12 



MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CU. XXIX. 



Tea. 



Policy of the 

 Government. 



Mr. Rae's 

 efforts. 



" I am happy to observe that you. have acted on my letter of 25tli 

 ultimo, and that your new superintendent is collecting the seed 

 carefully with a view to establishing a large nursery. * * * 



On a further consideration of the course which it seems desirable to 

 adopt in reference to your tea plantations, I am inclined to recom- 

 mend to Government that one or two Chinese manufacturers be 

 brought down from the North- West Provinces at the public expense 

 fur the purpose of testing the actual qualities of the teas produced 

 in these bills. * * * No doubt some satisfactory arrangement 

 would readily be come to by which Government would obtain what 

 they would consider an equivalent for their risk in the experimental 

 manufacture. 



" I cannot pledge Government to any special course, but personally 

 1 should think that if jou would enable the Government to form a 

 nursery from seed from your plantations, they would be satisfied, 

 bearing in mind the great expense you have incurred in bringing your 

 plantation to its present state." 



Dr. Cleghorn's representations to Government called forth 

 the following characteristic minute from Sir C. Trevelyan : — 



" I cannot understand why Dr. Cleghorn volunteered the assistance 

 of Government in this matter. The experiment of growing and 

 manufacturing tea had been commenced as a mercantile undertaking, 

 which is the only wholesome and sound footing on which such 

 enterprises can be conducted. * * * The manufacture of tea in 

 India has been pi-oved to be a profitable business, and ample experi- 

 ence has been acquired of it. All that private undertakers have to 

 do, is to avail themselves of this advanced state of the art, with such 

 modifications as the circumstances of South India may require, which 

 they will be likely to do with much greater zeal and activity if they 

 know that the Government will not do it for them. I see no necessity, 

 therefore, for this industry in this part of India passing through the phase 

 of a Government establishment. On the contrary, I believe that the 

 vigorous and expansive period of the undertaking would be postponed 

 by it for years to come, for when Government intrude into those 

 operations which properly belong to private life, their hands are, as was 

 truly described by Sir Robert Peel, torpid and wasteful. In Northern 

 India the manufacture of tea did not begin to be remunerative until 

 it was transferred from the Govei-nment to a private company ; and 

 what have all the expensive Government Farms done for the improve- 

 ment of Indian cotton ? The worst effect of this policy, however, 

 is the morbid habit of dependence upon Government, which in some 

 communities has amounted to a moral paralysis ; and it ought to be 

 our care to keep our Anglo-Indian settlements free from this taint." 



Sir Charles' views were accepted by bis Goverument (September 

 1859). 



Almost simultaneously with the formation of Mr, Mann's 

 garden at Coonoor, Mr. Rae of Ootacamand had obtained a 

 grant of land for tea near Kalhatti, constituting tlie estate now 

 known as Dunsandle. lie experienced similar difficulties to those 



