( 241 ) 
Sir Hugh Low also took a great deal of interest m intro- 
ducing high class cattle, chiefly Jerseys and Alderneys, and Nellore 
cattle from India, which were kept at Kuala Kangsa and on the 
Taiping Hills, where the descendants of these cattle still remain 
Men " like Sir Hugh Low are, alas, rare. Possessed of a 
charming personality and an enthusiasm for the development 
of agriculture in the Peninsula at a time when the importance 
of this was not appreciated by others he laid the foundation 
of this great work, and though much of his work was undone or 
abandoned under later regimes, he will always remain as the 
pioneer of agriculture in the Malay States. Ed. 
RUBBER IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. 
Mr. W. D. Bosanquet’s letter to the “Ceylon Weekly Times" 
concerning the superiority of the Malay Peninsula as a planting 
ground for rubber over Ceylon, has caused a storm of indignation 
on the part of the various correspondents of the Ceylon papers. 
Most of the correspondence thus elicited adds nothing to our 
knowledge of any advantages possessed by Ceylon over the 
Peninsula. One correspondent points out that Ceylon has a 
great advantage in possessing a gold standard and fixity of 
exchange, which the Malay Peninsula has not. It is, however, 
quite conceivable that this advantage may also be possessed by 
the Peninsula at no distant date. 
Another correspondent writes, under the signature of 
“Agricola,” stating that he has been to the Malay Peninsula, and 
is most anxious to deter .people from going there to plant rubber. 
On account of the intense heat and deadly climate, whole villages 
are wiped out by the deadly malaria, and even the Tamil dies. 
The climate is as bad as West Africa, and so on. This is 
certainly news to those who have lived and worked healthfully 
and comfortably in the Malay Peninsula, and have never found 
out how dangerous a country it is. However, any would-be 
settlers here who are scared at “ Agricola’s ” appalling account 
can be reassured by the latest report of the United Planters’ 
Association in which it is proved conclusively that “ The death 
rate on our estates is only 19 per mille against the general death 
rate of the Indian population of 32.87 per mille; that the birth- 
rate of planters’ free coolies is 24 per mille against the deathrate 
of 19, and that after the first six months in this country the 
improvement in physique of the coolies is very marked.” 
This hardly bears out “Agricola’s” statements, and we have 
no hesitation in stating that such a false description of the 
healthiness of the country should never have been published, and 
still less have been reprinted in a local Singapore paper as it has 
been. 
