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ments, and aid railway authorities, developers, and others, 

 in the transport of labour, I doubt very much if we should 

 hear anything more of a scarcity of labour in any part 

 of India; for it cannot be denied, that if the population 

 of the whole country is, proportionately with its area, 

 below the average of populous European countries, it is 

 still very dense in some parts. The greatest quantity of 

 labour is required for Railway operations, and in the 

 completion of these works, the Government of India, and 

 every tax- payer in the country, are directly and deeply 

 interested. Within the last ten years some fifty millions 

 sterling have been imported into India for the prosecu- 

 tion of Railway works, and as the largest portion of 

 Railway expenditure is in labour, this amount no doubt 

 required a very considerable quantity of labour to absorb 

 it. But in regard to the cultivation of Wastes, the case 

 is quite different. The whole amount of capital expended 

 in the same period, in the Tea districts of Lower Bengal, 

 for this purpose, does not aggregate even half a million 

 sterling ; and, assuming the semblance of a Government, 

 that any complications on the score of labour should have 

 arisen in absorbing this fraction, seems almost ludicrous. 

 Complications, however, and very serious complications, 

 have arisen. These are now patent to Government as well 

 as to the public, and such being the case, the very serious 

 question that grows out of them is, with what countenance 

 can Her Majesty's Secretary of State go before the 

 British public, and invite Capitalists to invest their money 

 in land which he knows they cannot get labour to cul- 

 tivate ? Has the Government of India no concern with 

 this, I would plainly ask ? 



" With a little pains and trouble on the part of Govern- 

 ment, I believe that labour can be found for all the present; 

 wants of India, and for the Colonies besides ; but if the eco- 

 nomical idea put forth by Sir John Peter Grant, viz., that it 

 is no part of the business of Government to trouble itself 



