August 1, 1398.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
99 
to be brought up a peg or two. The medium 
tea passes into consumption on its own merits. 
In course of time the lowest £;ra':'e, which is 
al^o the bulk, will improve (from causes ex- 
plained above), and there will be less necessity 
to purchase \ery high priced teas of extraoidi- 
nary strength to raise tlie quality of the bulk. 
This will chiefly affect Assam which makes teas 
for the dealers with which to leaven the tea 
from Cachai-, Sylhet, Dooars, etc. .'<ome e-rates 
score by making a very large yield per acre of tea 
at low prices ; this class of tea will probably go 
out of demand and the yield per acre wiW have 
to be reduced. 
THE EXPEN.SIVE QUALITY OF TEA-PLANTlA'^G 
may be seen from tlie run of large profits during 
recent years in spite of the fall in prices. The market 
falls step by step and the dividends rise, and if 
tea could remain a sort of private property affair 
it would continue to give increasing dividends, 
but the outside world will not allow any section 
of mankind to become too prosperous. We have 
risen to the eminence which attracts public at- 
tention and so we shall be rushed with nev/ 
ventures until 5 per cent is to be gained only by 
the greatest care, fullest knowledge and backed 
by large capital. 
Beside improvements in machinery, which save 
labour and make tea manufacture less uncertain, 
we are tackling the labour problem. We are 
about to organise a central recruiting agency 
which will undoubtedly helptomake labonrcheaper 
because any sort of combined effort must be better 
than catch-wlio-catcli-can game that has been 
played since tea planting assumed large propor- 
tions. But all these things only enable us to keep 
pace with the falling price of tea. It is like the 
ship and the wind ; as the breeze fails, one sail 
after another is brought out, and when all the regu- 
lar rig is displayed one sees (from pictures) that 
odds and ends of sticks ai e put out at the side with 
cloth on them, and last of all the men whistle for 
the wind. It will probably be a long time before 
we have to whistle, but we are coming to- the re- 
gular trade wind, and our progress will be steady 
and safe. 
There is always a certain amount of risk to any 
planter who details the scenes behind the purdah, 
and the planters are right in going for anyone, 
tooth and nail, who accuses the industry in general 
for faults of individuals. I don't intend to make 
any disclosure, but there is much of interest to be 
said about. 
HOW WE GET OUR WORK DOXE. 
Our work people number about half a million. 
As a rule they come from far-off countries, and 
they very seh'om go back home again. Some coolies 
stay ten to twenty years in one garden. " Garden " 
is the technical term for " tea estate." These are 
the cream of labour. Some coolies work for periods 
of five to two years on one garden and move on as 
soon as the term of contract is finished : th.ese 
are in search of a "Klondyke" and they never 
lind it. Some coolies get knocked up in their first 
term of contr.vct, they are asked to " move on," 
and they wander off ami come to various emls. 
The Chief Commissioner of Assam is now veiy 
urgent that some means should be f(miid to sup|iort 
these waifs and strays. A certain amount of op- 
probrium is cast on the tea industry because 
It has not up to now established refuj^es for 
those who have served it and failed. It would 
be a most admirable thing if tea would 
separate itself from the rest of the hard- 
hearted world and have its own poor-house and 
alms houses : if it would take the lead— (not 
given by any other industry) and from its vast 
wealth return a little to those who fail. I have 
not heard that the coal niines. the railway, the 
post offices, the docks, the mill;, in fact any 
otlier industry or occupation is accused of stony 
hard-haartedness, l)ecause it refuses to emphiy 
people who have worked for them and cannot work 
any more. The fact that tea labour is imported 
make this ijuestionof vagrants and failure more 
palpable. Those who cannot work are found 
wandenng aljout, begging, suffering, lying abjut 
on road* and giving piteous tales to kind en- 
quirers. Wheti a man loafs in his own country, 
even with small children, he manages somehow to 
fix on to some particular village and leads the 
life of a dog, but this is so common as to be at 
present beyond the reach of .society. So that 
we WDuhl probably all be quite content if vagrant 
tea garden failures could be returned to their 
own homes. It is a question of expense, and I 
feel quite sure that if the expense of 
KE-PAl'EIATIXG COOLIES 
could be lessened it would become a law. 
The expense of returning a cooly from Assam 
is about UI8 and this could be divided by 
four. The garden, the carrying companies, the 
Government and tlie association. All tliese cor- 
porations benefit largely by the " coolie." Gov. 
ernment takej stamps and land lents and duties 
on liquor and income-taK from the planters. The 
garden takes good sound work and dividends 
ranging between 50 j:er cent and nothing. The 
steamers, &c. make lakhs of rupees by eari-yino-, 
and the association is supposed to be the general 
ma-bap. Another source of revenue for the re- 
patriating scheme may be found in those who 
made such a noise about destitute coolies a short 
time ago. The idea noted takes count only of 
the humane feelings of the tea industry, and of 
society in general. The virtuous civilian or 
soldier or sailor, will say, " Just fancy those 
planter chaps, they get coolies from far away, 
and when they bust them up, they kick them out 
to starve." It certainly i's a blot, but it is shared 
by others. I have no doubt that tea u-ill take 
the lead in this matter and give a good example 
to other sections of tlie industrial army. 
If you could only go a step further and con- 
sult the "bust-up" labourer, he might elect to 
be given one more chance. If we could have 
"general hospitals" in each district, a certain 
proportion would return to work, but this is ask- 
ing loo much. The cost of keeping and curing 
sick coolies would be fully K5 per mensem and 
the average chance should be about two months' 
duration. That makes KIO, the doctor's fee would 
be fully 112 per coolie per month and all this 
added to the R18 for re-i)atriation would fall too 
heavily on the four or five subscribers to the 
scheme. 
I tliink th.at in practice the proportion of cures 
would be fairly large and those cured could be 
sold to the planters. Thus supposing a coolie to 
get fit for work in a month or two he could be 
sold to the planters for ItlO, Rl.5, K20 (according 
to the price of labour), these sales would go a 
long way to pay for the keep of the hosfitals 
I have purposely used the word sold, and sale, 
because this is the accepted term for transactions 
in transferring; labour from the districts to the 
plantations. The pla)iters huii coolies anil the 
Arkatties sell tliem. If you take money for effect- 
ing emigration you sell coolies And so (of coui'se) 
it the hospitals take money for the rescued coolies 
they will have to sdl them. In course of time 
