JULV  1,  1895.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
17 
$oi|ti6spond6nGO. 
To  the  Editor. 
TEYLON  PLANTATH )N.S  AND  THE  LA H( )l’ R 
(D’ESTION:  THE  VIEWS  OK  'I'HE 
(HIAIRMAN  OK  THE  I’LAXTKItS' 
ASSOCIATION.— No.  I. 
llelugas,  Madulkello,  Ceylon.  May  11th. 
Sir, — A time  when  every  planter  is  as  Imsy  a.s  he 
can  be,  and  when  every  one  has  as  much  as.  or  more 
than,  he  can  do  to  keep  np  with  his  hush,  seems 
a very  unfavorable  moment,  to  open  a discussion  on 
the  labour  question.  If  coolies  arc  as  scarce  all  over 
the  country,  and  coast  advances  universally  as  high, 
as  some  of  your  correspondents  indicate,  the  ques- 
tion is,  certainly  one  of  the  greatest  importance  to 
the  planting  community.  Nevertheless  I submit  that 
its  consideration  by  the  P.  A.  should  be  delayed  a 
short  time  until  members  have  a little  leisure  to  con- 
sider it. 
It  is  all  very  well  to  come  down  with  a cut  and 
dried  scheme  to  bring  fresh  coolies  into  the  country 
for  those  who  want  them  ; but  the  N.D.P.A.’s  scheme 
has  been  launched  without  any  attempt  in  the 
first  place  to  justify  its  e.vistence — in  other  words  to 
prove  the  preamble  ; and  it  entirely  overlooks  the 
two  points  which  are  in  reality  the  ci-u.i-  of  the 
whole  question.  These  are  (1)  How  is  a planter  who 
has  imported,  say  100  coolies,  through  the  agency  to 
ward  off  the  attacks  of  his  neighbours’  kanganies  on 
his  new  force  ? and  (2)  How  are  coast  advances  to 
be  reduced  in  amount  ? 
Coolies  can  be  got,  and  are  now  being  got,  from 
the  coast  by  many  and  at  fairly  rca.sonable  rates  of 
advances — at  all  events  cheaper  than  as  a rule  they 
can  be  had  from  other  estates  although  of  course  they 
are  not  procured  so  speedily.  The  difficulty  is  to  keep 
them.  Coast  advances  in  many  cases,  to  my  own 
knowledge,  are  reasonable  and  I think  the  cases  of 
excessive  advances,  are  in  the  minority.  If  the 
Dimbula  Association  succeeds  in  getting  reliable  in- 
formation on  this  point  a valuable  addition  to  the 
facts  will  be  gained. 
The  gravity  of  the  question  may  not  perhaps  be 
disputed,  and  I wish  merely,  .at  the  present  time,  to 
indicate  that  reliable  evidence  of  the  cause  of  the 
evil,  and  specially  of  its  extent,  should  first  be  obtained, 
and  that  the  past  histoiw  of  the  action  of  the  Planters’ 
A.ssociation  in  connection  with  coast  advances  and 
the  matter  of  crimping  should  be  recalled. 
The  scheme  emanating  from  the  N.  D.  P.  A.,  or 
rather  the  rough  draft  of  it  now  before  the  public, 
seems  to  me  to  bo  in  keeping  with  one  of  the 
growing  tendencies  of  the  time,' viz.,  to  get  some 
public  body  (usually  the  Government)  to  do  what 
the  individual  should  do  for  himself,  and  I can 
scarcely  believe  that  the  Chairmen  and  Sec- 
retaries of  the  Central  .and  District  Associations  would 
undertake  and  carry  through  the  onerous  duties 
which  that  scheme  would  unquestionablj-  entail. 
The  question  is  by  no  means  so  simple  as  the  ex- 
traordinary rapidity  of  production  of  a scheme  to 
solve  it  would  indicate.  No  amount  of  recruiting 
will  bring  coolies  in  quantity  except  at  certain 
seasons  (unless  with  an  enormous  expenditure 
in  advances).  The  planter  (call  him  ignorant  of 
cooly  customs,  or  what  you  will)  who  (by  the  scheme) 
should  send  his  oider  through  the  agency  in  .Tanuary 
so  that  he  may  have  plenty  of  coolies  in  March, 
April,  May,  would,  as  at  present,  find  that  he  could 
not  get  them  and  would  cry  out  as  loud  as  before. 
Hut  if  by  some  chance  he  did  get  tluun,  he  would 
probably  want  to  pay  them  off  again  in  July, 
August  and  September  or  be  u-educed  to  working 
three  days  a week. 
I reluctantly  come  therefore  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  importing  of  new  coolies  from  the  coast  is 
best  left  to  the  individual  or  group  of  individuals 
short  of  labour,  while  past  efforts  of  the  Association 
scarcely  augur  well  for  the  putting  down  of  crimping 
and  the  moderating  of  coast  advances.  Still,  there 
is  no  need  to  be  hopeless  and  a little  more  light 
thrown  on  the  problem  may  show  a solution  of  the 
question. — I am,  &c.,  A.  MELVILLE  WHITE. 
.MR.  C’HAS.  YOUNG  S ( )I*IN K )N.— No.  IT. 
Nuwara  Eli}'a,  May  11. 
