HEAD KANGANI A8 MASTER. 
check-rol), and sums counted out, the head kangan! 
swept them into his bag, and the clerk made a not© 
of it on his talipot leaf. On expressing my surprise 
at this system of paying, the master told me, it saved 
a great deal of trouble, and was soon got through, 
that the head kangani took the money to the lines, 
and settled with the coolies, and I have no doubt h@ 
settled the matter in a way peculiar to himself. 
His duty was a difficult one in this way, for he had 
to humour and please two conflicting interests. If he 
attended to his master’s interest and worked the 
eoolies, he displeased and lost his influence with them. 
If he humoured the coolies too much, the master was 
down upo him, and threatened him with the socl;. It re- 
quired a good deal of diplomacy to smooth over and 
arr^ge ihatters so as to please both parties, but 
your real head kangani was a thorough diplomatist ; 
let him alone for any amount of blarney”; and on 
looking back on those times, it seems now almost in- 
credible the quiet unostentatious influence the head kan- 
gani used to possess. He had generally a corner 
room of the lines to himself, his chief badge of 
exalted dignity being a plurality of wives, and in 
front of his home groups of coolies might always be 
seen in the evenings, discussing their wrongs, or 
having them redressed. 
But this system of head kangani superintendence and 
power began to give way before the influx of Euro- 
pean superintendence. The head kangani was fain to ^ 
make friends with the siana durai ; in fact they? 
sometimes become too close^triends,' and the newly- 
arrived raw assistant would consult and give way to 
him, for who could give him better or more general 
information on the work, coolies, and all details of 
labour, than the head kangani ? 
At length even the very assistant would come 
under his influence. During a wet day he need not 
go out. The head kangani would settle everything 
and come and report in the evening. After some 
time a hint would be given, that master’s ** water- 
proof ” was good for the rain, and the grateful 
assistant would consider he could not do less than 
present it to the head kangani. 
These remarks are by no means meant generally to 
apply to the whole planting community of these times, 
but none who recollect the days of old can deny 
that many similar instances to what has been stated 
here actually occurred. 
Head kanganies were useful people if kept in their 
proper place, well looked after, and not given way 
to. I should think they are now in a great degree 
a thing of the past, at least I do not think the 
