[Dec.  2,  1895. 
428  THE  TROPICAL 
15RIQUETTES  (lUlICKS)  UK  COEFEE  HUSK 
FOR  FIKINU  PI  ^REUSES. 
iS'o\  ember  'Jit. 
DE.-viiSiif, — In  tlie  Obscrri’r  of  tlie  lOtli  inst.  1 note 
that  at  tlie  last  meeting  of  tlie  Malang  Planters' 
Association  it  was  resolved  to  otter  a prize  for  the 
discovery  of  a cheap  binding  substance  for  the 
preparation  of  briijnettes  of  colt'ee  husk,  et(^,etc., 
and  as  T think  1 could  throw  some  light  on 
the  sulijcct,  [ would  be  glad  if  you  could  jmt 
me  into  communication  with  your  Soerabaia 
friends. 
For  several  years  ) last  I have  been  eNpei  iment- 
ing — oil'  and  on — with  coir  libre  dust  mixed  with 
a cheaj),  adbesi\e  and  inliammablc  substance, 
jiressed  into  briquettes,  the  size  and  shajje  of  a 
Scotch  peat,  which  makes  a good  fuel,  but  has 
insufticieut  heat  generating  power,  as  only  191b. 
of  steam  could  be  got  out  of  it  although  1 stoked 
all  I knew. 
Had  1 got  another  (i  or  S lb.,  it  would  have  done 
my  purpose,  but  unless  some  other  cheap  sub- 
stance can  lie  found,  J must  confess  to  Vicing 
defeated,  as  have  done  many  better  men  before 
me,  who  have  tried  their  hand  at  it  but  the 
substance  used  with  the  coir-fibre  dust  would 
amalgamate  with  cotl'ee  busk  eipially  well  and 
would  I know  solve  the  IMalang  Planters'  dtli- 
culty,  as  the  coll’ee  husk  has  in  itself  suHicient 
beat  generating  power  for  any  ordinary  steam 
pressure.  — Y ours  faithfully, 
ENGINEER  AND  PLANTER. 
[This  letter  is  sure  to  attact  attention  in 
Java  (Malang  and  Soerabaya)  and  wc  shall  be 
ready  to  give  our  corresjiondent’s  address  when 
apjilied  to.  Meantime  he  might  write  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Planters’  Association  refened 
to.— Ed.  T.A.] 
THE  CEYLON  LABOUR  QUESTION. 
Nov.  20. 
Sir,— Indentured  Labour  to  Plantera  would  appear 
to  be  pretty  much  what  Pork  is  to  Jews.  Wliy  it 
should  be  BO  is  a little  hard  to  understand.  Inden- 
tured Labour  is  of  all  sorts,  is  indeed  just  wdiat 
you  choose  to  make  it.  Its  sole  essential  feature, 
the  point  in  which  it  differs  from  free  latour  is 
this,  that  in  the  contract  of  service  the  employed 
is  either  represented  by,  or  else  has  conjoined  with 
him  some  responsible  party,  generally  a Government 
Department  or  a Labour  Bureau,  which  stands  in  loco 
/luraitis.  All  else,  the  obligations  of  the  employer 
to  the  bureau  and  of  the  bmeau  to  the  employer, 
are  as  may  have  been  arranged  between  the  autho- 
rities and  the  representatives  of  the  industries 
concerned. 
When  a Ceylon  Planter  grows  inflamed  oi  cr  Inden- 
tured Labour  he  has  in  mind,  I am  told,  the  regulations 
which  obtain  in  Assam ; whereby,  he  declares,  the  Plan- 
ter is  converted  into  a sort  of  milch  cow  for  his  coolies, 
and  the  coolies  into  “fat  and  greasy  citizens  ' who 
do  a turn  of  plucking  or  weeding  now  and  again 
just  to  keep  them  in  health  and  appetite.  However 
this  may  be  (and  the  description  striJics  one  asa  trille 
embroidered),  I am  not  concerned  to  defend  the  In- 
dian systemj  my  purpose  is  to  enqihasi.se  the  fact  that 
the  Indian  system  is  not.  1,he  only  one. 
What  is  w'anted  in  Cevlon,  if  1 am  correctly  in- 
formed, is  an  organization  which  shall  secure  (I)  to 
the  Planter  a sufficient  and  steady  supply  of  labour, 
and  this  without  recoui'se  to  recruiting  agents  or 
advances;  (2)  to  the  coolie,  fair  wages  and  treatment 
and  protection  from  caprice  and  inexperience  on  the 
part  of  the  employer ; (3)  to  the  Government  the 
two  desiderata  of  steady  employment  for  the  labour- 
ing classes,  and  the  abolition  of  those  incentives  to 
drink,  debt,  agid  petty  crime  which  are  inevitable 
^here  the  eoloured  labourer  is  treated,  qua  labourer, 
agriculturist. 
otherwise  than  as  a legal  minor.  To  which  may  be  added, 
(for  the  solicitude  of  Government  may  surely  be  ex- 
pected to  extend  thus  far),  the  promotion  of  the 
interests  of  industrial  Caiiital  insofar  as  they  hinge 
on  Labour. 
