INDIAN EMIGEANTS 165 



remarkable change in the position of men recruited 

 from the poorest classes in the congested districts of 

 the United Provinces and Bihar, with populations of 

 700 to 900 to the square mile, whose prospects at 

 the time were practically bounded by a daily wage 

 of 2 annas. 



As regards the change in the standard of effi- 

 ciency of these emigrants, their history on arrival in 

 the colony is interesting. On arrival it is found 

 that the labour of half to three-quarters of them 

 is useless, as they are suffering from hook-worm 

 (ankylostomiasis), the debilitating effects of which are 

 well known, and it is not until they have spent some 

 time in hospital and got cured of this, that they can 

 be put to work at all. When put to work on the 

 piece-work system current in these colonies, it is found 

 that in the first year even industrious men earn from 

 10 to 15 per cent, less than the older hands, not 

 because they are unaccustomed to agricultural labour, 

 but because they have no experience of working for 

 5 or 5J days a week, for 7 hours a day, at work 

 which requires constant muscular effort. They have 

 been accustomed to long hours at a slow pace with 

 irregular tasks. Even after the first year of discipline 

 some 10 to 20 per cent, of the emigrants would be 

 glad to limit their work to 3 or 4 days a week, since 

 they can live comfortabty on the pay that that amount 

 of labour would bring in ; but the rules of indenture 

 forbid this. From an early date an emigrant can 

 easily save 2s. a week, and as his efficiency increases 



