86 



Last year eighty -nine tons \ of tea seed and two 

 millions four hundred thousand \ seedlings, were 

 distributed, gratis, to private planters, from the 

 Government Factories. And yet, chough so im- 

 mense the supply, it fell [far short of the demand. 

 Many indents sent in could not be complied with. 

 Owing moreover to the number of Tea Com- 

 panies, and Concerns, springing up in the Hill 

 Ranges of the North-Western Provinces and the 

 Punjab, and the consequent demand for Managers 

 and skilled workmen, the Government Overseers and 

 Chinese manufacturers, tempted by the higher wages 

 offered by private planters, are leaving the Govern- 

 ment Plantations. 



Such results are alike honorable to Govern- 

 ment creditable to its able Superintendent and 

 gratifying to the Public. As undoubtedly evincing 

 the healthy progress of tea cultivation in the 

 Himalayas, they are exceedingly satisfactory, and 

 seem to indicate that the time, if not come, is 

 very close at hand, when Government, having 

 wisely, and with great liberality, performed its legiti- 

 mate functions, may very properly dispose of 

 its plantations, and leave the cultivation in the 

 hands of those whose interest it will be, to turn 

 howling wastes into smiling gardens. At present, 

 moreover, they seem very well inclined to under- 

 take the task, and to accept all the responsibility 

 which attaches to the receipt of the fiue profits they 



