March 2, 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL AtSimOULTURISt. 
61S 
ing cacao. Seeing them the thieves ran towards a 
jungle, while one with his handkerchief bundled with 
cacao pods wag seized about a chain’s distance from 
the jungle- He was immediately brought to the head 
kangani and from thence to the superintendent. 
On being questioned he said that he stole the cacao 
upon the instigation of some other men. 
Judgement. — The son of the accused only confess the 
case of the prosecution : "‘a party of about six men 
came to his father last night and took him away 
saying that the kangani of Suduganga estate wanted 
him. His father (the accused) did not return home 
last night, but this morning that lad hears his father 
had been taken to the estate.” That story (if true) 
tallies with the case for the prosecution. The accused 
was seen at midnight running away with a party of 
six or seven men in the direction of a jungle into 
which five of them escaped and the accused was 
caught within a chain’s distance from the jungle 
carrying a parcel of about nineteen cacao pods, 
sixteen of which were unripe. He is taken promptly 
to Mr. Falkner, the superintendent, and he there 
makes a clean breast of his guilt. He says he was 
inveigled into this theft by six others and that he alone 
was captured. That fact does not e.xculpate his guilt; 
it only aggravates it, for it shows that ho is willing 
to unite himself with gang. robbers and help them in 
their depredations, I cannot under the existing state 
of law find him guilty under the 2nd section of the 
Ordinance No. 22 of 1886.— If I thought I could, I 
should feel certainly called upon in this ease todo all 
I could to suppress the thoit of praslial products by 
inflicting the only punishment which I think is likely 
to have a deterrent effect upon the village thieves, 
who live and thrive by thefts on European estates in 
the neighbourhood, viz., by imposing lashes on the 
offenders. The possession of the unripe fruit of the 
coffee or cacao tree, &c. by any person who is unable 
to give a satisfactory account of his possession thereof 
is constituted an offence by sec. 2 of Ordinance No. 22 
of 1886, and shall on oonviciiou be liable to the 
punishments provided for the theft of pr;edial 
products under section 368 of the Penal Code, and if 
the case fall within the power of the Police Magistrate 
to try, he the Magistrate may add lashes not exceeding 
20 to the punishment he is autho rized by section 
363 to inflict. I may be mistaken in my construction 
of the section of the Ordinance No. 22 of 1866 1 have 
quoted, but 1 feel strongly that the power of a Magis- 
trate to infliot lashes is limited to a ease where a 
man is found in the direction of a jungle into which 
five of them escaped; and the accused was caught within 
a chain’s distance from that jungle carrying a parcel 
of 19 cacao pods all tied up in a handkerchief. He is 
taken promptly to Mr. Falkner, the superintendent, 
and he there makes a clean breast of his guilt. He 
says he was inveigled into this theft by 6 or 7 others 
and that he alone had the misfortune to be 
caught. Tliis fact, instead of extenuating his guilt 
ouly aggravates it, for it shows tliat without any 
hesitancy or fear of consequences he could readily 
unite with gang-robbers and help them in their de- 
predations. The value of the cacao found on bis 
person may be very small, but the unchecked pre- 
valence ot a crime for which I think only lashes will 
be e deterrent, demands that I sliould inflict as severe 
a penalty as is competent for me to impose. I find 
tho accused guilty and sentence him to undergo 
rigorous imprisonment for a term of six months. 
(Signed; J. II. Eaton, P. M. 
4 
THEFT OF DRIED C.ICAO SEED FROM 
CRYSTAL Illl.L J'lSTATE, 
Mr. A. G.K. Borron charged one Barakare Qedare 
Suddaru with the theft and removing of about four 
measures of dried cacao seed worth Rl uO. From the 
evidence it appears that in conscqueuco of the theft 
of cacao oil the estate Mr. Borroii put a villager on 
tho watch. This watcher saw the accused going to- 
wards tho caddies with a bag of cacao for sale. The 
accused was brought to tho store to Mr, Borron, 
and on being asked from whore ho got the cacao said 
that a cooiy gave it him. He was asked to point out 
the man, hut pointed one who denied ever having given 
cacao to the accused. 
Judgment.— I find the accused guilty and sentence 
him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period 
of four months. — (Signed) J. H, Eaton. P. M, 
— <» 
TFIE NEAV GUINEA CO. AS PLANTERS. 
From theFar East news comes that the S. S. 
“Ysabel,” owned by the New Guinea Company, has 
arrived at Finchhaven, landing there the Pleni- 
potentiary of the Kaiser Wilhelm Plantagen 
GesellBchatt (Hamburg), Mr. Kindt, The company 
intends to cultivate cocoa and coHee, and Mr. Kindt 
therefore had bought at Ceylon the necessary mate- 
rial, of which about 18,000 you- g cocoa plants 
have arrived at Finchhaven i.n good condition. The 
cultivation of coffee will be commenced later on. 
Herr Kindt is accompanied by four Malayan artisans, 
viz., two carpenters and two smiths, as well as by 
eighteen Malayan coolies. — L. and C. Express, 
Jan. 2nd. 

RAINFALL IN LAXAPANA, MASKELIYA. 
Mr. Goo. Greig is good enough to send us a care- 
fully compiled, coloured diagram of rainfall which 
we shall notice fully hereafter, meantime giving his. 
explaraliou : — “I enclose a very carefully kept record 
of the rainfall on this e.state during the past 1.5 years. 
No doubt it will interest you as you so frequently 
refer to the heavy fills of rain that take place on 
Theberton, which in air line cannot bo more than 3 
miles from this, while we here are much more under 
the shadow of the great Peak than Theberton is. The 
falling-off in the last four years to an average of 121'21 
against 157'35 on the previous 11 years is rather remark- 
able — the short-fall having taken place in the south-west 
months chiefly. At the same time there has been no 
falling off in the south-west monsoon— rather tho 
reverse in 1890, along its main track between this and 
Yatiyantota. 
^ 
MANA GRASS EXPERIMENTS; COLOMBO 
COAIilERCIAL CO., LD.; COFFEE IN UA"A: 
PATENT TEA-ROLLING MACHINE; 
ASSETS REALIZATION CO. 
London, Jan. 9tb. 
My last letter described to you an interview had 
by me with one o' the partners in the firm of Messrs. 
Curtis & Harvey on the subject of its proposed 
utilization of mana grass from Ceylon. It seemed 
to me to be singular that that firm should have 
ever conceived the idea of using a charcoal burned 
from this grass in the manufacture of gunpowder. 
As the result to my further inquiry made this week, 
we now know that Messrs. Curtis & Harvey had 
long experienced a difficulty in obtaining a supply 
of suitable material. The willow trees which long 
furnished the best-adapted form of supply, and 
which in past times fringed the banks of our English 
streams in such wild luxuriance, have gradually 
become thinned off that their number has 
become so wholly inadequate to the modern demand 
for the main base of gunpowder manufaoturo. The 
firm, therefore, had given general instructions to the 
patent agents to be on the look-out for anything 
novel coming under their notice which they might 
think offer a chance of being suitable. Messrs. 
Jensen, the patent agents of Chancery Lane, heard 
of the experiments proceeding with the mana grass 
on behalf of the Stanley-Wrighton Syndicate, and 
took a specimen of it to Messrs. Curtis A Harvey, 
who thought that they saw in it a possible 
alternative material, and consequently gave the 
order for a ton to be sent to them from Ceylon 
h for the purpose of experimenting with it. 
