February i, 1892.] 
THE TROPICAL AQRI0ULTURI8T. 
557 
COOLIES FOR ASSAM. 
Wo have already commontod on the great and bitter 
cry of the Ansam planter that the supply of labour is 
daily growing not only more scanty in amount but 
inferior in quality. This is a matter which not only 
alfccta the great tea industry, and, indirectly, tho 
Government and poptUalion of Assam ; tho question 
is also interesting to us who live in Northern and 
Western India. Assam affords an ample outlet for 
our surplus population ; it bohovos us to inquire with 
some minuteness why our landless labourers are 
beginning to look askance on tea garden work, and 
can only bo persuaded to emigrate by tho unholy 
persuasions of the arkati and tho crimp. The present 
system of recruiting is admittedly open to serious 
abuse of a kind which it is cxtromoly difficult to check. 
And now we are told that this evil system has not 
oven the recommendation of sucooss, and that the 
supply of coolies is rapidly falling off. To what 
causes is tho unpopularity of tea garden labour due ? 
It can hardly bo said that the drain has been so 
Bovoro as to have taken off all the people who are so 
poor as to need a refuge in temporary exile. A 
good deal has been said in some quarters about the 
expense and length of the journey to Assam. It has 
boon hinted that when once Assam is connected with 
the rest of India by railway the labour question will 
solve itself. This seems somewhat doubtful. Every 
cold weather swarms of men go to Assam from Nopal, 
from those Provinces and from Tirboot, to work on 
the Government toads, or to sell droves of plough 
cattle or buffaloes. Most of these maroh by laud, or, 
taking rail to Ehubri, walk the rest of the way. Even 
those who indulge in the luxury of a railway and 
steamer journey to Ehubri can make their way from 
!"“JPra or Muzsffarpur to Eibtngarh at a cost of from 
ItlJ to 1114. The journey will occupy leas than three 
weeks. Those of them who do earthwork on tho roads 
reap a handsome harvest. The rate for larthwork paid 
by Ihe Public Works Department in Assam ie liberal, 
li4.8 or K6 per 1,(J00 cubic feet, we understand. A 
road-working coolie can easily do his 2,500 cubic foot 
m a month, and in the six months of the dry weather 
may easily lay by his R60 or H60. Of this he will 
spend some R12 ou tho return journey, and tho rest, 
in BO short a period as six months, is pure gain. Herel 
is an annual exodus which ie purely voluntary. It is 
nuperviaed by no Govemmont agency. It is unattended 
by tho wiles and oppressions of arkatia, and as an 
luatanoe of sueoessful and useful migration well deserves 
‘ proves that the natives of W. W. India will 
^ , jjy travel to Assam at their own risk and expense, 
so tnat the labour they have to perform is done in tho 
eld weather, and is sufficiently well paid to leave a 
margin for saving. 
, the planter wants his ooolies to labour 
all tlm year through j and chiefly in the rainy 
months, which arc especially trying to unaccli- 
matiaed inhabitants of drier parts of India. 
"Ven if wages as bigh as those earned by road monders 
to be had on ten gardens (and in the case of old 
th« ''^*med coolies wages ns good, or nearly as good as 
, J'® may be TOrned; it is probable that ooolies 
in A ^t>Per India are not easily persnaded to remain 
il.on throughout successive rainy soasouB, until 
_ ^ acclimatised and really useful. Hence the 
aim, ®*P®nee of exporting labour, and tho groat 
, by desertion and non-ronewsl of coolie 
which wo have already drawn attention, 
momi. the niA-afi steps in, and by blandishmonts, 
Dl.MiI*** ® j otlier persuntioDB inveigles tho coolie to 
affrenm. there induces him to enter into an 
manv "P *®tTOur for five years. The ; result in 
ho savo”.*"''" " eutirolyfor the coolie’s benefit. Often 
on its ®^ bis agreement, and 
^ Bottles down to cultivation in a little 
and “ much mote prosperoas 
But whn native abode, 
the “ voluntary migration automatically seloots 
workTi T" wbo are frupl, abstemious and hard- 
Ihe ® ?'*'’** 'vioHm® ohiefly among 
drunkard, ™r®> bfe. He W® up 
* (fo >0»*ors among tho men and women of 
loose life among recruits of the other sex. It 
is small wonder that the impatient planter 
oomplaina that the expense of importing such 
labour is never recouped, and finds the Labour 
Law itself iucffhotual as a moans of getting an 
honest, daj’e work out of his labourers. It ie perhaps 
Bstonishing that tho average rate of wago paid to lea 
garden labour should bo so high as it is. The present 
system of reornitment then is attended by many 
ioovitablo disappointments and dangers. It is eitromcly 
oiponsivc, and it must not be forgotten that the La- 
bour Law iteelf cannot bo administered without ex- 
pense. The difiBoulty is to suggest a remedy. That 
arkatis and reomiters should mako a profit by eup. 
