194 



Report on the manufacture of Tea, and on the 



[JuLt 



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 1 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, 

 servile, crafty, and demoralized race in India. This vile drug has kept, 

 and does now keep, down the population ; the women have fewer chil- 

 dren compared with those of other countries, and the children seldom 

 live to become old men, but in general die at manhood ; very few old 

 men being seen in this unfortunate country, in comparison with others. 

 Few but those who have resided long in this unhappy- land know the 

 dreadful and immoral effects, which the use of Opium produces on 

 the native. He will steal, sell his property, his children, the mother 

 of his children, and finally even commit murder for it. Would it not be 

 the highest of blessings, if our humane and enlightened Government 

 would stop these evils by a single dash of the pen, and save Assam, and 

 all those who are about to emigrate into it as Tea cultivators, from the 



