CHINESE IMMIGRATION CONSIDERED. 59
labour and timbering; for of this part of a miner's work the native has not the slightest idea.
It
has been suggested that as Chinamen are first-rate workmen, having
excellent points in their favour, it would be advantageous to encourage
Chinese immigration. Under some circumstances this might be a good
course to adopt. Yet I venture to think that in Southern India it would
not prove of benefit in the long run. Any considerable influx of
Chinese workmen would in all probability exercise an unfavourable
influence upon native labour. I have already said that native labour is
both abundant and cheap. It would, therefore, be unwise to introduce a
hostile element likely to discourage, and perhaps entirely divert, the
stream of labour now beginning to flow into the district. Of course it
is quite impossible to predict what would be the consequence of such
an experiment. I simply express my opinion, for what it is worth; and
it is, that the introduction of Chinese labour would be, for the
reasons I have shown, a dangerous experiment.
It
should be well understood that, as a district, the Wynaad is very
thinly populated, and, speaking in general terms, it is not from
inhabitants on the spot that the labour is derived for coffee
cultivation. The labourers are mostly brought from considerable
distances by contractors, or, as they are called, maistrees, who enter into agreements beforehand with the planters for the services of their gangs. As
