79 



of the State ; but, with a liberality unparalleled in 

 the annals of any Government, instead of increas- 

 ing the extent and value of its own plantations, 

 supplied, and have continued, for ten years after it 

 was proved that tea could be grown and manu- 

 factured at a profit in the Himalayas, to supply 

 both public, and private parties, with enormous quan- 

 tities of the produce of those seeds and seedlings 

 which had cost such large suras of money to import 

 from China. 



Nor, in abandoning all intention of profiting 

 itself by the undertaking, was the Government 

 unmindful of the necessity of taking satisfactory 

 guarantees that the interests of the Country and 

 the public, were protected against interested parties 

 stepping in to avail themselves of advantages, which 

 it had generously resigned in favor of the welfare of 

 its subjects, and the material progress of the 

 Country. 



In 1853, an application was made to the Court of 

 Directors by the chairman of a company called the 

 Himalaya tea Company, which it was proposed 

 to establish and incorporate under Royal Charter in 

 London for the cultivation of tea in the Himalaya 

 ranges, for the transfer to them of their tea planta- 

 tions in Kamaon, Gurwahl, and the Kangra Valley. 

 In 1856, overtures were made by the Assam Company 

 expressive of au anxious desire to take over 

 all the Govermnent plantations in Kamaon and 



