•Tan. 1, 1904.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGKICULTURIST 
405 
CAMPHOR PRODUCTION. 
INTERVIEW WITH A CAMPHOR MERCHANT. 
Amongst the nuineious visitors from abroad 
which have recently been visiting Ceylon 
is Mr. Peter P. Van VIeet of Memphis, 
Tennessee, who with his wife is on a trip 
round the world, mainly on a holiday — 
having arrived here from the States via 
Japan and the Philippines. Mr. Van V^ieet 
is a partner in the big Van Vleet, Mans- 
field Drug Co. of Memphis. While at 
Manila he and his wife were the guests 
of Governor Wright who succeeded 
(Jovernor Taft (now U S A. Secretary for 
War). In Japan, he was interested in 
studying the state of the camphor trade — 
his hrm being largely interested in this 
product, the sole control of which (through 
its monopoly) is one of Japan's proudest 
commercial boasts and for which it has never 
been sorry it accepted Formosa instead of 
Korea in treating with Russia. For in Japan, 
we learn, the camphor production has now 
almost died out ; the trees have been so cut 
about— the camphor being obtained by boiling 
the pulp obtained— that they have died off 
and Japan has now to rely on its island of 
Formosa, where the supply is practically inex- 
haustible, Mr. Van Vleet thinks that for 
anyone who can undertake Ciimphor-growing 
here, there is a sound future, the demand 
being always- greater than the supply at 
present prices, which are fixed by the 
Japanese Government. Six or seven years 
ago, Mr. VanVleet says, camphor could be 
bought at 27 cents (about 85 rupee cents) per 
lb. whertas now it has risen nearly 150 per 
cent to 63 cents (or about Kr90 ) Owing to 
the high price, it has been cut out as a dis- 
infectant and many other articles have taken 
its place. Our visitor was interested to hear 
that some camphor was already being 
grown in Ceylon— e.gf. 15 acres in the Hewa- 
heta district and further plantations else- 
where—and he advised extension in this 
product wherever it is found to grow well. 
Mr. VanVleet was also interested in 
cinchona, which was now 15 cents (about 
40 rupee cents) a pound, formerly— when 
Peruvians first collected it from their own 
forests— IS 5c, or R3 30 nearly. India had 
cut out Peru by planting cinchona, sind 
thus guaranteeing a regular supply, for 
Peruvians had found it too profitable, were 
lazy in collecting it and prices went up to 
2 dollars per pound. But Java now was 
producing even better cinchona, richer iu 
quinine, and the Indian product suffered 
accordingly. All the supply of quinine, we 
are told, comes from Germany which buys 
up practically all the cinchona supply. 
Mr. VanVleet knew well Mr, P. L. Seely, 
of the Paris Medicine Co., who visited 
Ceylon 2 years ago— on his honeymoon (his 
bride being the daughter of one of his 
chief Directors, Mr. Grove) and who has 
since gone in for Law. 
Mr. VanVleet was congratulating himself 
on being at this season in a temperature 
of 75° to 78° in the shade, while his friends 
in Tennessee were sleighing aud skating as 
usual in the middle of December. He and 
Mrs. VanVleet proceed to Calcutta and across 
India, leaving Bombay for Europe and 
thence home, Bon voyage. 
V • 
COOLY EMIGRATION TO REUNION. 
THE HAD LABOUR CONDITIONS IN THE 
FRENCH COLONY. 
Pondicherry, Noveniber, 
There srenis to be a probability of a brisk com- 
peUdon springing up for the cooly emigration 
trade at no very distant date. It is stated in a 
late issue of the Paris paper Quinzaine Coloniale, 
that "a determined effort is about to be made 
to re-introdiice Indian cooly emigration to Reunion, 
where planters and employers are in a despe- 
rate state owing to a want of labour"; and 
private advices from France lately to hand seem 
to confirm the account, adding that it is rumoured 
Messieurs Waldeck Roussean and Lanessan, mem- 
bers of the late Cabinet, and also Monsieur 
Hebrard of the Temps de Paris with M. Yves 
(iuyot of the Siicle, are expected to join the 
Syndicate. The Isle of Bourbon has ever been 
dependent upon British India for the labour 
required to work its sugar plantations and also, 
in a great measure, to carry on the public works 
of the Colony. Up to the introduction of the 
Indian Emigration Act of 1861, a fair supply of 
Indian labourers was generally obtainable at 
reasonable rates, and for some years after the 
Act came into force mat'ers worked smoothly. 
But as time wore on the Planters and their Agents 
became oppressive and cruel, and it was only 
after submitting for many years of tyranny and 
de.'»potism that the "Gentle Hindoo" revolted 
and refused to work. And at about the same 
time similar complaints were received from the 
French West Indian Colonies to which large 
numbers of coolies had emigrated under the 
British Indian labour law. The accusations 
asainsfc the Planters and the local Government 
oflBcials were rigorously and thoroughly iavesti- 
gated, and the result was that with here and there 
an exception the complaints were proved to be 
substantially correct : it was shown that not 
only were the French authorities to blame for 
allowing; the planters to commie horrid atrocities 
upon helpless natives, but that they permitted 
them to defraud and victimise the coolies in any 
way they wished, while means of seeking redress 
ot their wrongs were kept absolutely and entirely 
beyond their reach. And this disgraceful state 
of affairs was enacted practically in the presence 
of a highly paid English official— styled " Protec- 
tor of emigrants" and stationed at the Head- 
Quarters of each of the Colonies where Indian 
contract labourers were employed. The end of 
the whole business has been the suppression of 
the Indian Emigration Convention of 1861, and 
British Indian subjects are now forbidden under 
severe penalties to emigrate or to enter into 
Foreign labour contracts or to proceed abroad. 
The Act is framed so as to include all or any 
"who shall assise or attempt to assist a British 
Indian subject to reach. a Franco-Indian port 
with a view to emigrate to a Foreign country." 
The law, towever, was evaded two and three years 
ago in the case of Madagascar, to which Colony 
upwards of 1,000 emigrants were shipped from 
Pondicherry, in two Enalish steamers. The coeliea 
were brought into Pondicherry surreptitiously 
by railway, and after a nominal medical examina- 
