Jan. 1, 1904.1 THE TROPICAL AGRlCULTURISTi 493 
LABOUE TKOUBLES IN DEMEEAKA. 
It is certainly a new form of labour trouble, 
that of having too many coolies, and one 
which is quite unknown in this colony. It is, 
however, rampant in British Guiana, and so 
rabid have the Negro population and their 
supporters become that the Secretary of State 
for the Colonies has been memorialised to 
stop the State aided Immigration, or have a 
Royal Commission appointed to fully inquire 
into the matter. From the Deuierara papers 
it is clear that a good deal of friction and heat 
is about, and His Excellency the Governor, 
Sir J. A. Swettenham, K.C.m.G., in his cover- 
ing dispatch when forwarding the hniiiigra- 
tion Memorial, had a number of plain things 
to say and availed himself of the opportuiiity 
of saying them in a sharp and pointed way, 
The trouble is the trouble of all the West 
India islands : the Negro population will not 
work for a pay which will allow the planter 
to live, and when they do. deign to seek em- 
ployment as agriculturists, they areirregular 
in their service, and cannot be depended dli. If 
there is no ambition, it is very easy in tropical 
lands to make a bare living, and it is hopeless 
to expect any colony to advance if agriculture 
is to be dependent on Negro service ; for the 
emancipated African dearly loves an idle life, 
and there is no pressure of want to compel 
exertion. During the last eleven years 46,343 
coolies have, with State aid, been imported 
into British Guiana ; 20,205 have returned to 
India during the same time, and at present 
with natural increase and other ways, it is 
estimated that 150,000 are in the colony. The 
Indian cooly, being industrious and living 
simply, is able to more than hold his own with 
the Negro, and when his indentures have ex- 
pired, instead of returning to Calcutta with 
his accumulated savings he often elects to 
remain on, becomes a shopkeeper, petty trader, 
small free holder, cattle-owner, milk man or 
rice-grower. In the face of this pusliing and 
capable working force, the easy going Negro 
is nowhere ; but all the same the African has 
a high opinion of his own woik, and, because 
the planters do not appraise him at the same 
high figure, and decline to offer bigger wages 
than are current among the Indian coolies, he 
fancies he has a serious grievance, and hopes 
to force the hand of the planter and procure 
work on his own terms by getting the State- 
aided immigration stopped. The friends of 
the Negro have it that through the influence 
of Christian missions the African has been 
raised to a higher plane of life than the Indian 
cooly. His wants have increased, he has 
progressed in the scale of civilisation and to 
meet this new condition of things, the cooly 
wage is inadequate, and — rather than accept 
the half-loaf offered— ho will take none. He is 
represented to resemble a man who is on 
strike for higher wages, and the action of the 
Government in aiding Indian Immigration is 
like taxing them to pay for the introduction 
of foreign cheap labour to compete against 
them. If the Negro had possessed any re- 
alisable capacity for agricultural work, he 
had good opportunities of showing it outside 
of the sugar plantations where the Indian 
cooly is mostly employed ; but of these open- 
ings he has not availed himself, r.nr risen to 
the opportunity, Colfee is a product in which 
the cooly does not compete with the Negro. 
It is in British Guiana essentially a small 
proprietary industry, which can lie success- 
fully prosecuted at little cost save of industry. 
It is also .protected by a 4^ cents per lb, im- 
port duty— eq vial to £21 sterling per ton, and 
yet with all these advantages tlie yearly im- 
dorts of cotiee are large, and the peasant i)ro- 
prietary body has simply abandoned the culti- 
vation and allowed this promising rural enter 
prise lo go to wreck. Too lazy to work in 
their own interest, is it any wonder that the 
(Tovernrnent is convinced that if sugar were 
wholly dependent on African labour, it Loo 
would suffer eclipse. In the adjoining colo- 
nies of Dutch and French Guiana, where 
notliing has been done to supply other than 
Negro labour, and which are physically and 
historically on a par with British Guiana, 
there is presented an object lesson to the 
British aaministrator, which he has not failed 
to note, and which he hopes to avoid. In 
these two foreign colonies, when Indian immi- 
gration has not been availed of, agricultural 
prosperity is all but lost ; the country is 
under-populated, and the African r;ice has 
barely maintained its numbers. There are 
abundant rich lands available for cultivii- 
tion, but the want of the steady worker to 
develope them gives them — for the time being 
— the same value as the Sahara. Is it any 
wonder that Sir J. A. .Swettenham, with his 
former Ceylon experience, has a passion for 
the Indian cooly, and that he should say in 
his despatch : — " I confess, speaking individu- 
ally, my regret that instead of meielj' 150,000 
coolies, we have not ten times that number in 
the colony. We have land enough and to 
spare, and with a natural supply of water 
available they could grow rice to supply this 
heuiisfjhere. Already, chiefly by the industry 
of the free cooly, the local price of rice which 
25 years ago was 32 cents per gallon, has been 
reduced to 16 or IS cents. There is also an 
enormous field for coconut planting on a large 
scale, and on the savannahs for cattle iarrning, 
a business which is very popular amongst 
coolies." We have always held that the 
Indian cooly was the best labourer in the world 
and it is not a matter of surprise that the 
sugar planters of Denierara and the Governor 
of the colony who have tested his quality, 
should be willing to let the African worker 
slip, and instead of leaning on the Negro, 
look to the Indian immigrant as the power to 
further the colony's iriterest and increase its 
influence. The emancipated Negro is a sore 
puzzle anywhere, and Ceylon is happy that its 
labour question is not complicated by big 
presence amongst us. 
« 
SALE OF SIDRAPOIS'G ESTATE. 
Calcutta, Jan. 4. 
Sidrapong tea estate, Darjoeling, containing 
280 acres, together with all the buildings 
thereon, was sold on Saturday for R72,250 by 
IMessrs, Cresswell, the purchaser being Mr. 
Laidlaw of Messrs, Whiteaway and Laidlaw. 
