DIFFERENCES IN SYSTEM OF ADVANCES. 63
This plan, I am told, works very well; for losses but seldom occur. The maistrees as a class may be thoroughly depended upon.
Upon
some estates the coolies are not paid in full at the close of each
week, for a small sum is kept back from each week's pay, until the end
of the term, when they are paid up. The coolie is thus sent away with a
tolerably fair amount of savings, and goes back to Ms village in a
position to add another piece of land to his home, or to buy some
additional copper vessels—those vessels so dearly prized. The idea is,
that finding such substantial benefit resulting from his labour, the
coolie is the more ready to return and earn more. On the other hand,
the advocates of full payment on every Saturday contend that every
coolie will spend as much as he can get; and finding at the close of
his engagement he has nothing to carry home with him, goes on working
from sheer necessity, because actually living from hand to mouth. There
can be no doubt which course is the best for the native, but planters
have their own opinions as to the system they think most advantageous
to themselves.
I
have mentioned that the pay of a first-class coolie would be five annas
a day. A Cornish timber-man will draw £16 per month, besides the heavy
expense that must be incurred in sending him out to India. His daily
wage will, therefore, be about Es. 7, 6a., or nearly twenty-four times
as much as that of an able-bodied native labourer. Remembering
