CO885(1-2) — Page 324

A.

B.

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EMIGRATION FROM CHINA TO THE WEST INDIES.

hired by the day or by the month, and paid individually for the work supposed to have been done.

es. The system of cultivation is somewhat different to any other I have seen, except in Singapore, but it is well suited to local circumstances. Canes are seldom ratooned, it being found more profitable to renew them every year. Manure is extensively used, except on the fresh lands and particular localities on the best estates. In some cases" Bats dung” (a kind of guano obtained from some small islands off the mainland) is used, and in others burnt earth mixed with buffaloe dung, rotten trash, and any other refuse that can be found. The Chinese prefer fish manure, and use it with a liberal hand. They always burn the trash off the ground after the canes have been cut, and never ratoon their canes for sugar, but sometimes allow them to grow up to obtain plants for the following year. Sugar is made all the year round, and the canes are cut at 18 to 15 months of age according to circumstances.

29. After the canes are cut the high banks on which they are grown are broken down with the hoe, and the land is carefully levelled off. Fresh tops, or sometimes plants from the old roots, are planted in rows in the spaces inter- vening between the old cane rows. These rows are 6 or 7 feet apart. The

canes are generally wed twice at 1 and 2 months of age. The manure is applied after the first weeding, and at the time of the second weeding a very slight moulding is given, merely sufficient to cover the manure. The first real moulding, or as it is termed "earthing," is given at 3 and 4 months of

age. This raises the cane row about 8 inches above the surface, and causes a corre- sponding depression between the rows. The principal "carthing" is given at ti or 7 months of age, and this raises the cane bank still higher, so that the top of it is 2 feet or 2 feet above the level of the ground in the hollow or drain at its side. This moulding is the most important and also the most expensive, as it costs 7 dollars per orlong. The third moulding (which is often dispensed with altogether) is given at 9 and 10 months of age, when the earth which had crumbled down into the hollow is replaced on the cane bank round the roots of each stool. The canes are stripped of their dry leaves on occasion of each "earthing," but are regularly trashed twice subsequently to the last "earthing." This operation is easily performed, for the canes stand up erect, owing to the quantity of earth heaped round the roots, and the labourer walking in the hollow row or drain has full command over the canes which arch overhead. The Chinese pay great attention to trashing, and keep the canes always free, in order to expose them as much as possible to the influence of the sun and air. As soon as the canes are cut and carried out the trash on the field is burnt off, the banks levelled, and the intervening spaces replanted for the crop of next year.

30. Throughout the province (with the exception of one or perhaps two estates) all field work is done by contract, and from the number of Chinese settlers there is no difficulty whatever at present in obtaining any amount of labour that may be required. The rates of payment for this contract work have now become in some measure established, and vary very little. I obtained from a gentleman connected with the province a statement of the cost of cultivation of 300 orlongs of land, and although it is more in detail than is necessary to explain the general cost, I have thought it might prove interesting as showing the method of cultivation pursued, and the detailed cost of labour for every description of field work, and also the cost of manufacture, with the rate of daily or monthly wages paid in every department of the buildings. As neither cane carriers nor megas elevators have yet been introduced, the cost of manufacture is necessarily higher than it would be if they were adopted. On some of the estates five roller-mills are in use, but they appeared to me to injure the megas without producing any corresponding benefit.

31. I annex also a memorandum, marked B, of the working of an estate for two years.

On lands of better quality the average return is estimated at 40 picals of wet sugar per orlong, and on average lands at 30 picals. I heard of some instances where the return was upwards of 60 picals. The pical weighs. 1333 lbs. English; the orlong is one acre and a third, or a square of 240 feet. 32. All these settlements, Singapore, Penang, province Wellesley, and I believe that I may add also Malacca, are greatly indebted to “convict labour” for the excellent roads they possess. These were all constructed in the first nstance with convict labour, and are still kept up by the same means; and as

EMIGRATION FROM CHINA TO THE WEST INDIES.

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they branch out in every direction, forming a network over the land, they have, no doubt, greatly contributed to develope resources that would otherwise have laid dormant. When the convicts are not required for the roads, they are em- ployed on other public works. At Singapore I saw the Chinese convicts clear- ing and digging out one side of the inner harbour, and erecting a stone quay; and at the same time the Indian convicts were employed on a canal to drain the low lands of the interior. From their superior physical strength, the Chinese are always employed on those works where the hardest labour is required.

33. These settlements are, however, almost entirely indebted to the Chinese emigrants for the measure of prosperity which they now enjoy. Without them there would have been few exports, and, in all probability, the land would have been still covered with jungle. By the common concurrence of opinion of all with whom I had an opportunity of conversing on the subject, and by my own observation, as far as it extended, the Chinese are hard-working and indus- trious, generally peaceable and inoffensive, and beyond all doubt eminently conducive to the welfare of those countries selected as their home. Their quarrels arise principally from the paucity of women; and they are addicted to thieving. Although possessed of great physical strength, they are at heart cowardly; but they are not in the habit of carrying offensive or dangerous weapons, and their disputes more frequently end in words than in blows. A gentleman of extensive experience in the Indian Archipelago assured me, "that he had never known the Chinese to settle anywhere among the islands without bringing prosperity in their wake;" and my own observation, though limited and superficial, confirms this opinion. If the difficulties arising from distance, the consequent want of regular intercourse with their own country, and the improbability of obtaining women, can in any degree be overcome, I have no doubt whatever on my mind that the Chinese will be found useful and valuable labourers for the West Indies. The expense of importing them will be greater than the expense of importing Indian emigrants, but this will be more than counterbalanced by their remaining in the country; and of this there is every probability, if their career in the other countries to which they have emigrated may be taken as any indication of their probable career in the West Indies. Difficulties will be felt in their management at first, for they are a very peculiar people, with ideas and methods of reasoning essentially different from our own; but I trust that these will in time wear away, and I believe that they will soon form themselves into villages and associations such as I found existing in the Straits settlements.

34. They possess many prominent vices and defects, but at the same time it is impossible not to admire them for their many virtues. They are corrupt and greedy of money to an excess, which makes them hesitate at nothing for its attain- inent, cringing to their superiors, and tyrannical to those in their power; but their industry exceeds that of every other people in the East, and is equal to that of the most industrious nations in the West; and in their domestic relations, and the har- mony with which large families live together, they offer frequently a model for imitation. Their religion is very little, if at all, different from Materialism; but the respect felt and constantly expressed towards their parents and ancestors shows the existence of a feeling amounting to veneration. They are little influenced by contact with foreigners, and are filled with conceited notions of their own importance; but they are eager to give their children the best education-that can be obtained, and at the public schools in Singapore and Penang, to which all races are admitted, I found that two-thirds of the scholars were Chinese, and that many of them, at the head of their class, were distinguished for their talent and application. It appears to me probable that in time they will spread over the whole Archipelago, and to a certain extent displace the races which have now possession of the land, and that they will acquire power in those countries where they do not come into contact with the higher genius and energies belonging to the European nations.

I have, &c. (Signed)

F

JAMES T. WHITE.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

ILLIC.O.

885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO