and properly laid out by plan — thus, say, large drains run in at right angles to the 
Selama road at- about 2,000 or 3,000 feet apart, with smaller drains at every r,ooo feet, 
and, at right angles to these again, medium size drains at every 1,000 feet and smaller 
ones at, say, 500 feet. In this way the land would be thoroughly under control, as far 
as the water is concerned, which is, of course, the principal thing to look to; and 
then water-gates would have to be put up at suitable places. Three or four of these 
would be sufficient for a very large extent of country, as the land is, of course, very 
flat. At 11.30 a.m. the same day we started down the Sungei Siakap road as far as 
Kuala Kurau. For the first three-quarters of the w f ay down this road, “ seven miles 
long,” there is only a little cultivation on either side of the road, except at the very 
beginning, where there is a sugar estate on the one side and the Tamil Roman 
Catholic Mission on the other. The last quarter of the road near Kurau has got a 
beautiful stretch of padi on it on either side — on the right side stretching right away 
to Kuala Tanjong Piandang and Bagan Tiong, On the banks of the Kurau river padi 
is also planted and looks well. We returned to Bagan Serai by the Chinese launch, 
which we were fortunate enough to catch at Kurau, and arrived at Bagan Serai at 
5.30 p. m. We also visited the Rev. Father Diridollon, who is in charge of the Tamil 
Mission. He has got a good deal of his land cultivated by his people ; it looked 
fairly well, but he complained of it having been much damaged by rats during the 
early stages of its growth. Father Diridollon says he can get 50 people down from 
India, who are friends of his Tamils, at $1 per head, and hopes to do so this year, as 
he is desirous of opening up a larger quantity of land. His people appear to be very 
poor, and any little assistance the Government could give him would help to get his 
land opened up. 
It appears very evident to me that unless the Government will do something to 
open up the country, no large extent of land will ever be taken up by Malays or 
the natives generally, as they are not in a position financially to do so. Why I say 
this is because I believe most of the roads in the Krian district have been opened now 
for the last six years and on most of them one only sees cultivation near the roadside 
in accessible places. There is also another serious drawback to this district — that is 
the want of good drinking water. On the banks of the Kurau it is all right, but inland,' 
during the hot dry weather, there is no fit drinking water to be found, and ver^ often 
when a long spell of dry weather sets in the people are attacked by cholera, which, on 
occasions, has been fearfully fatal, and the people have simply fled the district as from 
the plague. I believe a scheme for bringing w r ater down to this district has already 
been started, but I hear it is not to be carried out this year. It is a very necessary 
work if the Government wishes to get planters into the district. With regard to its 
general adaptability, 1 think the Krian district the most suitable place I have ever seen 
for padi, with the one exception, which is its want of drinking water. 
On the 23rd ultimo I left Taiping for Teluk Anson, where I arrived on the 
morning of the 25th ultimo. I called on Mr. De Mornay and found Mr. Denison had 
gone to Changkat Jong and wgs not expected for two days. Mr De Mornay very 
kindly offered to shew me all there w r as to be seen round or near Teluk Anson itself, 
in the w r ay of padi cultivation. The first morning w r e walked along the new railway 
trace, where we saw’ only very small patches of padi planted here and there; it was 
only of medium growth and the ground it was planted on appeared to be too much 
drained and dried up for successful planting. The land on the opposite side of the 
River Bidor I liked very much, and should think it would grow r anything almost ; but 
it struck me that it would be rather heavy work turning it intfb good padi land, as the 
jungle was very large, and it would be difficult to keep sufficient water on the land. 
The following day we visited the land that has been given out to the Tamil settlers, 
but they have only a small area in padi, and I think it will always be difficult to get 
them to plant much land as long as wages remain so high as they are at present, 40 
cents per day being easily earned on the railway works, and even more by the coolies, 
who do odd jobs in the town. 
The next day Mr. De Mornay took me along the Selabah or Changkat'Jong road, 
which Mr. Denison is having made to open up communication with Changkat Jong. The 
land In this direction is very similar to what I had already seen ; after going about four 
miles the land had the appearance of being much lower and better adapted for padi, 
but, so far, very little of it appeared to haye been taken up. I do not think this land 
would be so easily worked as padi land as the Krian land, as when once a crop 
were taken off this land heavy brushwood would grow up, whereas the water at Krian 
would keep this down and only grasses would grow there. On Wednesday, 27th 
