A difficult point occurs where quartz is found in a hut occupied by several people, as it is impossible to charge any one person with being in illegal possession of the article.  There are numerous evidences of gold stealing, and certainly some summary process ought to be established with the view of checking these thefts.  I may add that the Government is much interested in this matter, as five per cent. of the gold belongs to it, and is handed over in the shape of royalty.  Those who are most concerned should bring the matter annually before the members of the Representative Assembly.  Even in England remedies for, or mitigations of, evils are not provided without much continuous parliamentary hammering.

After discussing the subject of gold stealing with the magistrate, I called on the manager of the Mysore mine, and afterwards went with my host to a lawn tennis party at the house of the doctor of the mines, who is employed by the various companies.  He has a comfortable bungalow, which is at a considerable elevation above the level of the valley, and commands an extensive view of the surrounding country and of the distant hills.  Above the house, and at some little distance on one side of it, stands the hospital, and on a knoll just below, the building of the new Roman Catholic church was in progress, and the walls were nearly finished.  From the doctor’s bungalow a good general view of the whole field can be obtained, and I was particularly struck with the number of buildings to be seen in all directions.  I was told that from this point as many as thirty tall chimneys can be counted.

There is a great want of water in the field, for purposes connected with the separation of the gold from the quartz, and tanks are being provided to store it.  I venture to suggest that a considerable distance of the catchment area on the sides, and especially at the back, of the tanks should be honeycombed with pits, as the water, which is often largely lost from falling in heavy deluges, would thus percolate into the ground, and so find its way into the bed of the tank by degrees.  I may mention that a great effect has been produced in the case of a tank on one of my coffee estates by thus digging pits to catch water that would otherwise run directly down into the tank, to be largely lost by the overflow during heavy rains, and a similar effect has been produced on the property of a neighbour.  In fact, the effect produced by such pits on the supply of water in tanks is far greater than one could have imagined to be possible, and I may therefore, in passing, call particular attention to the advisability of such pits being made near tanks used for agricultural purposes.  On the margins of the tanks, and in parts of the bed where sufficient soil exists, trees should be planted, with the view of diminishing evaporation from the surface of the water.