PEEIYA AND SINNA DX3RAIS. 
any planting proprietor could live long in this way. 
What a meanin^h ss, purposeless existence ! To loun^a 
about, looking on, and neither saying nor doing any- 
thing, in fact a peri’ect nonentity on your own estate : 
quite enough to make any one ill, or at all events predis- 
pose one to disease. The question may be asked, why 
be a nonentity on your own estate ? Get away out 
and look after the wnrk. Then what becomes of the 
superintendent ? It is not very likely he will be of 
much use ; the coolies will ignore oi- make light of 
his instructions and orders, and appeal to the big 
master, and if any appeal has even the smallest sem- 
blance of being sustained, or even listened to, a blow 
is struck at the usefulness and authority of the 
superintendent from which he will never recover. 
Again, whatever your own ideas in private mny be^, 
take no notice of the appeal, and say you never in- 
terfere in estate matters, r^fer them to your super- 
intendent, what do yon become? A nonentity in the 
essimation of your coolies, who, of course, cannot 
understand your principles of non-interference, and 
impute it altogether to a wrong motive or motives : 
incapacity, laziness, very probably even a feirofyour 
own su|)erintendent ! So tliat very probably they may 
be talking amongst themselves, “ A pretty periya. 
durai is he. Why he is afraid of the sinna durai.. 
He is afraid to, give an order, and everything the 
sinna durai says, no matter how absurd, must be 
done.” dhat, or something like it, is very probably 
KamaswPvmi s opinion of the periya durai. They 
cannot understand, or rather thoroughly comprehend,, 
tlie policy of non-interference on the principle of /‘no- 
man being able to serve two mast>-rs.” 
The periya durai, when dismissing a complaint, 
taking the complaint to proceed to the sinna durai, 
may even be taunted in a side whisper to a compari- 
son, for it is rarely one single man makes a com- 
plaint, he has always a witness, or witnesses, is gen- 
erally in company, although his companions may be 
mute, silent witnesses. There will be a slap at the 
periya durai, “He ’s afraid of the sinna durai. He 
does not understand, or cannot work, himself, he’s 
afraid of the sinna durai, in case he may be angry 
and go away,— and then what will he do, for he does 
not understand the work himself.” “Does not un-- 
derstand the work himself.” Few can be aware of 
how much is c >mprehended, in this expression ! For 
there is no greater swing-power or authority a master 
can have over his coolies, than to show and prove* 
that he quite understands his work, and how to do 
it in all its departmen's. If vou are master of your- 
work, and how to do it, you are master also of your 
