500 Report on the manufacture of Tea, and on the [_June, 



twelve native assistants ; each Chinaman with six assistants can only 

 superintend one locality, and the Tea leaves from the various other 

 tracts, widely separated, must be brought to these two places for 

 manufacture. The consequence is, that an additional number of la- 

 bourers must always be employed to bring the leaves from so great a 

 distance. The leaves suffer when brought in large quantities from a 

 distance, as they soon begin to ferment, and the labour of only prepar- 

 ing them so far in process that they may not spoil by the morning, is ex- 

 cessive. The men have often to work until very late to accomplish this. 

 When labour falls so very heavy, and on so very few, it cannot be expect- 

 ed that it can be equally well executed, as if more had been employed. 

 The leaves last gathered are also much larger than they ought to 

 be, for want of being collected and manufactured earlier; consequently 

 the Tea is inferior in quality. I mention this, to shew the inconveni- 

 ence and expense of having so few Tea makers. 



The samples of Black- Tea made by the twelve assistants having been 

 approved of by the Tea Committee in Calcutta, it was my intention to 

 have distributed the men amongst the different tracts, but the late 

 disturbances on our frontier have prevented this arrangement; and I. 

 have been obliged to employ ten men in Assam (two others having 

 gone to Calcutta in charge of Tea) at the tract called Kahung, 

 which is becoming a very extensive and important Tea locality — so 

 many others being near it, which can all be thrown into one. When 

 we have a sufficient number of manufacturers, so that we can af- 

 ford to have some at each tract, or garden, as they have in China, 

 then we may hope to compete with that nation in cheapness of pro- 

 duce ; nay, we might, and ought, to undersell them ; for if each tract, 

 or garden, had its own Tea maker and labourers, the collecting of 

 the leaves would not perhaps occupy more than twelve days in each 

 crop ; after which the men might be discharged, or profitably em- 

 ployed on the Tea grounds. But now, for the want of a sufficient num- 

 ber of labourers and Tea makers, there is a constant gathering of leaves 

 throughout the month; and as I said before, those gathered last can 

 only make inferior Teas ; besides the great loss by the leaves getting 

 too old, and hereby unfit for being made into any Tea ; and all this en- 

 tirely for want of hands to pluck the leaves. It is true we have gained 

 twelve Black-Tea makers this year, in addition to the last ; and twelve 

 more native assistants have been appointed, who may be available next 

 year to manufacture Tea independently, as they were learning the art 

 all last year. We have also had an addition to our establishment of 

 two Chinese Green-Tea manufacturers, and twelve native assistants 

 have been placed under them as learners ; but what are these compared 



