Federated 
States have evidently a great future 
before them, and they know it. Spite 
of the checks and disappointments which, 
from time to time, have wasted the subs- 
tance and tried the patience and courage 
of its planters, — ravages by beetles, cater- 
pillars, porcupine and pig— enough often 
to depress the stoutest-hearted — labour 
difficulties and all the troubles incident 
to pioneering work, — the men of the 
Malay Peninsula have kept steadily 
pegging away, taken the buffets of out- 
rageous fortune with what grace they could, 
seen dark days and cloudy ones when 
hope's eye grew dim ;— but spite of it all 
they have held on their way with the 
firm purpose to succeed ; and today they 
are jubilant, and almost within sight of their 
reward. In the report of one of the Malayan 
Produce Companies which lies now before 
us, and in which Ceylon men are largely 
interested, there is manifested this same 
buoyant spirit, and the mood finds ex- 
pression in these words :— " I should say that 
as far as I can see, there is not one of 
them (shareholders) who will ever have cause 
to regret that he entered into the investment," 
and this is before a dividend has been earned ! 
This rather " high falutin " note is almost un- 
known in Company reports, and the shrillness 
of such piping has not always heralded success 
nor safe guarded a speculation ; but when 
we turn from the planting expert opinion 
to the sober words of the Government 
Annual Report of the Federated Malay 
Stites, we find the same exhilarating spirit 
.abroad, only instead of being arranged in 
bright colours, it is clad in drab. "As 
regards the planting interest " says the 
last Annual Report of the Government 
" further experience confirms the belief, or 
rather endorses the certainty, that the combina- 
tion of climate and soli in these States 
pre-eminently adapts them for the cultivation 
of Rubber (Para andRambong) and Coconuts, 
two products, the demand for which is 
annually increasing, while the success of 
Sugar cultivation has already been proved." 
Rubber exports — in any quantity— from the 
Malay Peninsula, have yet to be waited for ; 
but it is anticipated that in a year or two 
