HEALTH AND WELFARE IN PLANTATIONS. 413 
Weltare. 
When it is remembered that, even in England, what is generally 
understood as welfare work ” is only of very recent growth, tribute 
must be paid to the time and thought which have been devoted by 
individual managers to the well-being and comfort of their labour forces. 
In order to indicate the lines ou which welfare work has so far been evolv- 
ed and the methods by ‘which these might be extended and improved, 
it is worth mentioning a few of the activities brought to our notice. 
On a number of gardens two meals a day are supplied free to all children 
under 5 or 6 years of age. The free feeding of non-working children 
is a general practice on the plantations in Ceylon, where it has had a mate- 
rial effect on their health. We consider that this method of promoting 
health is a sound investment and should be generally adopted. On 
other gardens, mothers and their infants are supplied with blankets 
free of charge, and if difficulty arises in obtaining milk, free issues are 
also made by the estates. A group of gardens in Assam has adopted 
the sound practice of weighing all infants regularly and, in the case of 
children admitted to hospital, of recording their weights on admission 
and thereafter at regular intervals and at the date of vaccination. The 
general practice is to make special observation of the children during the 
annual health survey, when house-to-house examination of every resident 
is made, but a more frequent examination of the young children would 
bring to the early notice of the medical officer those who are not in a good 
state of health and would place him in a better position to plan preventive 
treatment. Finally in one garden in Assam, the manager tries to 
ensure a better standard of health in the children by adding 309% 
to the pay of those labourers who have three or more non-working 
children living on the plantation. 
Recreation. 
Although we were informed that the labourers took little 
interest in games and pastimes, a number of attempts have been made 
to provide both recreation and entertainment. In certain gardens 
‘ootball teams have been organised, whilst in others such entertain- 
nents as adult sports and tribal dances have been successfully arranged. 
We would urge the desirability of garden managers assisting in the orga- 
aisation of such efforts, and advocate the setting apart of playing 
jelds for general recreational purposes. In one group of gardens in the 
Surma. Valley, the managers have engaged the services of a touring cinema 
company during the cold weather for the entertainment of their labourers. 
In another garden in Assam which we visited, the manager is a skilled 
sinema, operator and the periodical cinema entertainments given by him 
are immensely appreciated by large audiences. The lantern slide and 
the cinema film are means both of education and amusement which might 
be much more widely used than at present in every plantation area, 
where the labourers are often more isolated than in their own villages. 
Initial difficulties might be experienced in obtaining material to suit 
she understanding of illiterate audiences, but once the demand was made