APPEARANCE OF DISTRESS 275 



late autumn crops became definitely declared, while 

 the employment afforded in garnering them had con- 

 siderably slackened. The construction of temporary 

 wells, so largely stimulated by advances from Govern- 

 ment, approached completion. The spring sowings 

 were arrested for want of rain, and irrigation alone 

 continued unabated for the occupation of agricultural 

 labour. Prices continued to rise, and the poorhouses 

 were rapidly filling. Between November 14 and 21 

 the poorhouse population had risen from 7,200 to 

 19,000, and the later admissions in some parts showed 

 signs of emaciation. Labourers and their families 

 began to flock on the relief works in the more dis- 

 tressed districts ; the sphere of gratuitous relief con- 

 tinued to expand, and a certain number of cultivating 

 tenants, too, found it necessary to seek employment, 

 or to send the idle members of their families to the 

 works. Finally, signs of distress began to appear 

 amongst the petty artisans, weavers, and the like, 

 whose occupation had ceased along with the pros- 

 perity of their customers. . . . As December drew to 

 its close the conditions existing in the previous month 

 became intensified and developed. Home resources 

 became more exhausted, field-work more circumscribed, 

 and the numbers seeking relief continued steadily to 

 increase. The poorhouse population was, in pur- 

 suance of the policy of Government, kept down by 

 drafting the inmates to relief works as they became 

 fit for labour, or transferring them to the village 

 lists (category c) where this measure was found suit- 

 able. . . . January opened with 410,238 people, 

 workers and their dependents, on relief works, while 

 86,641 were in receipt of gratuitous relief in poor- 

 houses or at their own homes. Week by week the 

 numbers rose by 100,000 or 150,000, or even more. 

 The average daily increment may be placed at 18,000. 

 By the end of January the total on relief works had 

 reached over 1,000,000. During February the recruit- 



18—2 



