THE PLANTATIONS. 
355 
only about one-eighth of the total population of the province and many 
of them own rice lands or small coffee estates. The migratory hill tribes 
provide only a small proportion of the labour required for the planta- 
tions and for.the cultivation of the paddy lands. The bulk of the 
workers come from the adjoining districts of South Kanara and 
Malabar in the Madras Presidency, and from the State of Mysore, which 
lies to the east of the Province. 
Recruitment. in the South. 
The system of recruitment for almost all the plantations mn the 
South is through labour suppliers, called kanganis or maistries, who re- 
ceive from the planters loans free of interest from which they advance 
money to individual labourers or families wishing to goto the estates. 
These advances are debited to the labourers’ account and are recovered 
during the period of their employment. The amount of the advances varies 
in different districts, but is estimated at an average of Rs. 15 for each 
labourer. Plantation labour in the South, like factory labour, is migra- 
tory in character and returns to its village every year for periods of from 
1 to 3 months and in some areas even twice or three times in the year. 
But there is a marked tendency to return year after year to the same 
estate. According to the estimate of the United Planters’ Association of 
Southern India, the percentage of workers who returns to the same estate 
varies from 60 to 90 
Penal Contracts. 
The Madras Planters’ Act of 1903 introduced the penal contract 
as a protection for the planter against the loss of the advances made to 
his workers. This Act remained after the repeal of the Workmen’s 
Breach of Contract Act and was not finally repealed till January 1929. 
The evidence we received shows unmistakably that the abolition of the 
penal contract in Madras has not added to the planters’ difficulties ; if 
anything, it has promoted a more regular flow of labour to the plantations. 
We were informed that the planter in some cases had recourse to the 
cwvil law for the recovery of the advance, but the civil agreements which 
have replaced the penal contracts are usually made with the supplier of 
labour, namely, the kangans or the maistry and not with the labourer. In 
Coorg, the demand for a penal contract was made not only by the planter 
but also by the ordinary landholder, who also relied on outside labour for 
the cultivation of his land. This was secured by the application to the 
province of the Workmen’s Breach of Contract Act. With the repeal 
of this Act the planter and the local landholder pressed for the retention 
of the penal contract, which was then legal in the Madras Presidency 
under the Madras Planters’ Act. As a result, the local council passed a 
bill in, 1926, known as the Coorg Labour Act, based on the Workmen’s 
Breach of Contract Act, but at the instance of the Government of India 
the operation of the measure was limited to five years to give the planter 
time to effect the necessary adjustments demanded by changing condi- 
tions, During the years 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1929, 13,415 cases were 
instituted under the Act, 2.946 persons were ordered to work out the 
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