81 



in Assam, I must say, very wisely, took far better 

 security than promises, for insuring to the Public 

 those privileges it had so liberally, and so dearly, 

 purchased for them. It is notorious that parties in 

 Assam, in the vain hope of retaining in their own 

 hands this lucrative cultivation, for years buried 

 in the ground, and allowed to rot, annually, 

 thousands of Ibs. of invaluable tea seed, thus 

 sacrificing the large sums of money for which it 

 could have been sold, sooner than allow it to fall 

 into the hands of other planters. The plant 

 being indigenous to many parts of the coun- 

 try, however, all efforts of the kind in Assam, 

 proved futile. Attempts were then made, to secure 

 as much as possible, if not all the lands suitable 

 for tea cultivation ; but private interests clashing, 

 dissensions arose among the Monopolists, and re- 

 velations followed, which, if of no other public 

 utility, have satisfactorily established the wisdom 

 of the policy adopted by the Government of 

 India in regard to the Tea districts of the 

 Himalayas. 



Government, however, had always been desirous 

 of retiring from the field, as soon as it could do so 

 with safety, and in 1859 the Lieut.-Governor of the 

 N. W. Provinces, in this view, suggested that all 

 the Government plantations, except that in the 

 Deyrah Dhoon, which was to be retained for the 

 purpose of supplying the public with seed should 



