55 
4. It was obviously unfair that anyone should be expected to 
undergo a great deal of trouble and expense in recruiting labour, and 
that after the arrival of this labour in the country, the non-recruiter 
should, by offering a slightly increased wage (which is quite unneces- 
sary as far as the cooly is concerned) be able to entice the labourer 
to leave and yet be in a better financial position than if he had 
recruited the cooly himself at a lower though ample wage. 
5. It would be a great loss and a serious matter for all parties 
concerned, if the present scarcity of labour be allowed to continue, 
and a large number of employers persisted in obtaining coolies locally, 
merely by offering higher wages. This would only increase the cost 
of labour all round, would not increase the labour supply of the 
country, and would lead the coolies into extravagant habits. 
6. In his opinion, the man who can recruit coolies into the 
country by the kangany system, should be given every encouragement. 
He should not be expected to bring coolies over here for the benefit 
of other people, without being recompensed financially. 
As he had already said, he did not think Mr. Mansergh’s scheme 
would be a practical solution of this difficulty; he would therefore 
suggest the following 
1. That the assessment rate should be raised from $5 to $10 pei 
head. 
2 . That the money thus obtained should be used to pay all 
expenses of the coolies from their villages to the Port of disembarka- 
tion, and that has high a rebate as possible should be paid per cooly 
to each person who imports kangany recruited labour. 
A committee should be appointed to ascertain the average cost of 
each cooly to the recruiter. It should be the aim on the Indian 
Immigration Committee to fix the rebate to the importer as high as 
possible, though perhaps the rebate might not be sufficient to covei 
the full cost of each imported cooly. As time went on however the 
fund will increase, and the rebate will be increased proportionately, 
until there were sufficient funds to compensate each importer tuny. 
In this way, the employer of locally obtained Tamil coolies will be 
penalised, and greater encouragement would be given t°recnner$, 
and employers of locally engaged coolies would soon realise that 
would pay them better to import their own labour. 
Mr. Jarvis reminds the Meeting that a similar Committee had been 
appointed a couple of years ago. which had advocated a s.m.lar remedy 
as that now brought forward by Mr. Mansergh. but that th : only rep y 
they had got from Government was that the scheme would g - 
hamper the movements of labor and would be a e > o e ^ 
ends by acting prejudicially on the supply of immigrants,- to 
would no doubt be obnoxious.” 
