rgetic friend, Count GELOES, has set the
example of procuring his coolies direct from China, instead of by the
old fashioned, roundabout way of the extortionate labour-brokers of the
Straits Settlements. North Borneo, it will be remembered, is situated
midway between Hongkong and Singapore, and the Court of Directors of
the Governing Company could do nothing better calculated to ensure the
success of their public-spirited enterprise than to inaugurate regular,
direct steam communication between their territory and Hongkong. In the
first instance, this could only be effected by a Government subsidy or
guarantee, but it is probable that, in a short time, a cargo and
passenger traffic would grow up which would permit of the subsidy being
gradually withdrawn.

Many of the best men on a well managed estate will re-engage themselves
on the expiration of their term of agreement, receiving a fresh advance,
and some of them can be trusted to go back to China and engage their
clansmen for the estate.

In British North Borneo the general welfare of the indentured coolies is
looked after by Government Officials, who act under the provisions of a
law entitled "The Estate Coolies and Labourers Protection Proclamation,
1883."

Owing to the expense of procuring coolies and to the fact that every
operation of tobacco planting must be performed punctually at the proper
season of the year, and to the desirability of encouraging coolies to
re-engage themselves, it is manifestly the planters' interest to treat
his employes well, and to provide, so far as possible, for their health
and comfort on the estate, but, notwithstanding all the care that may be
taken, a considerable amount of sickness and many deaths must be allowed
for on tobacco estates, which, as a rule, are opened on virgin soil;
for, so long as there remains any untouched land on his estate, the
planter rarely makes use of land off which a crop has been taken.

In North Borneo the jungle is generally felled towards the end of the
wet season, and planting commences in April or May. The Native Dusun,
Sulu and Brunai labour is available for jungle-felling and
house-building, and _nibong_ palms for posts and _nipa_ palms for
thatch, walls and _kajangs_ exist in abundance.

Writing to the Court of Directors in 1884 I said:--"The experiment in
the Suanlambah conclusively proves so far that this country will do for
tobacco. * * * There seems every reason to conclude that it will