TtlE rROElCAL AGEICULTURlSl’. 
Jan. I, 1898.] 
PAYMENT BY RESULTS. 
It is impossible, in almost any walk of life, 
to do absolute justice to all classes, by any 
rule of universal application. We have all ap- 
preciated the obstacles which the old system of 
nomination to official ap|)ointments offered to 
justice. Had those with whom nomination rested 
been ' both clear-sighted in judgment and free 
from all taint of prejudice or partisanship, there 
would have been no need for change in the 
system ; but men, however high-placed, being 
only human, the best candidates had often to 
give place to the most influential or the most 
showy. Competitive examinations were sugatested 
as the best means of checking favouritism ; but 
even on the assumption that perfect fairness 
obtains in the setting of papers and the award- 
ing of marks, the candidate who obtains the 
highest number of marks may be far from being 
the ablest in intellectual power or deep reading. 
And even if he is the ablest, be may be defi- 
cient in character, or in aptitude for business, 
or in physical ability to do justice to his duties. 
The student is not always a practical man ; and 
the cleverest student may prove a poor Adminis- 
trator or be wanting in the Judicial instinct 
Competition is accepted as, perhaps, the best 
test that has been suggested though far from 
being perfect, or even safe in many cases. 
Then, in regulating promotion, after admission 
has once been obtained into a Service or Depart- 
ment, we are confronted by similar difficulties. 
Seniority is regarded as an old-world tradition ; 
and when any other system is adopted it opens 
the door to favouritism and to the advancement 
of the more plausible or complacent. The very 
necessity for the Re-organization Scheme which 
has been adopted as applicable to the Civil 
Service, is connected with the difficulties we have 
been considering of doing justice to the indiri- 
dual on the one hand, and the community he 
serves on the other ; and the di-awbacks even of 
that Scheme are neither few nor imaginary, as we 
have seen. 
The difficulties which beset officialdom are 
present with the private employer of labour, 
but certainly not to the same extent. The latter 
has fewer interests to consider, fewer critics to 
appease. He deals, with what is, in a sen.se, his 
own ; and not a trust for the community or 
the country. Though a conscientious man will 
reckon whatever he has as a trust to be ad- 
ministered with care and circumspection, he can 
disregard all criticism when he feels he has done 
what is right ; but still, awkward questions may 
arise, and have arisen, in regard to one’s duty 
to one’s employees ; and the present contests 
between capital and labour, are but the expres- 
sion of the difficulties we have indicated. One 
of the faii'est and most reasonable solutions of 
these difficulties is to be found in giving the 
employe a pecuniary interest in his master’s 
business. There are obvious difficulties in the way 
•f a general application of concessions. Who are 
the employes who are to be allowed this modified 
partnership ? What is to be the extent of their 
share in the profits ? If profits are to be shared, 
why not losses? These are details whicli offer 
difficulties ; but none of them are insurmount- 
able ; and it is being very widely recognized now 
by far-seeing employers of labour that, both 
good work and loyalty are best purchased, by 
40 
awarding to labour a share in the profits which 
it has the power to develop or lessen. In this 
view, we have always favourably regarded the 
action of local Plantation Proprietors who have 
offered their Superintendents something more 
than a living wage ; who have provided for in- 
crements, at stated intervals, for good work : or 
better still, have held out the inducement of 
commission on i)rofits, in order to create a 
closer feeling than is generally associated with 
payment for woik. So far from considering the 
time inopportune for suggesting the division of 
dwindling profits from Tea, we are strongly 
of opinion that one of the most effective means 
of anesting the falling-off in profits, it not of 
materially increasing such profits, would be to 
offer the Manager or Superintendent a share in 
whatever is netted beyond the latest returns- 
or beyond the average for two or three years. 
The interesting and instructive letters we re, 
ceived in response to our Tea Circulars, show 
how great and diverse are the responsibilities of 
a Superintendent, from day to day, and how 
widespread a feeling there is that all Superin- 
tendents do not attend to the manifold details 
of their duties as closely as they possibly might. 
What then is the best incentive to persistent effort, 
and to close attention to worrying details which 
one might with propriety leave to subordinates. 
Surely it is the offer of some benefit for extra 
trouble. It is impossible to bind people to 
hours in certain classes of work, just as it 
would be the height of unwisdom and cruelty 
to be guided by the law of supply and demand 
in regulating wages for duties which it is im- 
possible to define. In keeping down advances, 
in exacting task work, in conciliating labour, 
in visits to the field and the factory, there is a 
vast difference between what can fairly be ex- 
pected from a SuperintenUent, and what a careful 
thrifty Proprietor will do for himself. The latter 
is the standard to be aimed at, and that can 
never be secured by rules and regulations, and 
any amount of supervision. Personal interest 
is required ; and a share of the profits is 
the best inducement. For these reasons, we 
commend the action of Companies which en- 
courage their Superintendents by an annual 
bonus ; but we are inclined to think that the 
better course would be, after the example of the 
Advertiser in our columns for a Manager for 
Travancore, to offer Superintendents and As. 
sistants a share in profits, or a commission 
beforehand. We should then hear less of com* 
plaints like those which “ Greatly Interested '' 
suggests— complaints for which we would fain 
hope the occasions are tew and far between. 
The Cinchona Cultivation Company fasir 
NangJca, of Java, has declared a dividend for 
the last year’s tiading of 13 4-5ths per cent. 
A New Steaai Turbine.— Our (London Times) 
Rotterdam Correspondent informs us that two 
Amsterdam engineers, Mr. van Gink, managing 
director of the Cycle and Machine Factory de 
Hinde, and Mr. W. J. Holsboer, have invented 
a steam turbine which (according to a report in 
the Nev) BotUrdam Gazette) will cause a revo- 
lution in steam engineering. The inventors have 
sold their system, it is said, to a German firm 
for one million marks, preserving for themselves 
the application of the system to gas and benzine 
motors ; and have taken a patent for it in several 
countries. 