plying ooolies is itself a great evil. How are planters 
to replace the arkati by some less suspioiona agency ? 
Can the Government do anything to aid them in the 
enterprise y It is to tho interest of Government to 
supply easy means of migration from the overatooked 
provinoea of India ; it is to its interest that the tea 
indusiry should flourish and reclaim the waste places 
of Assam, and that time expired coolies should open 
ont its jungles. At present Govommont takes upon 
itself to look after the welfare of the labourers on 
toa gardens, and inspectors of labourers are legally cm- 
powered to see that tasks are not excessive and that 
all labourers are provided with the moans of earning 
a snffioienl livelihood. Can it not go further and 
take up the business of an Emigratiou Agency t 
Before it could do so, it would bo necessary to mako 
sure that the conditions of labour in Assam were or 
could bo made, always and invariably better than in 
the districts of rerruitmont. It would probably bo nores- 
aary to strengthen the staff of inspootors, and to raiao 
the statute minimum of wages, KegisLration olhocs 
would bo opened, at which coolies should bind them, 
selves to labour in Assam for a term of j'osrs. Tho 
caolies might then be forwarded to Assam in charge 
of Government officials and despatched to tho difforout 
gardens through the inspectors oouoorncd. Any garden 
in which coolies were ilMreatod or ill-paid might be 
refused a farther supply of labour. The bare expenses 
of travel might be advanced by Goveroment and to- 
ooupod, as are other such adranoes, under Aot I. of 
1883. It may be said that such a aohouio is tn unwar* 
ranted intuiferouce with private eatirpriso. But no 
ono except the arkalit themsolvos, certainly uot the 
coolie or his employer, is likely to resvntnu iutorfer- 
enoo with tho arkaii’a bunmss. If Govoniiiieut were 
onco assured that tea garden life iu Assam was really 
a change for the bettor for omigrauts from other parta 
of India, it could easily and by tho most legitimate 
means mako these advantages known. It could assuie 
tho intending emigrant that be would be oarofully 
looked after, and that if be were ill-treated or ill-paid 
he would bo given the option of returning to his home 
or settling on his own account in Assam. 
Tho suggestion tiss many obvious drawbacks, which 
wo will leave it to others to discuss. Plantura themsolvoa 
admit that the arkati is a oryiug evil, and must bo pnt 
down at all risks. It is clear that Aasam Is not yet 
ripe for free migration, and would probably not 
bo not so even if the future railway ware an 
existing fact. Attempts to organise superior agencies 
to compete with the arkatis seem destined to 
fail. The arkaiVs methods, if objeotionable, are econo, 
raicsi. It Equitejiosrible, however, that the arkati is 
a maligned individual, and that natural aelootion has 
evolved the fittest person for the task of leeruiting 
coolies. Even in tliat case the suggestion will have 
done no harm if it tends to whitewash a misunderstood 
and necessary individual. But it is a tenebrous sub. 
ject. especially to minds nuacquaiuted with Assam, and 
the man who throws real light upon it will bo a public 
baoefactor. 
One other suggostion occurs to us, whioh wo beg not 
be taken entirely in jest. There may yet arise a Cook 
oraGago who will poisonally oonduot coolie tourists 
to the Tom Tiddler’s ground of Assam. But that pro* 
supposes a happy time when ooolies shall bo as anxious 
to travel cheaply and expeditiously to Assam, as pil. 
grims who seek Meooa. Whydoee not a Cook arise, 
and sweep the mob of arkatis off the earth. Ramoof 
