617 



Bolting of Coolies. 



The Secretary reads the following report of the Commission oh 

 the Bolting of Coolies :-— 



The Sub-Committee appointed to report on the question of the 

 bolting of coolies submit that a system of registration is necessary, 

 and suggest that it should be worked on the following lines : — 



1. That an officer of the Indian Immigration Department be 

 attached to every District Office. 



2. That, amongst others, it be the duty of the officer to keep a 

 register of all labourers in his District, as denned by the Indian Immi- 

 gration Enactment. 



3. That it be compulsory for all employers of Tamil labour to 

 give a discharge ticket on the completion of the usual month's notice. 



The ticket should show the following particulars : — 



1. Name. 



2. Parents' names and village. 



3. Place of discharge. 



4. Length of service. 



5. Eeason of discharge. 



6. Eate of wages paid. 



7. Distinguishing marks. 



4. That all employers of Tamil labour be forbidden to take on 

 any Tamil labourers, unless they come direct from India, or can pro- 

 duce from their last employer a discharge certificate, which has been 

 registered at the respective District Office, in accordance with § 3. 



5. That every employer taking on a discharged coolie shall pay a 

 nominal registration fee for each such coolie, and that all fees so col- 

 lected shall be paid into the Indian Immigration Fund, which, in a 

 measure, will defray the expenses of the proposed scheme. 



6. That in Section 2 of the Indian Immigration Amended Enact- 

 ment (No. 1 of 1907) the word "knowingly" be omitted, and the 

 whole of the scheme be worked in with that Enactment. 



7. That the Committee strongly recommend, in conjunction with 

 the scheme, that a system of finger-prints be universally adopted. 



8. That Mr. Harrison's suggestion, of granting free return tickets 

 to all coolies able to prove a stated term of uninterrupted service with 

 one employer, be adopted. 



Mr. Darby, speaking on behalf of the Sub-Committee appointed, 

 said that the Indian Immigration Enactment 1904, Amendment 

 Enactment 1907, copies of which were before them, had been intro- 

 duced by Government in order to fix the responsibility more definitely 

 on the employer who took on absconding coolies, rather than on the 

 labourer who had bolted from his estate. The suggestions of the Sub- 

 Committee really only tended to enable the Government to carry out 

 these intentions systematically; and if these suggestions were adopted 

 by Government, they should be incorporated in the Enactment just 

 cited. The employers of locally-recruited labour only hampered 

 Government in the good work they were doing by trying to flood the 

 country with labour. It could, and no doubt would, be argued that 

 discharge tickets interfered with the liberty of the subject. He, how- 



