Large quantities of gambier are imported, under the corrupted name of cutch, into Calcutta, from Pegu.  The quantity of gambier produced in Rhio, by the Chinese settlers, amounts to about 4,600 tons a year, about 2,000 of which are exported for the consumption of Java, the rest being sent to Cochin-China and other neighbouring countries.

Two methods of obtaining gambier are described.  One consists in boiling the leaves in water, and in inspissating the decoction; the other, which yields the best gambier, consists in infusing the leaves in warm water, by which a fecula is obtained, which is inspissated by the heat of the sun, and formed into cakes.

The injudicious practice adopted by the Land Office in Singapore, of granting indiscriminate licenses, or “cutting papers” as they are formed, seems open to objection, and is driving many of the Chinese cultivators to the neighbouring island of Johore, where they readily obtain permission to cultivate, without obstruction, this important article of commerce.  Parties of 300 or 400 at a time left in 1846.  It appears that, under his permissive license, the squatter obtains permission to clear as much land as he possibly can, but the order does not define any extent beyond which no cutting should take place.  The squatter clears as much land as the means at his disposal will allow, in the hope and expectation that the jungle contiguous to the cleared ground will be at his command for fuel—­a supply of fuel, easy of access, and adequate to the number of plants grown, being indispensable to the culture and manufacture of gambier.  When the time for gathering the leaves arrives, another squatter (perhaps from motives of envy or malice) obtains a “cutting paper,” and commences clearing in close proximity to the already-formed gambier plantation; obviously depriving the owner of the fuel he has reasonably calculated upon.  The established planter cannot of course eject the intruder from the land, since the latter possesses an equal right to it, in virtue of his “cutting paper,” which, as it specifies no limits, leaves him the disposer or destroyer of the crop of the industrious planter.  Instead of the present system, a better practice ought to be introduced, defining the boundaries to be included in a “cutting paper,” and effectually preventing a trespass on the fuel-land of the industrious planter.  This might easily be effected by specifying the number of acres, as well as the direction, in every clearing paper granted.

The average produce of gambier in Singapore is between 7,000 and 8,000 piculs monthly.  The ordinary price is about 11/4 dollars per picul.  A deficiency of rain, labor, or other causes, will occasionally reduce the annual produce from 90,000 or 100,000 piculs, to 60,000 or 70,000, and this diminished supply will raise the market price of the article probably 35 cents per picul.  But, in addition to the effect occasioned by a deficient supply, there are other