Dkak  Sir. — I see  that  the  laboui-  question  and  that 
of  advances  are  once  more  ngitating  the  Planting  Com- 
munity; but  the  S.-W.  monsoon  will  .soon  be  on,  and  the 
rush  of  Ic.af  over.  ;md  the  excilcmeiit  will  ce.ase  fora 
hiin\  leaving  the  plantci’s  sndd<‘r  and  poorer,  the 
coolies  a few  hundred  thousand  rupees  moi’c  in  debt, 
iwhicb  most  of  tlicm  have  no  intention  of  p.aying  by 
honest  work),  and  the  kaddie-keepers  so  much  the 
richer  aJid  more  jubilant  ; and  I cun  see  no  hope  for  any 
improvement  as  long  as  the  picsont  ubolesalo  systciii 
of  crimping  goes  on. 
Now  that  tht'  I'ca  enterprise  has  jcached  that  stage 
that  we  can  pretty  well  gauge  our  future  production, 
and  therefore  our  labour  requirements,  I do  not  think 
that  there  is  much  fear  of  any  serious  scarcity  of  labour 
in  the  IsLaud,  for  I think  w'e  have  nearly  enough  resi- 
dent coolies  for  our  general  requirements,  and  this 
force  is  being  annually  increased  by  births,  so  that  we 
are  not  nearly  so  much  at  the  mercy  of  a yearly  in- 
flux of  Coast  coolies  as  we  were  in  days  of  old  ; but 
the  cooly  of  the  present  d.a}-  won’t  work  and  you 
may  fume  and  rage  and  see  all  your  fine  flush  being 
wasted  on  the  trees,  but  you  cannot  get  of  your  labour 
force  out  to  work,  in  many  cases  not  more  than  }. 
What  cares  Ramasamy  for  the  angry  Dorie  or  lost,  leaf’? 
He  has  just  secured  a fresh  advance  out  of  his  help- 
less master  and  sorenew'ed  his  bazaar  credit,  and  he  is 
now  going  to  take  his  ease,  till  the  next  rush  of  leaf  is 
on,  when  a further  advance  or  his_  tundu  will  be  calmly 
asked  for  ; and  if  his  Dorie  won’t  give  way  anj-  longer 
to  this  squeezing,  Ramasamy  will  go  to  bis  next  door 
neighbour  and  ;/ct  fhr  monc;/'.  Now,  sir,  it  is  in  my  ojii- 
nion  not  so  much  the  scarcity  of  labour,  but  the  idle 
ways  of  the  present  cooly  that  is  our  gre.at  trouble,  and  I 
do  not  think  that  matters  will  mend  until  the  present 
wholesale  system  of  crimping  is  stopt. 
In  my  younger  days  when  labour  was  far  and  away 
scarcer  than  now  and  most  planters  annually  lost  croji 
from  want  of  coolies,  one  would  as  soon  have  thought 
of  picking  bis  neighbour's  pocket  as  attempting  to 
crimp  his  labourers;  it  was  a generally  understood 
thing  throughout  the  Island,  that  you  were  not  to 
take  on  other  estate  coolies  without  finding  out 
from  their  employer  that  all  was  fair  and  square  about 
their  leaving.  Why  can’t  the  planters  of  today  act  by 
each  other  as  they  did  in  days  gone  by  ?,  There  is  no 
greater  scarcity  of  labour  now  than  there  was  then.  No 
doubt  the  country  bred  cooly  of  today  is  very  different 
from  bis  brother  of  old,  but  this  only  makes  it  the 
wore  nrcf's.sa ri/  for  J'/rni/erit  to  ,<!tirk  to  and  be  frne  to 
each  other,  and  they  will  find  their  lives  much  iilea- 
santer  than  the  present  most  unsatisf.actory  state  of 
affairs ; for  if  they  will  not  help  themselves,  no  one 
else  can  help  them. 
'The  Planters’  Association  and  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, as  has  already  been  proved,  can  do  nothing;  they 
can  only  advise.  The  planters  of  each  district  should  com- 
bine .among  themselves  not  to  crimp  each  other’s  coolies, 
and  although  some  may  not  agree,  that  should  not  for  a 
moment  debar  the  majority  from  joining  together  and 
registering  the  names  of  the  estates  that  join,  and  if 
there  is  any  disagreement  let  two  planters  be  appointed 
to  arbitrate. 
What  are  the  District  Associations  doing  in  this  all 
inqiortant  matter  ? They  are  all  constantly  meeting  and 
passing  unanimous  votes  to  press  Government  to  give 
them  a Railway,  a Road,  or  an  Hospital,  and  quite  right 
too,  but  why  cannot  they  meet  and  pass  equally  unani- 
mous resolutions  in  a serious  matter  like  this,  the 
worry  of  which  I am  sure  goes  home  with  them  daily 
and  spoils  the  very  night’s  rest  of  many  of  them. 
Another  way  to  help  in  the  matter  I think  would  be 
for  each  estate  to  start  a bazaar  of  its  own  and  the  su- 
perintendent to  see  that  the  coolies  get  all  their  re- 
quirements on  the  spot  at  a moderate  price,  and  kee|i 
them  as  much  as  possible  out  of  the  hands  of  outside 
harpies,  in  the  shape  of  Chetties  and  kaddie-keepei’s 
In  conclusion  I do  not  for  a moment  recommend 
any  check  to  recruiting  from  India.  Most  certainly  this 
should  be  attended  to,  but  I believe  the  real  trouble 
is  at  home  and  at  our  own  doors,  and  it  can  only  be 
put  an  end  to  in  my  opinion  by  the  planters  tnem- 
selvea— Yours  faithfully,  CHAS.  YOUNG 
