on by the force of
custom--very strong in all countries, and especially so in the East. And
thus it is with the advance system. When labour was as low as 2 rupees 4
annas a month (which was the rate I paid at first), it was quite
impossible that a man could, within any reasonable time, save enough money
to pay the expenses of a marriage; thus borrowing became a necessity, and
the labourer therefore mortgaged his future labour, the sole security he
had to offer. The lender was, of course, always a man who wanted work
done, and by lending the required money obtained a certain command over
the labourer. In the early days of planting the local labourers were
always in debt to some native employer, and when they wanted to come to a
European plantation the owner of it had to pay off the sum owed by the
labourers, and when these labourers' sons wanted to marry it was customary
to advance enough for the purpose, and sums of from 20 to 40 rupees a head
were thus advanced, and, in the end, many thousands of rupees were thus
lent to the labourers, and led to the losses I have described. But in
these days, when labour has risen to 7 rupees a month, and the labourer
can live on about 2 rupees a month, he can save in a single year nearly
enough for his marriage, and therefore the old necessity for his getting
into debt no longer exists, and some years ago I began to give up making
advances for marriages, and find that I am still well supplied with local
labour; and I feel sure that if other planters would only follow my
example, the advance system would gradually be reduced within small
limits, and thus one great source of loss on a plantation would be either
abolished or reduced to a minimum.

But besides the advances made directly to local labourers by the planter,
there are the advances made by him to maistries to bring in coolies from a
distance. In former days the sums advanced were very small, and amounted
to little more than a retaining fee of a few rupees a head. But from the
competition for labour, or from planters weakly yielding to the demands
made on them, the sums so advanced gradually rose to as much as ten rupees
ahead, and, of course, the risks of the planter increased in proportion.
Now this, of course, is a state of things very difficult to contend
against, but I see no reason why some attempt might not be made to reduce
these advances to about one-half of their present amount; and I feel sure
that if the planters wo