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 arc 

 a sine qud non to success. Assam and Cachar, the two largest 

 Tea districts, are very thinly populated, and almost entirely 

 dependent on imported labour. 1 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. 2 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 de- 

 sertion, 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 work is 



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



2 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. 