An  organization  yielding  these  results  now  exists 
on  the  Diamond  Fields  (not  yet  on  the  Gold  F'ields) 
of  South  Africa  : outcome  of  twenty  years  experi- 
ment and  discussii  n,  not  without  noise  and  heat. 
It  occurs  to  me  that  the  Planting  Community  of 
Ceylon,  in  preparation  for  the  revision  of  its  labour 
arrangements  wliich  the  eiicompanyiug  of  the  tea 
industry  now  in  jirogress  will  render  necessary, 
might  find  it  profitable  to  investigate  .he  methods 
of  regularising  labour  which  obtain  elsewhere,  and 
this  method  in  particular.  A system  which  in  dis- 
putes between  master  and  servant,  substitutes  for 
the  tedious  untrustworthy  pro.esses  of  law  the  sum- 
mary arbitration  of  skilled  labour  officials  ; — which 
safeguards  employer  and  enijiloyed  alike  from  the 
crimp  and  the  pettifogging  lawyer  ; — which  makes  it 
an  indictable  offence  to  serve  liquor  to  a registered 
labourer  without  his  master’s  written  peimit; — which 
treats  a registered  labourer  who  should  leave  the 
estate  without  a written  permit  as  a vagrant,  and 
any  person  who  should  enter  the  estate  without  a 
written  permit  as  a trespasser  ; — which  guarantees  a 
steady  supply  of  docile  labour  . — such  a system  is 
surely  worthy  study.  For  the  substantial  benefits 
aforesaid  the  employer  in  his  turn  is  under  sundry 
obligations  which  he  may  not  shirk;  but  they  are 
obligations  which  no  man.  fair-minded  and  possessed 
of  the  gift  of  working  labour — and  it  is  as  much  a 
gift  as  writing  poetry — will  consider  vexatious. 
And  now  what  like  is  the  system  in  operation  here 
in  Ceylon?  “Just  perfect!’’  exclaims  ihe  orthodox 
Planter  in  I'eyily.  Buc  one  has  not  gone  far  in  search 
of  the  perfection  before  one  finds  that  like  the  joy's 
of  Paradise  it  is  ineffable ; no  tongue  can  tell  it. 
One  hears  how'  you  catch  your  cooly,  and  how  you 
keep  him,  and  the  way  you  pay  him,  and  what  hap- 
pens when  you  and  he  fall  out  and  invoke  the  aid 
of  the  law  ; but  at  the  end  of  th.e  story  what  appears 
is  not  the  perfection  of  the  system,  but  the  patience 
of  the  Planter.  In  the  light  of  the  famous  Labour 
pamphlet— I hear  the  unhappy  author  is  hiding  in  the 
high  jungle  until  the  storm  he  raised  is  over — and  the 
subseciuent  Correspondence,  the  Ceylon  system  would 
seem  to  have  at  its  root — one  might  even  say  as  its 
root -the  habitual  and  hereditary  insolvency  of  the 
cooly ; gathered  up  and  made  available  for 
the  purposes  of  the  Planter  in  the  person  of 
the  kangaiii,  and  recorded  in  the  Twidw.  primarily 
a caveat  emptor  addressed  to  whomsover  the  cooly 
seeking  other  employ,  may  address  himself.  Now  the 
tuudu  is  hardly  a document  to  take  into  a 
Court  of  law,  and  an  Auditor,  a London  Auditor, 
would  treat  it  with  scant  couitcsy.  Its  value  is  as  a 
string  round  the  coolie’s  leg;  and  it  is  this  only,  so 
long  as  the  planters  hang  together  and  discourage 
the  mobility  of  Labour. 
The  Inndu,  indeed  the  whole  system,  is  the  outcome  of 
the  Arcadian  phase  of  the  industry,  when  estates 
were  all  in  the  hands  of  private  owners,  and  native 
cultivation  bad  not  begun.  The  planting  community 
was  then,  and  in  no  sentimental  sense,  a brotherhood 
from  which  any  man  who  should  play  “ dirty  tricks,” 
cdmpiiig  his  neighbours'  coolies  for  example,  was 
jiromptly  banished.  Camaraderie  secured  mutual 
fair-dealing.  But  private  owner's  arc  now  rapidly 
giving  place  to  public  Companies  with  neither  bowels 
nor  conscience,  exercising  no  more  rectitude  in  their 
dealings  than  the  Law  tlcniands,  and  as  much  less 
as  possible.  And  with  the  Companies  is  coming  into 
existence  a body  of  native  planters  who  also  will 
show  small  respect  for  the  Kith  cominandmcut  in 
the  articles  of  manservant  and  maidservant.  All 
this  would  not  matter  wore  tlie  supply  of  labour  in 
excess;  but  it  is  not  in  excess;  it  is,  I am  told, 
barely  adequate.  With  demand  unscrupulous  and 
supply  deficient,  a state  of  things  is  inevitable,  has 
indeed  already  begun  within  a few  miles  of  whei'c 
I am  writing,  which  will  issue  disastrously  to  tlio 
employer  or  not,  according  as  he  takes  the  initiative 
in  reform  or  leaves  the  initiative  to  Goveruiuent. — 
Yours  etc.,  EGOMEX, 
