562 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. 1, 1902. 
THE FUTURE OF THE PLANTING 
INDUSTRY IN INDIA : 
POSSIBILITIES OF SUGAR. 
SPEECH BY MR. COX. 
A dinner was given lately at the Station 
Club, Muzaffarpur, by the Planters' i» ssociation. 
Over sixty were present. Sir William Hudson 
proposed the toast of the Kiu}?. Mr Macnaghten 
gave that of Sir John Woodburn, who, he said, as 
Lieut. -Governor had shown an active interest and 
a keen insifj-ht into the requirements of the Plant- 
ers excelled by none of his predecessors. His 
Honour, in replying, referred to the support always 
given to Government by the Planters which was 
not forgotten now that an opportunity offered for 
reciprocating their past services. Their position 
was serious. It was essential to relax no effort 
to place the industiy in a sounder position. He 
appealed to the young men especially to take a 
keener interest in experimental work. While he 
was pleased to note the gallantry and buoyancy 
they displayed, joined with a spirit of indomitable 
courage, it was necessary to exercise prudence 
and circumspection if success were to be achieved. 
Sir William Hudson proposed the health of the 
guests coupling with the toast the name of Mr 
C S Cox, who responded as follows: — 
Your Honour, Mr. Chairman and Gentle- 
men, --While there are several present here jwho 
probably could more fitly be put in a position in 
which i find myself, I am not sorry to have the 
opportunity, which is being given me, to refer to a 
matter about which something has already been 
said tonight. 
THE ATTEACTION OF CAPITAL. 
This question of the sugar industry in Behar 
was first brought to our notice by Sir William 
Hudson and his brother, mainly no doubt because 
it was known that we had for sometime previously 
been interesting ourselves in the matter of the 
Currency Policy of the Government of India, and 
on that account might reasonably be expected to 
be prepared to enquire into any promising indus- 
trial development. It was thought by many that 
when India went on a gold basis, that fact in 
itself would be sufficient to attract capital to the 
country, but we found in practice that while stabil- 
ity of exchange is essential on many grounds, 
that alone is not sufficient to attract ^capital foi 
investment here. I may remind you of the cases, 
for instance, of the Argentine and the Brazils, 
which continue to attract capital in spite of a 
fluctuating exchange. The real reason for this is 
that big profits have been made in the London 
market in connection with these countries, while 
no one of this generation has made profit in the 
London market over ludia. The great enterprises 
in India, railway, &c,, have been controlled by 
Government, which does not allow large profits. 
Possibly money has been made locally in the 
manufacture of tea and jute, but these have had 
no effect on, nor have they tempted London. This 
is shown by the fact that there is no Indian 
market on the Stock Exchange in London as 
anyone may at once discover who has a suggestion 
about India business to make to a London stock- 
broking firm, and we had realised, before I met 
Sir William Hudson, that it was absolutely 
essential that something should be found and 
actively followed up, which appeared to afford a 
reasonable chance of making a practical demon- 
stration to English financial circles of the oppor- 
tuniDy vouched for by the Currency Committee in 
July, 1899, before India had any chance of attract- 
ing English capital. 
The Committee reported among other things that 
" the natural resources of India are beyond ques- 
tion, as also is the need for their development. In 
order to develop and reap the benefit of her 
resources, India requires, and must long continue 
to require, foreign capital. We desire to re- 
cord our opinion that the effective establishment 
of a gold standard is of paramount importance to 
the material interest of India. Not only will 
stability of exchange with the great commercial 
countries of the world tend to promote her 
existing trade, but also there is every reason to 
anticipate that with the growth of confidence in 
a stable exchange, capital will be encouraged to 
flow freelyjn to India for the further development 
of her great internal resources." 
In another clause speaking in January, 1899, 
Lord Elgin said : — " India has most of the ad- 
vantagesj which are calculated to inspire tlie 
capitalist with confidence." But these mere ex- 
pressions of opinion, however influential, don't 
attract capital. 
THE INTERESTS OF THE PLANTER. 
Without knowing anything practically about 
sugar, I at once graspea the possibility of such 
an industry in India, if the figures and facts 
supplied to me, on investigation, proved to be 
reasonably correct. I was favourably placed for 
checking the figures given me about Queensland 
and other countries — I came to the conclusion that 
there was a reasonable probability that Sir Wil- 
liam Hudson had not over-stated his case, and 
we sent out an expert to report on the correct- 
ness of the local conditions, as they had been 
represented. 
At this stage in our progress we were not a 
little encouraged by His Honour's Government 
appointing a Commission to investigate the whole 
subject, in the interests of the Behar planting 
community. While we had made considerable 
progress previous to this announcement, the form 
in which the instructions to the Commission were 
given by the Bengal Government, emphasised the 
interests of the planters in the matter, and having 
a predisposition, in regard to our whole scheme for 
the promotion of the industrial development of 
India, to act on the line of the least resistance with 
the said Government, and the Government of India 
we, from the start had it very much in our minds, 
that the interests of planters in the matter should 
receive every consideration. The more I have 
looked into it and become acquainted with the 
local conditions, the more I have been convinced 
that everything in the direction of promoting that 
planters' interests has been equally the promotion 
of our own. 
Sir William Hudson at an early stage of our 
intercourse made this point strongly to me, and 
it is due to thisgentleman and to his brother that, 
I should state, not only in regard to this point 
but of all other facts and figures put before me, 
over two years ago, that they have been borne out 
by our recent experience and experiments. I have 
myself felt the greatest interest in this aspect 
of the case, for as a planter in Ceylon I had ex 
perience of the cofiee crisis in 1880-82, a crisis in 
many respects very similar to that now being 
experienced here, and I trust that planters will 
benefit from that experience. 
