10 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



CHAPTER II. 



LABOUR, LOCAL AND IMPORTED. 



WHEN the very large amount of labour required to carry on 

 a plantation is considered, it is evident that facilities for it 

 are a sine qua non to success. Assam and Cachar, the two 

 largest Tea districts, are very thinly populated, and almost 

 entirely dependent on imported labour.* The expense of 

 this is great, and it is the one, and consequently a great 

 drawback to those provinces. The only district I know of 

 with a good Tea climate and abundance of local labour is 

 Chittagong.t Several other places have a good supply of 

 local labour, but then their climates are not very suitable. 



Each coolie imported costs Rs. 30 and upwards (it used 

 to be much more) ere he arrives on the garden and does 

 any work. After arrival he has to be housed ; to be cared 

 for and physicked when sick ; to be paid when ill as when 

 working ; to have work found for him, or paid to sit idle 

 when there is no work ; and in addition to all this every 

 death, every desertion, is a loss to the garden of the whole 

 sum expended in bringing the man or woman. Contrast 

 this with the advantages of local labour. In many cases no 

 expense for buildings is necessary, as the labourers come 

 daily to work from adjacent villages, and in such cases no 

 expense is entailed by sick men, for these simply remain at 

 home. There is no loss by death or desertions. When no 



* Not so much so now as when this was first written. 



t Note to Third Edition. A portion of the Western Dooars may perhaps 

 be added, but the labour, though adjacent, is not strictly local. Up to the 

 present, however, I have had but little expense in importing coolies to the 

 gardens there in which I am interested. 



