Till; 



ments, and aid Railway authorities, developers, and 

 others, iti the transport of labor, I doubt very much 

 if we would hear any thing more of a scarcity of 

 labor, iii any part of India; for it cannot be denied, 

 that if the population of the whole country is, 

 proportionately with its area, below the average 

 of populous European countries, it is still very 

 dense in some parts The greatest quantity of labor 

 is required for Railway operations, and in the com- 

 pletion of these works, the Government of India, 

 and every tax payer in the country, are directly and 

 deeply interested. Within the last ten years, some 

 fifty millions sterling have been imported into India 

 for the prosecution of Railway works, and as the 

 largest portion of Railway expenditure is in labor, 

 this amount no doubt required a very considerable 

 quantity of labor to absorb it. But in regard to 

 the cultivation of Wastes, the case is quite different. 

 The whole amount of capital expended in the same 

 period, in the tea districts of lower Bengal, for this 

 purpose, does not aggregate even half a million 

 sterling ; arid, assuming the semblance of a Govern- 

 ment, that any complications on the score of labor 

 should have arisen in absorbing this fraction, seems 

 almost ludicrous. Complications, however, and very 

 serious complications, have arisen. These are now- 

 patent to Government as well as to the public, and 

 such being the case, the very serious question that 

 grows out of them is, with what countenance can Her 



