News - Finlays

improvements, transportation for the
movement of leaf, teas and machinery
evolved slowly, until the arrival of the
tractor transformed plucking and
processing standards.
The horse, however, was the planter's
mainstay for decades, until motorcycles
became generally available. In 1904, a
Mounted Infantry Company known as The
Southern Provinces Mounted Rifles(SPMR)
was formed; this led to the introduction of
horses to the High Range where they
rapidly became integral not only to
plantation supervision, but to the planters’
social life, facilitating visits to neighbours
and to the Club.
Stories of such visits, some perhaps
apocryphal, abound. One evening, after
much conviviality, two senior planters exited
the Club, mounted up, bade each other
goodnight and rode off - each to wake up
the following morning in the other's
bungalow! From the Club, a path meanders
up through the tea to a junction of several
other routes where it was customary for a
group to pause for a last smoke before
heading back to their respective estates,
their path lit only by the glow of a stirruplantern.
This was, and to this day still is,
called Cigarette Point.
In 1910, an allowance of Rupees 30 was paid
to maintain a horse, but inflationary spirals
took their toll as always and, in 1971, the
last allowance paid was Rupees 300. It is
interesting to note that in the same year,
an Assistant Manager received, on marrying,
only an additional Rupees 125 on his
Dearness Allowance - but then horses
do eat more!
Travel times, of course, decreased with the
introduction of the motorcycle, car, lorry
and tractor. In the 1920s, planters going
from Munnar to play rugby in the Nilgiri
Hills, required to take a week's leave as the
150 mile journey alone took three to four
days. The same journey, by car today is
achieved in about four to five hours.
The early planters may have worked and
played hard but did not neglect the
spiritual. The absence of a church resulted
in one committee minute recording: "One
gentleman remarked that he had heard
discontent voiced at the Club library being
made use of for church services, thus
preventing members from making use of
the billiard room".
A pretty little church was duly built and
consecrated in 1911. Despite inconsistencies
of religious enthusiasm over the years,
Christ Church continues to be used by all
Protestant denominations, including the
local Tamil and Malayali congregations.
New Assistants had always been required to
learn the Tamil language; in the 1950s, the
reward was either Rupees 1000 - or a re-sit;
failure earned a passage home! One such
new entrant, a decade earlier, was advised
by the then General Manager of this
requirement. His manager helpfully chimed
in, "Yes sir, of course. I actually learnt my
Tamil from 'Inge Va' (a local textbook whose
title translates as 'Come Here'). In answer
the GM roared: "I don't care what her name
was. This boy must learn the vernacular!"
The High Range has always held a special
place in the hearts of its planters and was
the envy of many other districts: primarily
for the sheer natural beauty of its situation,
its social life and its renowned hospitality to
all incomers. Those of us who spent long
periods of our lives there were privileged to
have experienced a unique existence.
William Henderson
St Andrews
17