PAY-DAY, 
On paying a man his balance, he asked the number of 
days he had worked. On being told, ‘‘ Twenty-three, ” 
he said it was wrong, that he had worked twenty-four, 
and at once proceeded to count out the stones. On 
coming to the last stone, the number was twenty -three. 
Without being at all put out he merely walked oif, 
saying he must have lost one. 
Of course this sort of thing was not, as a rule, per- 
‘mitted at the pay table, otherwise there would have 
been no end to it, and the work would never have been 
got throU:jh. It required a great deal of patience, and 
the best way was, and I should fancy still is — get 
through with the work as fast as possible, shut up the 
books, and take off the money bag. So long as its lies 
on the table, the coolies will hanker and hang about. 
A very good plan is to pay them at the store. It save# 
the grounds about the bungalow from being trodden 
down, and then when paying is over you can march 
off with the balance of the cash,, so taking yourself, and 
it, out of sight. But this sort of thing is unnecessary 
in the present day, where accounts are correct, and good 
discipline is the rule. We were not very particular 
about paying correctly the odd pence : if there was 6s. 
7d. due, we would pay 6s. 6d. ; another who had 6s. lOd, 
due would receive 7s. This was not much out of the 
way, audit would have been well for the coolies had ^ 
every ope been as reasonable as this. The c umbly. was 
a perquisite, and was not generally charged, ^but they 
were cheap then, costing from Is. to Is. 3d. The arrange- 
ment was that the coolies had the use of these cum- 
biies during their stay on the estate, and on leaving it 
they gave them up, as well they might ; for such a 
parcel of rags and rubb sh, as they did hand over ; 
useless and fit for nothing. 1 he cooly, like many of his 
betters, does not appreciate an article he gets for nothing. 
He did not take even ordinary care of his cumbly. 
It, after a few weeks, was all in rngs, and he was 
in want of a new one. * ^ was 
constantly sounding in your ear— aninESe two brief 
expressions, of two wants each, were put forth as a 
legitimate and proper excuse for all manner of deficiency 
in work or even for no work at all. In present times 
tiie coolj? buys and pays for his own cumbly, and see 
the care he takes of it and the time it lasts him as 
compared with the ‘‘days of old when he got it for 
nothing. We Uf^ed to keep stocks of cumblies in store 
for immediate i^sue to new arrivals. 
The cooly, knowing there was a good stock of 
_ cumblies in store, would, when his own began to get 
a little tVie worse for wear, stow it away below some 
coffee tree, and make his appearance at the bungalow, 
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