W. Jameson. 291 



small return to the zemindars, and, as already stated, they look to 

 other sources than the sale of the produce of their lands, in many 

 quarters, to procure means to pay their revenue. The Kumaon and 

 Gurhwal provinces, covering a tract of upwards of 19,000 square 

 miles, yield only ahout two lacs of rupees annually to the state 

 and that, too, with difficulty collected, showing the poverty of the 

 coimtry. Tea on the other hand, is a highly remunerative crop, and 

 occupies the time and attention of millions of beings in the adjoin- 

 ing kingdom of China, and is the means of yielding a large revenue 

 to the state. India possesses within itself capabilities equally advan- 

 tageous, in having abundance of land fitted for tea cultivation, an 

 unlimited supply of cheap labour, admirable rivers for transmitting 

 the produce to good marts, and last, though not least, a climate 

 equally well fitted for the growth of the plant. In China, the 

 priests carry on the trade of tea making with as much zeal as the 

 lay portion of the community. To them in the Kumaon and 

 Gurhwal provinces we owe in a measure the miserable state of the 

 peasantry, as nowhere is their influence more powerful, and that too 

 directed against any innovation. By the press it has been stated 

 that the land fitted for tea cultivation was limited and labourers 

 scanty. Both, however, are great errors. Nor, as already stated, is 

 it necessary to occupy lands now used in growing grains ; let but the 

 forest land and the waste land be employed, and from them alone 

 will be produced a supply equal to the consumption of Europe. 

 The thriving state of the Paoree plantation, which four years ago was 

 an extensive oak and rhododendron jungle, shows how admirably 

 this land so uselessly employed (as but few of the virgin forests can 

 be made available for their timber, owing to the inaccessible nature 

 of the country, and impracticable roads), is fitted for tea cultivation. 

 Let tea, therefore, be encouraged in these places, and a produce will 

 be reared which will yield means to open up the mountainous 

 regions. I have pointed out certain routes by which the teas could 

 be removed to the plains, and I may also add, that with a little 

 skilful engineering, a road might be made from Hurdwar to Nitti, the 

 frontier British town, fitted for camels and bullocks. Difficulties 

 there are none, barring the bridging of a few streams. This great road 

 would act like a great artery in developing the resources of the western 

 British hills, and with a little trouble and tact on the part of the Assist- 

 ant Commissioner, the shawl wool, which is of such vast importance to 

 the manufacturers in the great British towns of Loodianah, Amritsur, 

 Lahore, Julalpore, Xoorpore, &c., might be brought dowji by this 

 route and sold at a cheap rate, and free of the heavy duties levied 

 on it when imported through the passes belonging to the Jummoo 

 Eaja. The great breeding district of the shawl-wool goats is in the 

 vast plains of Tibet, immediately behind the British passes. The 

 breeders have more than once brought down quantities of wool to 

 Sreenuggur, but at a loss, and they still bring down a small quan- 

 tity to the Bageswur fair. But were the road from Nitti to 

 Hurdwar to be opened up and fitted for bullocks and camels, not 

 only would tea be exported to the plains at a cheap rate, but also 



