TEA AND SILK FAEMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 197 



more considerably than they do in China, as in certain localities 

 no aborignal population exists, or, if there be a sprinkling of 

 native peasantry, it is so scanty that supplies of labour must be 

 imported ; a matter of increasing difficulty in proportion as the 

 neighbourhood bears an indifterent or bad sanitary reputation. 

 In 1869 the first conference on Indian matters was held by the 

 Society of Arts, London, at which some information was im- 

 parted on this subject by Mr. Fielder, hon. sec. of the Indian Tea 

 Planter's Association, and some of the gentlemen who took part 

 in the discussion. Mr. Fielder said that " The average rate of 

 wages per month in Assam (one of the districts requiring im- 

 ported labour) was from two rupees, eight annas (5s.), to three 

 rupees (6s.) previous to 1857. In 1859 wages rose to four 

 rupees per month, and since then to seven and even nine rupees 

 per month through competition." This quotation, allowing 2s. 

 per rupee (a fuller rate of exchange than has been experienced 

 for some years, but sufficiently accurate for illustration), repre- 

 sents about 7d. a day. Mr. Horn afterwards stated that " He 

 had seen a deal of tea planting in Kumaon, but there was no 

 importation of coolies necessary, the labourers there being, gener- 

 ally speaking, natives of that part of the country, although in 

 some places it was very difficult to get them. The rate of wages 

 averaged from three to six rupees a month, or from 6s. to 12s." 

 By this gentleman's account, wages were evidently less in his 

 part of India than where Mr. Fielder's experience lay, being only 

 from 2d. to 4|d. a day. In Darjeeling, at the end of 1879, we 

 learn from other sources that the average rate of wages was 

 about lOd. a day ; and it should be borne in mind that whatever 

 the rate, the sirdar, or native overlooker, invariably levies a pro- 

 portion, which in some districts reaches the monstrous figure of 

 25 per cent., or two annas per rupee. This, however, is partially 

 made up by the coolies receiving pay for Sundays, although no 

 work is done on that day — a charge on the planter of 14 per 

 cent., at which all of them grumble. The systems of paying by 

 results and by contract are also in vogue, as they secure the 

 utmost vigilence of the labourers, who generally make more 

 money thus than by fixed wages ; and as by these methods the 

 coolies, having a personal stake, never overlook even the minor 

 Hushes of leaves. By the former plan the coolie may earn Is. a 

 day, and by tlie latter from lOd. to Is. 2d. per day, or even more. 

 An epitome of these labour statistics will therefore stand thus: — 



1. The daily wages paid in the tea and silk districts of China 

 may l)e stated as ranging between 8d. to lOo., average 9d. 



2. In Assam, daily wages, exclusive of the cost of importing 

 labour, may be estimated at about 7d. 



3. The natives of Kumaon receive about 4Jd. per day ; no 

 imported labour required. 



