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IV.-IMMIGRATION.
The coolie population on the tea gardens of the Duars, which
roughly-speaking numbers 150,000 persons, is almost entirely immi-
grant in character; not only so, but it has all been recruited during the
past thirty years. The districts from which it has been mainly drawn
are-
(a) The various districts of Chota  Nagpur  and  the  Santal
Pargannas.
(b) Nepal and the Darjeeling  Hills.
The races concerned are chiefly the so-called Chota Nagpuris,
Kols, Santals, and Nepalese.
In the absence of the registration the number of persons enter-
ing the Duars every year can only be very roughly computed.
Even the numbers recorded on the different garden books represent
only actual labourers. In our experience at least twenty-five per
cent. has to be allowed in the case of Chota Nagpuri and Santali
labour for young children and dependants. The number of immi-
grant adult labourers alone, not including children and depen-
dants entering the tea-gardens from Bengal, appears to be not
less than 7,000 to 8,000 per annum, and we have been informed that
during the year 1907-08 the total number recruited by all gardens
in the Duars probably reached a total of 20,000.
Regarding the yearly immigration into the Duars from the
Darjeeling hills and Nepal, we have absolutely no data and any esti-
mation is rendered very difficult by the fact that, in addition to the
large numbers of Paharia coolies, who yearly enter the Duars with
the intention of remaining one or more seasons, numberless gangs
of labourers come down every year from the hills in order to find
employment during the cold weather months, returning again to
the hills on the approach of the rainy season. But approximately
there would seem to be about half as many semi-permanently settled
Nepalese and Paharias as people from the plains and, allowing for
dependants and children, total yearly immigration of these classes