364 
CHAPTER XX. 
suspended round his neck. The manager pays the sardar his rail fare 
and other necessary expenses to the nearest forwarding station of the 
Tea Districts Labour Association, namely, Gauhati or Goalundo. On arrival 
there, the sardar is met by the agent of the Association and escorted to 
the transit depot, where he is fed and his papers are verified. He is then 
given a rail ticket and travelling expenses to the local agent’s dept 
which is nearest to his village. The sardar in due course reports himself 
to the local agent who, after checking his papers, gives him a cash 
advance sufficient for the journey to his village and for his mainte- 
nance for a month or so. The sardar now departs and, if and when he 
returns to the local agent’s office, he reports the prospects of recruit- 
ment and asks for a further advance. He may even bring a recruit or 
two with him in order to satisfy the local agent that he means business, 
for the number of recruits he is likely to secure determines the amount 
of the second advance. The recruit produced by the sardar is ques- 
tioned by the local agent who, if satisfied that there is no valid objection 
to his being sent to Assam, enters in a register his name and other 
particulars as prescribed by the local Government. If so required, 
he also sends a copy of this register to the District Magistrate. The 
recruit is fed whilst he is kept at the local agent's dep6t and is given 
a first payment of five rupees, a few utensils, one or two blankets and 
some clothing. He is sent with the sardar or, if the sardar sees a pros- 
pect of further recruits, in charge of a peon to Goalundo or Gauhati 
where he is received in the transit depot. The Agent of the Tea 
Districts Labour Association then arranges for the final stage of his 
journey to the garden to which he has been recruited. Neither the 
sardar nor the local agent requires the recruit to sign any agreement, 
and his engagement is purely oral. . The conditions of employment are 
explained to the recruit by the sardar, but it is the local agent’s duty, 
by examining the recruit, to satisfy himself, so far as his knowledge 
allows, that there has been no material misrepresentation by the 
sardar. On his return to the garden the sardar is paid a commission 
which is generally stated to be ten rupees in the Surma valley and 
bwenty rupees in the Assam valley for each recruit but, as there is no 
recognised limit, the amount paid by some gardens is considerably 
igher. 
Defects of Act VI. 
Act VI of 1901, which governs recruitment for Assam has been 
amended on several occasions; it was radically revised in 1915, and 
several of its important provisions have become inoperative by notifi- 
cation. The Act as it stands is unintelligible to most people ; and several 
of its operative provisions are of doubtful validity, as they refer to a class 
which has now ceased to exist, namely, “labourers” who are defined as 
persons bound by a labour-contract to labour in a labour-district. A wit- 
ness representing the Tea Districts Labour Association indicated to us 
that the Act had only once to be taken to the High Court, and its hollow- 
ness would be instantly exposed. But apart from the obvious defects in 
form, the Act, as now in operation, is open to other objections. It