Ixxix 



and Mr. Stuart took the opposite view, but they evidently referred to 

 farm labourers, the old praedial slaves. Wages paid in grain, like 

 those of farm labourers, continued almost stationary, and the rapid 

 increase in money wages was to a great extent neutralized by as rapid 

 a rise in prices. The labouring classes had, however, fully shared in 

 the general improvement which was visible everywhere, and in many 

 places large public works, increasing trades, and improved facilities 

 for emigration had made their advance more rapid than that of other 

 classes. 



Honorable V. Ramaiyangar. — The agricultural labourers in Tanjore 

 called " pannials " were a kind of semi-serfs squatting on the estates 

 to which they were attached. According to the practice of the 

 district, 40 goolies of dry laud out of the holdings of a mirasidar 

 were exempted by Government from assessment and made over to 

 each '* pannial " working under him. The mirasidar supplemented 

 this with a grant of 60 goolies, of which he himself paid the 

 assessment. He further granted to each laboui'er 50 goolies of 

 " nunjah " land free of assessment. The 100 goolies of dry laud was 

 calculated to yield 7 kalams^ of ragi, besides vegetables and enough 

 of ground-nut to supply him with oil for the use of the family. The 

 50 goolies of wet land were computed to yield 5 kalams of paddy. 

 His wages for daily work consisted of a Madras measure of grain per 

 diem and this for about nine working months in the year would give 

 him 9x30 or 270 measures = ll^ Tanjore kalams. His calavassam 

 on the threshing floor at the time of harvest gave him about 11 

 kalams more. The pannial 's wife earned, by beating paddy and 

 separating the husk from the grain on the mirasidar's estate, about 6 

 kalams of grain a year at the rate of 12 measures a month, so that 

 the total earnings, of the family in one year were as below : — 



which at an average price of one rupee a kalam was equal to about 

 Rs, 40 in money. The labourer generally earned something by work- 

 ing as cooly during three months in the year in which he was not 

 employed in the field, and including this and the presents he got on 

 festival days, the total earnings of the family were Rs. 4 a month. A 

 non-agricultural labourer and his family in the rural parts of the 

 district earned about the same sum at the rate of three annas per 

 diem. 



The agricultural labourers in other districts did not earn so much 

 as in Tanjore. In some districts, their wages were, on an average, 

 but two Madras measures of grain per diem, or 60 measures a month, 

 equal to 12x60 or 720 meaures or 90 merkals per annum. This 



' A Tanjore kalam 3 Madras merkals or 24 measures, each containing 133 tolas 

 of rice. 



