Oct. 1, 1093.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
269 
THE LABOUE QUESTION. 
A PLANTING REVOLUTION. 
Now that the Report of the Labour Com- 
missioners has been before the planters for 
some time, and its contents more or less as- 
similated, the question as to how far it is 
going to help in procuring a better labour 
supply for the island is not, by any means, 
decided. With the Report itself little or no 
fault can be found. Its forty-eight pages 
are replete with ncuch information — more or 
less bearing on the cooly question— and an 
insight is given as to some of the causes 
which have dammed back the stream of 
immigrants that, till of late, has regularly 
flowed year by year toward the colony. The 
keenness and extent of the competition for 
other parts of the world, which are also de- 
manding service, are clearly brought out and 
the risks from the tricky recruiter are noted. 
The Comnkissioners, while agreed as to the 
need of reliable European agents on the 
spot, if the depleted labour force of the 
colony is be reinforced and kept up to full 
strength, are at variance as to whether the 
appointment of those agents should be left to 
private enterprise, or they should be employed 
by ii Labour Bureau catering for the planting 
districts as a whole. Although no call has 
been made for an umpire to decide this 
very important question, the recent public- 
spirited action of Mr. James Westland, in 
underta'cing a labour mission of his 
own— -in which both money and brains were 
expended — entitles him to much weight in 
settling the Commissioners' differences. In 
his speech at the late Matale Planters' Asso- 
ciation meeting he says in reference to the 
difference of opinion between Messrs, Turner 
and Hill :— "I agree with Mr Hill, and for this 
reason : that the sending over of agents by 
private individuals becomes a very expensive 
system. If Matale, Kandy, and Kelani 
Valley each sent an agent, what would be 
the result ? They would bid against them- 
selves, and the recruiters would want instead 
of two rupees, six, seven, eight, nine and 
ten." In this finding we are inclined to 
agree. As it is at present, the bidding up 
locally of rates for labour is bad enough, but 
if this system is to be extended to the raw 
material, it will aggravate the position 
until it will become intolerable. Further it 
is the I'ecruiter who alone will benefit by 
the competition, the cooly being no better 
off than before ; whereas if more money has 
to be expended, it will be well that it should 
find its way to the labourer whose increased 
well-being would certainly be reflected in 
his old home and be an encourage- 
ment for others to hasten to the same 
field, so that they too might share 
in the plenty. Mr. Westland, in inaugurating 
an increased scale of pay for his Telugu 
coolies, above what has hitherto been current, 
has unconsciously proclaimed a planting 
revolution. " A.H.T." in his interesting letter 
elsewhere objects strongly to the scale of pay- 
ment being altered, as Vlr. Westland has clone 
with his force. For very many years the pre- 
sent ordinary rates have been fixed. There are 
exceptions it is true— in the tea-house and 
elsewhere, as there always have been. [Even 
in the days of coffee the store-handa were 
more highly paid than the rank and file.] 
But, speaking generally, the wage has ever 
been a settled one, and negotiations with 
new labour, while they opened many estate 
questions— weeding contract rates, and head 
money for instance — left the remuneration 
of the cooly untouched. Advances might 
rise or fall, but the wage itself was settled. 
Mr. Westland has now been able to 
show that the cost of Telugu labour is 
moderate, even when all the extras have 
been included: but where the pinch will prob- 
ably come, will be the convincing of the 
local Tamil who gets thirty three cents per 
diem that the Telugu at forty cents is worth 
the extra and does not cost the estate more. 
Ramasamy is not much of an arithmetician ; 
but he is quite cap.-ible of appraising his 
services at the worth of any Telugu, and 
seeing in the handsome monthly balance of 
his brother labourer, a very desirable posses- 
sion into which he should immediately pre- 
pare to enter. We fear with a mixed force 
there will be discontent; but it is possible 
that estates may be so manned that some 
may rely exclusively on the Tamil and others 
depend solely on the Telugu, in which cases 
easy woi'king might result. It is a bold bid 
which Mr. VVestland has made toward the 
settlement of the vexed labour question of 
the day. We certainly trust that the diffi- 
culties which are inherent in the launching 
of any new labour scheme— and are not 
absent from this one— may be easily overcome, 
and that the Telugu will turn out a success. 
Mr. Westland has shown real public spirit 
in his unselfish endeavour to solve the labour 
difficulty of the island, and the enthusiastic 
reception he received from his brother 
planters in Matale when he last spoke there, 
honestly reflects the feeling of every district 
of the island. Men may differ with him in 
details, and see dangers ahead in the working 
out of his scheme ; but all will admit that a 
good work has been done, and an honest 
effort made to save the situation. 
School Gardens at Home.— A Bill was 
issued receutly which has been introduced by 
Mr Jesse Coliings, the object of which is to pro- 
vide for the teaching in all public eleaientary 
schools of agricultural and horticultural subjects; 
to give facilities for nature study, and generally by 
means of object lessons, to cultivate habits of 
observation and inquiry on the part of the pupils. 
To this end the Bill provides for school gardens, 
and such collection of examples and objects as may 
be necessary for the practical illustration and ap- 
plication of the instruction given. Tlie education 
specified in the Bill, while optional in urban 
schools, is compulsory in all schools situate in 
rural and semi-iural districts. The measure in- 
cluile? instruction in fruit, flower, and vegetable 
growing; poultry and bee-ke« ping; building, prun- 
ing, and grafting; cow and pig-keeping ; milking; 
rotation of garden crops; nature and properties of 
soils; use of manures; knowledge and choice, of 
seeds; structure, life, and food of plants ; action of 
birds and insects on crops; choice and use of simple 
tools, and packing fruit, vegetables and other 
produce for mdvkat.— Journal of Horticulture. 
