OLD-FASHIONED HUTS. 
tset of lines, and have nothing more to do with allowing 
the people to build their own. However, these old lines, 
with patching and repairs, a post here, and a prop there, 
woulfT or't^ 11 last a wonderfully long time ; they always 
seemed to be just on toe eve of tumbling down, but 
•never did, the coolies seemed to take to them, and, when 
we built better ones to look at, the old ones were un- 
sightly hovels. And as always around them the coffee 
trees were very luxuriant, they certainly did seem a dis- 
grace to the estate, at all events spoilt the appearance 
of it. Now we don’t mean to say that the ordinary old: 
fashioned cooly huts did this — quite the contrary. We 
were and still are of opinion that the old-fashioned mud- 
and-wattle walls, thatched roof, &c., if well built, 
and kept clean, had a much more domestic, com- 
fortable, homely look than the modern ones of stone 
walls, shingle roof, and verandah posts of sawn 
timber. S') it was not the old-fashioned huts, it 
was the d lapidated tumble-down appearance they 
sometimes presented, with the roof thoroughly black- 
ened with smoke. A thatched roof for any in habited 
building is in rnaii}^ ways the most comfortable for 
the inmate ; during hot weather, it is the coolest 
T-oofnig you can have ; and during wet, the most 
comfoi' abh, provided it does not leak, because the 
rain descends upon it without any noise : in fact 
sitting inside so far as noise is concerned you never 
know wlien it rains. Quite the reverse with shingles, 
tiles, or any other hard roofing, the spattering dash- 
ing noise made by the heavy fall of rain on which 
is frequently a great annoyance. But thatched roofs 
are now rarely in use ; although they are comfortable 
ones, they require constant renewal, and thus, al- 
though comparatively cheap at first, during a course 
of years, are the most expensive that could be used, 
besides danger from fire. Many of our readers must 
recollect how cool and comfortable they felt in getting 
under a thatched r^^of , during a hot day ; as compared 
to what it would have been, had the roofing been of 
other ma erial. But, in olden and modern times, it 
has ever been found, if practicable, that it is much 
betier, in many ways and for many reasons, to have 
several small ranges of lines, in different localities, 
than to have one large set ; the latter, however, is 
comparatively cheaper in cost. A large set of lines is 
generally never so healthy, simply because its general 
surroundings are not so easily kept clean. Then, where 
a large number of people are congregated, there are 
generally quarrels; coolies from the same parts of the 
coast and of the same caste, should have, if in sufficient 
numbers, lines to themselves, care being taken that 
they do not over-crowd, for rather than mix 
