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very marked in the last ten or twelve years, and although, like 
every other trade, there are times when there is a lull, the 
demand has always been for more jute and more gunnybags, 
until at the present moment I am quite certain that the stock 
of raw jute and of gunnies held throughout the world is 
smaller than any of us in this room have ever known it to be. 
Usually spinners hold a three months’ stock of the raw 
material in order to have the jute to spin tor orders for cloth, 
etc., but during the last three years, although the jute crop 
has been comparatively large, the spinners all over the world 
have been left short of jute, and at the present moment there 
is not enough of last year’s crop to go round. It was most 
unfortunate for India that the crop of jute last year was spoilt 
by weather, which is one of the conditions that we always have 
to contend with. 1 think I am right in saying that last year at 
this time we had promise of the largest jute crop on record. 
The figures pointed to it, and everything went on favourably 
for a time, but in India the rain and the climate play a large 
part in our industries, and last year they played havoc with 
our jute, so that instead of getting ten to eleven million bales, 
we got only nine million. That was most unfortunate, because 
when jute has climbed to the price it has—it stands at £30 to 
£32 per ton—all sorts of ideas are apt to arise about using 
some other cheaper fibre, and spinners look around to see what 
they can get instead of jute, which, of course, would be a bad 
thing for our jute monopoly in India. But we are not without 
hope that, although the climate at present is playing us false 
again by rather weak monsoon, we have a large crop on the 
ground; and if that crop is allowed to go through the normal 
course, I think it very likely that we shall have a better surplus 
than we have had for several years. It is most desirable that 
we should have this, because jute at £30 is not what we want; 
what we want is jute at £12 to £15. 
There is another point that Mr. Finlow referred to which I 
should like to confirm, as it plays a great part in this industry. 
and that is, the increase in the cost of labour. Some of you 
in this room perhaps know, though perhaps others may not 
know, that jute is cultivated in small patches; there is the 
father, the mother, and the children; and they are all engaged 
on it. The father cultivates the ground, and the mother 
helps, while the children kill the crickets. But when they have 
to go outside their own patches, and import labour to help 
them, the price of jute goes up. So I think I am right in 
stating that the cost of the production of jute has risen to such 
an extent that cheap jute is scarcely possible. It used to cost. 
as Mr. Finlow has told you. 8 annas to 1 or 2 rupees to 
cultivate it, but now it is nearer 5 rupees. This is more than it 
