WAGES ON PLANTATIONS, 403
form of a Wage Board. While indicating that they might not object: if
the principle were applied to all industries in India, they emphasised
that they were more concerned with the wages of agricultural labour than
those of industrial labour. These objections are based on the fact that
it is exceptional to create wage-fixing machinery for agriculture and that,
elsewhere, it is usual to apply such machinery in the first instance to
sweated industries where organisation is defective.

The Report makes special reference to the high degree of
organisation reached in Assam, where 909, of the acreage under tea is
represented by the Indian Tea Association. Very early in the history
of tea cultivation in Assam, the need for organisation and common
action was recognised. As far back as 1859, it was found necessary
to form a Tea Planters’ Association for the purpose, amongst others,
of organising a system of emigration to Assam. Other labour or re-
cruiting organisations followed until in 1892 the Association, now known
as the Tea Districts Labour Association, was formed to supervise recruit-
ment. The Labour Enquiry Committee of 1906 emphasised the neces-
sity for effective organisation to discourage and prevent enticement of
imported labour from one garden to another. The Enquiry Committee
of 1921-22 suggested that the District Sub-Committees of the Assam
Branches of the Indian Tea Association should recommend decent
monthly or daily rates of wages and the representatives of the Associa-
tion in evidence before us stated that in certain cases these Committees
increased the wages or'reduced the tasks. Notwithstanding these long
continued efforts on the part of employers, the need for combined action
continues and indeed is recognised in our Report which contains many
suggestions for increased common effort on the part of all concerned in
the cultivation of tea.

The Report deals fully with the many factors which have con-
tributed to the continued scarcity of tea garden labour in Assam and
contains recommendations designed to remove some of the existing
lifficulties. The representatives of the Indian Tea Association and
of the planters consider that the removal of restrictions on recruiting
including freedom of propaganda, coupled with the right of repatria-
tion for new recruits, will ensure a more plentiful supply of labour. It
is hoped that, in this respect, the experience of organised industries in
other parts of India will be repeated. In the case of Assam, however,
the problems arising out of the long distances from recruiting areas con-
finue and meantime make it difficult for tea garden workers, if they so
desire, to find their way back to the villages without assistance from their
employers. This, indeed, is one of the differences between Assam and
other plantations, e.g., Madras, where ample supplies of labour are
available within easy reach. There is every likelihood, therefore, that
organised recruitment and some measure of control will continue to be
necessary for some time in the case of Assam tea gardens. In ordinary
circumstances, scarcity of labour and the demand for it in competition
with other industries should create conditions that would make wage-
ixing machinery unnecessary. The conditions obtaining in Assam,

202