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CHAPTER XXI.

and wage inspector could be combined. The inspector would
concentrate on hoth factory and wage inspection during six months
of the year and entirely on wage inspection during the remaining
 period when the factories were closed. The effectiveness of
wage regulation depends mainly on three things—the agreement of the
industry, its degre¢ of organisation and the efficiency of the enforcement.
[t is reasonable to anticipate that, by the time the promulgation of rates
had been reached, the machinery in Assam, as in Ceylon, would be working
with the agreement and active co-operation of the industry. Moreover,
 while the workers are completely unorganised (a fact which
alone makes inspection by independent officials essential), the employers
are unusually highly organised, the one Association covering over 90 per
cent of the industry. The employer failing to observe the law would,
in due course, become conspicuous and thus invite the attention of the
inspector. We anticipate that the administration of the statutory rates
during the first few years would be largely explanatory and advisory,
with a view to assisting employers to make themselves thoroughly conversant
 with the requirements of the law. The application of an old
type of legislation in a new sphere may often appear to those at first
brought into contact with it fraught with many dangers and difficulties.
If the enforcement of that legislation is characterised from the outset by
sympathetic and understanding administration, these dangers and
difficulties are found gradually to disintegrate, and what was first accept
ed experimentally with suspended judgment becomes a valued part of
the machinery of the industry.

Wages in the Dooars.
The conditions obtaining in the Dooars are in many respects
similar to those in Assam. The labour force is equally unorganised and
the employers are represented by two independent organisations, namely,
the Dooars Planters’ Association and the Indian Tea Planters’ Association.
 The former, which consists mainly of European planters, represents
 128 gardens with an acreage of over 120,000 or more than 90 per
sent of the total acreage under tea cultivation in the Dooars. The other
Association represents the interests of Indian planters, mainly in the
Dooars, but its membership also includes a few planters in Assam and
in the Terai. The total acreage under tea represented by this Association
 is about 25,000. Formerly the system of payment was to fix
a hazira for the daily task, while the worker, if he desired, could in addition
earn overtime, which was known as doubli. With the rapid increase in
the cost of living the planter preferred not to increase the rate of wages,
but to decrease the task by introducing the system of a second and even
a third hazira. The general rate of payment for the hazira is 4 annas
for men, and 3 annas for women and children. It was stated that, on an
average, a worker now takes about 3% hours and 2% hours respectively
to complete the first and second hazira ; the completion of three haziras
normally requires about 8% hours, but in a few instances workers are
said to be able to complete 4 or even 5 haziras in one day. The labourers
work in gangs under a sardar who, in addition to a monthly wage, receives