Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/287

Rh a few minutes, and other valuable discoveries for economising time and labour. The men employed to boil the juice are Chinese, but the most important branches of the machinery are managed by Javanese. The coolies employed in cutting and carting the cane are likewise natives.

Previous to the emancipation of the Javanese from forced labour, which took place a few months before our arrival, the canes were gathered and carted by a certain number of coolies supplied to the proprietors of those factories to which the Government had advanced money. It may not be generally known, that in this country the Government advances money and a grant of land to such planters as are unable to purchase the latter, claiming in return two-thirds of the produce, to be delivered on a certain clay appointed for its receipt.

Since the emancipation, men are hired by the day, and as no pressure can be made, as heretofore, to expedite their labour, the canes are but too