562 
ttlfe tfeOt>ICAL AGRictlLTURISt. 
[M. 1, 1904, 
kindly aciclreased the meeting. He advocated the 
barying or burning of ali prnniugs on effected areas 
and your Oomtnittee htrongly urge those who have 
not 83 yet adopted these means to do bo in future. 
The district is to be congratulnted on the conspicuous 
absence of other pests and, we venture to hope, on 
the improvement in reBpect of borer. 
Tea Cess.— Your Oommittee desire to express their 
hope that means may be found that the 30 Gommiltee 
continue the bonus on Green tea after the expiry of 
the current vote, as they are strongly of the opinion 
that the continuance of the bonus ia essential to the 
complete success of the Ceylon Green tea industry. 
Benevolent Fund Minutes. — Tour Committee are 
pleased to observe ihe evidence of increased interest 
in this excellent Fund. It was from this room that 
Mr Bliss then read the followiiig paper : — 
SUGGESTED LINES ON WHICH REFORM OF OUK 
LABOUR SYSTliM SHOULD MOVE. WITH NOTES. 
I have arranged these sugfrestions under two 
headings : — Legislative cfc Co-operative, Wliatever 
differences of opinion there may be among planters 
on this all important matter of reform of our labour 
system, there can, I take it, be no two opinions 
upon this point : — That if we could ^et a law 
passed, making it impossible lor our Tamil 
employees to be proceeded against for debt, it would 
undoubtedly be a measure, which would have tlie 
most direct, the most immediate, and the most 
far-reaching beneficial results to boih employtr 
and employee of any reform yet sup;ge.''ted. But 
it is quite obvious to my mind, and I think it 
must appeal fairly to all of us, that so long as the 
present system prevails, ot taking in whole month's 
balances of pay due to our employees, to set 
against the pdvances we have given to our kan- 
ganis (and the far less defensible, indeed mosc 
reprehensible, practice of handing over whole 
month's balances to the kangani) we are quite out 
of Court, and it would be idle folly to approach 
onr Government with any such suggestii n. Partly 
for this reason, though mainly because 1 consider 
it the ' royal road' to a betterment of the present 
conditions under which we employ the Tamil 
cooiy, 1 am bringing before the Planters' Asso- 
ciation the resolution advocating compulsory 
monthly payments. For the same reason I place 
this first in the list of my suggested reforms: — 
I. Legislative.— (What Government can do 
for us ?) 1. A law by which we shall be bound 
to pay monthly the balance of wages earned into 
the employee's own /iantZ,— Having agreed to this 
legislation, 1 consider that we shall be fully entitled 
to a favourable consideration of our request for 
some measure of indemnity of our employees from 
prosecution for debt. — Then our second act of 
legislative reform should be : — 2 A law which 
would indemnify all Indian immigrant labourers^ 
whose names are on an estate check-roll, from 
prosecution for debt. Coming to other, and com- 
paratively minor, reforms, I venture to suggest as 
follows : — 
II Co-OPEEATiVE.— (What we can do for our- 
selves?) 1. PxiiGiSTRATioN.— Every estate should 
keep a register as shown here, and no name to be 
entered in the check roll unless copied from the 
register. Number ; name; age ; sex; caste ; date of 
arrival ; name of Estate from whence ; Kangani 
in whose account entered ; date paid off ; went to ; 
remarks. It must be understood and agreed upon 
that the Register is kept by the Superintendent or 
his Assistant. It is surely not too much to ask 
a Superiatead^nt that he should personally iutet* 
view— and see the Register taken of— every new 
arrival on the Estate. 2 WEEDING CONTRACTS. 
—All contractors should be entered on the Register, 
and their daily names put down in the check-roil 
in the same way as the ordinary employees. 
The present system of allowing Kanganis to 
employ on their contracts, coolies whose 
names are not on the Register, or the checkrol), 
can only be described as a premium on * bolting.' 
3. Unsatisfactory Daily Out-tckn The 
following rates to be, of course, optional. But we 
should agree to a maayimmn THte on the following 
lines:— (Every weekday on which work is net 
given, to count as a day of work, when calcnlatinK 
rate of pay.) (a.) All factory, bungalow, cattle* 
shed, and such like, over.time, male employees 
(known generally aa 30 day work-men) to be paid 
for 28 days' work in a month 40 cts per day ; for 
less, only 35 cts per day. (b.) Ordinary field male 
labourers, for 25 days' work in a month 35 cts per 
day; for less, only 31 cts per day. (c.) For 
women and children, I would like to see 
adopted, the only really fair system, of pay- 
meut by the pound of leaf plucked— at the rate of 
1 J cts per lb., or say an agreed upon maximum 
of 2 cts per lb. If this latter cannot be agreed 
upon, then female employees' pay should be at 
the rate of : for 25 days' work in a month, 27 cts 
per day ; for less, only ^3 cts per day. 
With regard to this suggestion, I can only say, 
that I think we have all of as more or less ineffec- 
tually tried the remedy of the 'whip.' Let ns now 
try the effect of the 'bait.' There are several 
other matters that might be considered ic the 
light of necessary reforms; chief of which I 
would put the very serious one of short woik 
given by employers. At the same time I can- 
not see that this is a matter that can be 
remedied by any sort of agreement. If 
Proprietors. Agents, and Superintendents them- 
selves (as far as it is in the latter's power) do not 
properly appreciate the impottance of their duty 
n this matter, I can only express the hope that, 
the system of monthly payments once established, 
their shoitcomings in this respect will be more 
forcibly brought home to them than heretofore. 
Then again there are such matters as listate 
schools. Estate kaddies, individual coolies' accounts 
with their sub-kanganis, etc., etc. I think myself 
that these matters, with the general one of luore 
intimate and personal intercourse of the Super- 
intendent with his employees, may well be left to 
the individual initiativeof the employer.—! must 
be allowed to point out that none of these sugges- 
tions of mine are in any sort of way mere theoretical 
• fads.' On the contrary, and as a matter of fact i'— 
\. 1 have kept a Register, as recommended, for 
the past nine years, with marked good results. 
That is to say, I am never found employing a 
? bolter ' unless he has come on a ' tnndu ' from a 
neighbour, and if my fellow-planters all kept 
Registers, I should not lose the bolting cooliea 
I now do. 
2. I have had the weeding contractors on the 
checkroll for the past six years and find it in 
every way a most valuable system. No complaints 
from coolies that their kangani has not paid them 
for their weeding work. No "friends from 
other estates," weeding my contracts, to my 
neighbours' loss of labour. This is another 
matter in which I should much appreciate recipro- 
city. The only objeGiions the kanganis raised at 
