01 possessed average savings of L19.

British East and South Africa.

During the construction of the Uganda railway large numbers of coolies
were recruited in the Punjab and exported from Karachi to Mombasa.
During the decade 1891-1901 the number of these emigrants was 33,000;
but on the completion of the line the emigration practically stopped,
while in 1901-1902 there were over 6000 emigrants who returned to India.
Some, however, settled in East Africa. Coolies are also exported for
government employment in Nyasaland. In Natal the Indian population had
by 1904 reached over 100,000 and slightly outnumbered the whites. Many
of the coolies had become permanent residents in the colony (see NATAL).

Assam, Ceylon and Burma.

According to the census of 1901 there were 775,844 foreigners in Assam,
of whom no fewer than 645,000 or 83% were brought into the province as
garden coolies. The recruiting of these coolies is regulated by Act VI.
of 1901, which provides that a labour agreement may be entered into for
four years, and includes a penal clause, under which a coolie deserting
or refusing to work may be punished with imprisonment. The coolies can
also give an agreement under Act XIII. of 1859, by which they are only
liable to civil action for breach of contract. The latter are called
non-act coolies. This system of immigration has made tea-planting the
most important industry in Assam, and has greatly increased the
prosperity of the province. Migration to Ceylon and Burma takes place
chiefly from the Madras ports, and is of a seasonal and temporary
character. The tea estates and pearl fisheries of Ceylon, and the town
work and harvesting in Burma attract large numbers of Tamil labourers.
The respective numbers embarking in 1901 were 117,000 for Ceylon, 84,000
for Burma and 27,000 for the Straits Settlements. In Ceylon there is no
system of recruitment like that for the Assam tea-gardens. The coolies
come in gangs, each under its own headman, with whom the planter deals
exclusively, leaving him to make his own arrangements with the
individual coolies. The coolies are mostly carried in small sailing
vessels from the ports of Madura and Tanjore, and the number who
permanently settle in Ceylon is not very great.

See E. Jenkins, _The Coolie; his Rights and Wrongs_ (1871); J. L. A.
Hope, _In Quest of Coolies_ (1872); and C. B. Grose, _The Labour
Ordinances_ (Georgetown, 1890). (C. L.)

COOMA, a tow