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CHAPTER XXI. 
based on the one-anna unit and in the case of plucking on the one-pice 
unit. Whichever system is taken into account, the consideration of 
wages resolves itself into the consideration of piece earnings. * The periods 
of wage payment vary in different gardens; some pay weekly, some 
monthly and a few daily. Where wages are paid monthly, payment 
is usually made within 10 days of the completion of the month for which 
wages are due. A fact which must strike every visitor to the Assam 
plantations is that comparatively high average earnings do not necessa- 
rily mean greater contentment among the labour force ; and we visited 
some gardens in which, though the average earnings were compa- 
ratively low, the workers appeared to be happy and contented. The 
explanation is that the actual cash earnings of the worker do not repre- 
sent his total remuneration, and that an important element in the attrac- 
tions of a garden is frequently the value of the ‘ concessions ’ offered in 
addition to the cash wage. It is necessary, therefore, to consider the 
nature and extent of these concessions before we proceed to the examina- 
sion of the level of cash wages. 
Land for Private Cultivation. 
Practically every garden worker receives free housing, medical 
facilities and firewood, and many are given free grazing for cattle and 
tand for cultivation, either free or at an uneconomic rent. To these 
must be added the grant of advances without interest, and in a few 
cases the issue of rice at concession rates. We deal later with housing, 
medical facilities and maternity benefits. Of the others, the conces- 
sion to which the worker attaches most importance is the grant of 
land for private cultivation. The garden worker is essentially an 
agriculturalist, and his desire for the possession of a holding which he 
can cultivate with the help of the members of his family is great. 
This ambition for private land, if fully satisfied, would remove all 
desire for garden work, and in the allotment of garden land for private 
sultivation the planter has, therefore, to study his own interests as well 
as those of the worker. Hence the worker who desires and is able to set 
up as an independent cultivator has to move to Government land outside 
the garden, and private cultivation within the garden is confined to those 
families which can provide labour on the garden. The extent of this con- 
cession can be judged from the fact that in 1929 nearly 150,000 acres of land 
were held by garden workers as tenants of the garden proprietors. This 
represents about a quarter of an acre for each adult labourer living in garden 
lines; and, as the rent charged is substantially below the real economic 
rent, the value of the concession is undoubted. But all gardens are not 
favourably situated in respect of the amount of land available for culti- 
vation by their workers. In most gardens the acreage which can be 
distributed among the workers is limited, and few gardens can offer a 
holding of any size to the majority of the workers. Further, in the ab- 
sence of any tenancy law applicable to the garden grants, the enjoyment 
of this concession is entirely at the discretion of the garden manager. 
Strictly speaking, the worker has a right only to the crop which he has 
sown and can be evicted from his holding, even though he mav have