522 Report on the manufacture of Tea, and on the [June, 



It must be remembered that this calculation has been made on 

 3,55,555 plants, not on double that number as I proposed, viz. to plant 

 them in pairs, which would certainly, on the lowest calculation, in- 

 crease the profits thirty per cent. It should be borne in mind also, 

 that 4 sicca weight is not the full produce of each plant ; when full 

 grown it will yield double that, or 8 sicca weight, and some even 

 as high as 10 to 12 sicca weight. I have calculated at the rate of 

 4 sicca, which was absolutely produced in 1838. The plant will, I 

 should think, produce 25 per cent more this year, and go on increasing 

 to what I have above mentioned. But then, on the other hand, the 

 items which I have set down, are not all that will be required to carry 

 on this trade on an extensive scale. The superintendence, numerous 

 additional artizans that will be required, and a thousand little wants 

 which cannot be set down now, but which must necessarily arise from 

 the nature of the cultivation and manufacture, will go far to diminish 

 the profits, and swell the outlay ; but this of course will last but a 

 few years, until the natives of the country have been taught to compete 

 with Chinamen. It should also be remembered, that the calculation 

 I have made on ten tracts is on a supposition that we have a sufficient 

 number of native Tea-makers and Canister-makers, which will not be 

 the case for two or three years to come. It is on this point alone that 

 we are deficient, for the Tea plants and lands are before us. Yes, there 

 is another very great drawback to the cultivation of Tea in this 

 country, and which I believe I before noticed, namely the want of 

 population and labourers. They will have to be imported and settled 

 on the soil, which will be a heavy tax on the first outlay ; but this, 

 too, will rectify itself in a few years; for, after the importation of 

 some thousands, others will come of themselves, and the redundant 

 population of Bengal, will pour into Assam, as soon as the people 

 know that they will get a certain rate of pay, as well as lands, for 

 the support of their families. If this should be the case, the Assamese 

 language will in a few years be extinct. 



I might here observe, that the British Government would confer a 

 lasting blessing on the Assamese and the new settlers, if immediate 

 and active measures were taken to put down the cultivation of 

 Opium in Assam, and afterwards to stop its importation, by levying 

 high duties on Opium land. If something of this kind is not done, 

 and done quickly too, the thousands that are about to emigrate from 

 the plains into Assam, will soon be infected with the Opium-mania, — 

 that dreadful plague, which has depopulated this beautiful country, 

 turned it into a land of wild beasts, with which it is overrun, and has 

 degenerated the Assamese, from a fine race of people, to the most abject, 



