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