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Casual labourers, who are employed as occasion arises, are 

 paid at higher rates than regular farm-servants, and, notwith- 

 standing the irregularity of employment, they appear to be 

 better off than the pannial class. In Coimbatore, according to 

 Mr. Nicholson, casual wages are from 1 to 3 measures daily 

 (3 to 9 lb.), varying with reference to season and demand — 

 quite high wages being paid at harvest. Women find work 

 for many months in the year on wet lands, from the collec- 

 tion of green manure to the work of harvest. There is less 

 to be done by them in gardens and still less on dry lands 

 except at harvest, especially that of cotton, the cost of 

 picking which is estimated at from one-twelfth to one-eighth 

 of the crop. Since the last famine, there has been a decided 

 increase in the money price of work in this district ; the 

 labouring class was largely affected by the famine and conse- 

 quently there is competition for labour especially in the 

 towns where labourers are hard to get. Mr. Nicholson 

 states that Wodders have even struck work on being refused 

 the rate of 12 cubic yards of easy earth-work, 20 being a 

 nominal rate. From 2 to 2^ annas per day for ordinary 

 unskilled male labourers and 1-| to 2 annas to females is 

 about the average. Hence a man and his wife can earn at 

 least S^ annas per day or the equivalent of 12 to 15 lb. of 

 dry grain in husk or 8 to 10 lb. without husk. When paid 

 in grain, the wages would amount to this quantity. For 

 well-digging, it is usual to pay the labourers chiefly in grain, 

 with an occasional sheep for the Wodders, money being 

 seldom paid by the regular ryot. Mr. Benson says of Kur- 

 nool, that the supply of labour is usually adequate to all 

 rural demands, but of late years the construction of the 

 Bellary-Kistna Railway has largely drawn on the supply and 

 forced up rates near the places through which it runs. Of 

 Bellary, Mr. Sabapathy Mudaliar (see appendix V.-F. (1 5)) 

 says : " This year (1890) the cotton and cholum crops having 

 been exceptionally favourable and cotton crops having ripened 

 simultaneously in almost every place, the labouring classes 

 were benefited thereby to an enormous extent. The wages 

 which were paid were three times as high as those ordinarily 

 paid before the current year." He adds that the increase in 

 the number of cotton presses has been the cause of giving 

 technical knowledge to numbers of male and female labourers 

 who are now able to earn exceptionally high wages, i.e., 

 Rs. 10 to Rs. 15 per mensem for a man and Rs. 6 to Rs. 10 

 for a wo;aian, who do work on the piece-work system. The 

 same remark applies more or less to the Tinnevelly district 

 also. In Tan j ore temporary coolies are employed by thQ 



