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dren,-all new coolies, were found sleeping on a little straw on the
bare ground, which was still covered with green grass.
Fires are a frequent occurrence, the custom of building the
houses-both roof and walls-entirely of such inflammable mate-
rials as thatch and bamboos increasing very greatly the danger of
fire to which coolie lines are always liable; and owing to the very
common neglect of proper spacing such fires sometimes destroy many
houses in a line and render a large number of people homeless. One
result of this is the exposure of such people to special hardship. An
example of this was seen by us. As a result of a fire two families
were forced to find new quarters. One family consisting of a man
and his wife obtained shelter in a house already containing a family;
the other consisting of a man and his wife and child were less fortunate,
being reduced to occupying half a little cowshed. At a subsequent
visit it was found that the man had died (from cholera?) and the
woman had gone with her child to another garden. We have seen a
fire in which no less than thirty houses were destroyed just before
the onset of the rains, and as far as could be ascertained the people
who were thus deprived of shelter had to seek acoommodation in
other houses already occupied with their full complement, or to
leave the garden with a view to finding homes elsewhere. In one
case after an extensive fire we saw many families camping out
through the rainy season under pieces of tarpaulin, etc. We have
mentioned these instances merely to illustrate the point that we
consider of importance, that owing to the lack of any obligation
to supply more than the minimum of housing accommodation
necessary to retain labour the standard being fixed only by what
is customary throughout the district, coolies, especially those who
are new-comers or otherwise unable to look after their own in-
terests, are often subjected to exposure and hardship to which they are
not accustomed and in a climate which is very different from that of
their own country. As a result the weaker among them especially
suffer and large numbers even among the more robust are under these
conditions rendered more liable to become the victims of malarial in-
fection.
GENERAL SOCIAL CONDITION AND STANDARD OF COMFORT.
It is generally taken for granted that the free coolie under cir-
cumstances such as we have described, is existing under conditions