54 



Mr. Cumming remarks that one of the propositions before the 

 Meeting was that made by him to the effect, that a labour clause be 

 inserted in all new agricultural grants. As the measure now proposed 

 by Mr. Mansergh, really aimed at the same object, he would withdraw 

 his original proposal in favour of the one now before them. The latter 

 was a matter of the gravest import and one that should not be lightly 

 rushed through very careful deliberation, ensuing a perfect unanimity 

 on their part. It seemed to him therefore essential that the whole mat- 

 ter be discussed very thoroughly by all their constituent Associations 

 and he was in favour of their appointing a Sub-Committee, who would 

 go thoroughly into the question and report to them. It was however 

 desirable that they got the sense of the Meeting, so as to enable the 

 planting members on the Immigration Committee to represent 

 adequately the views of the P. A. M. at the forthcoming Meeting of 

 the Immigration Committee. 



Mr. Skinner remarks that he has listened to Mr. Mansergh's letter 

 carefully, and is quite at one with him in thinking it very urgent that 

 steps should be taken to recompense the bona-fide recruiter at the 

 expense of those w^ho obtained their Tamil labour locally. He did 

 not however think that a differential scheme, that is to say, a tax of $20 

 per head on locally engaged coolies, and also the normal assessment, 

 would be workable. However honest an employer may be, it is 

 expecting too much, and it is almost impossible for him to keep trace 

 in his check-roll of the locally engaged cooly, and the cooly recruited 

 from India. If this is the case with the honest employer, just imagine 

 what scope there would be for an unscrupulous man, employing locally 

 engaged coolies, to make inaccurate returns. It would require 

 enormous machinery to work Mr. Mansergh's plan, and even then, he 

 doubted if satisfactory results would be achieved. 



He would like to draw their attention to the following points: — 



1. Firstly, the advisability of increasing the staff of inspectors of 

 the Indian Immigration Fund, whose duties are to patrol the country 

 and prevent evasions of the present enactment. These inspectors 

 should be provided with motor-bicycles, to enable them to do their 

 work with greater rapidity. 



2. The existing maximum assessment of $5 per head had proved 

 insufficient to cover the expenses of the large influx of labour during 

 the present year, and the Indian Immigration Committee had been 

 obliged to stop giving recruiting rebates to the importers of Tamil 

 coolies, for the third and fourth quarters of 1910. 



3. In view of the large area which had been and was to be opened, 

 it was absolutely essential that every encouragement should be given 

 to recruiting, especially to kangany recruiting. This' could only be 

 done by giving encouragement to the older estates, who during many 

 years had built kangany recruiting system, and had spent large sums 

 of money on recruiting coolies. 



