§ MR. LAIDLAWI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India if it is proposed to enhance the assessments of tea lands in Assam at the expiration of present leases; if he is aware that on account of depression in the tea trade most of these lands have yielded a steadily decreasing profit for some years past; and if an enhancement of land rent is contemplated in any of the other tea districts in India.
§ MR. MORLEYUnder conditions of the leases granted for tea cultivation in 699 Assam the land assessment is liable to revision after thirty years, the standard being the rate at which ordinary agricultural land in the district is assessed. This term is about to expire in the case of a number of leases in the Surma Valley districts. In its proposals for re-assessment the local Government has had regard to the present state of the tea industry, so far as relevant to the matter.