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the infancy of Tea cultivation the labor of the 

 Province sufficed for the wants of the Planters. But 

 as soon as the tea experiment was an established 

 success, and cultivation had extended to some 

 thousands of acres, the pressure for labor began to 

 be felt. That the population of Assam was very scant 

 was well know. It had frequently been reported by 

 the Governor General's Agent, and the other officials 

 of the province. Tea cultivation had been intro- 

 duced by Government as a measure of great national 

 importance both to India and England, and it is 

 certainly one in which both countries are equally 

 interested. It was clearly then the business of 

 Government, after inducing English capitalists and 

 speculators to relieve it of the cost and trouble 

 of an experiment admittedly of Imperial import- 

 ance, and after encouraging them to expend very 

 large sums of money in their operations, to take 

 some precautions that facilities for carrying them 

 on were placed within their reach. But from 

 the very unscientific manner in which the Tea 

 experiments in India were conducted, the Govern- 

 ment of India was wholly ignorant of the circum- 

 stances and necessities of the cultivation. What 

 proved a severer blow to the too credulous capita- 

 lists, who, responding to the invitation held out, 

 embarked their capital in the undertaking, was 

 that the Government of Bengal, ignored all respon- 

 sibility in the matter, and ignorant or regardless 



