Ixxxvi 



Mr. J. F. Price, Sub-Gol/edor of Salem. — Artisans were usually- 

 paid by the day, but they sometimes did piece-work. The exception 

 was the village blacksmith who was paid sometimes in charcoal, but 

 custom in this respect varied and in all large villages this workman 

 was either paid by the job or by the day. Wodders, who did stone 

 and earth work, usually made a contract, and the chief man and his 

 gang united to do the work and divided the sum paid for it among 

 themselves. When they worked for daily hire, their charge was from 

 4 to 5 annas a day. For ordinary coolies the payment ranged from 3 

 annas for the best labourer to 9 pies for a small boy of about ten 

 years of age. Women ordinarily got one anna six pies and young 

 girls 6 pies per diem. The customary arrangement as regards farm 

 labourers was that the master gave from 3 to 4 rupees a year, from 

 3 to 4| kandagams (130 Madras measures each) of ragi, and if he was 

 a wealthy and liberal man, a couple of coarse cloths at the Pongal. 

 Boys were hired by the year, and the arrangement was that the 

 master gave them their food, a place (usually the stable) to sleep 

 in, an ordinary handkerchief for the head, a small cloth and a cumbli. 

 When Mr. Price first joined that district, the regular rate of hire of 

 farm labourers had been a pagoda for a year, and from one and-a-half 

 to three kandagams of ragi. The terms for boys had not altered, but 

 there was then a tendency to ask for a small money payment, a rupee 

 or so, in addition to food and clothing. The rates for daily coolies, 

 when he first went there, ranged from 2| annas to 6 pies for males 

 and from one anna to 4 or 5 pies for females. The wages of artisans 

 were on the same scale ; a bricklayer who claimed 12 annas a day 

 only got 9 previously and that was the charge for the best class of 

 workmen. The increase in the price of labour dated from the time of 

 the famine, when the cost of the necessaries of life of every kind was 

 so great that the Government officials had to increase the wages paid 

 by them to labourers. Since then though ragi, for instance, had fallen 

 from Rs. 26 (sic) to Rs. 2^ per kandagam, which latter was its price at 

 that time, it was impossible to reduce the rates. Coolies could get work 

 almost everywhere, and in order to be able to retain them during the 

 weeding and harvesting seasons, when the ryots paid the Government 

 rates and added to them a measure or a couple of measures of ragi a 

 day, besides food, the Government was obliged to pay the same price 

 all the year round. Mr. Price once tried to reduce the pay of the 

 coolies, and they nearly all struck and brought his road work to a 

 standstill at the most important part of the season. 



There had been a marked improvement in the condition of both 

 the labouring and artisan classes during the previous 5 years. The 

 famine had given them an opportunity for increasing the rates paid 

 to them, and they had never, though there had been a considerable 

 period of cheapness and plenty, allowed these to retrograde. The 

 labourer then received three annas instead of two annas and-a-half and 

 he paid only Rs. 24 instead of Rs. 26 (sic) a kandagam for ragi, which 

 was his chief article of food. It was manifest, therefore, that if he 

 could have lived on his two annas and-a-half when ragi was sold at 

 Rs. 26 (sic) a kandagam or even Rs. 12 or 15 at which it had stood for 

 some time, he must have either saved or spent something on extra 

 articles or luxuries when he received 3 annas and spent only Rs. 2| 

 for a kandagam of ragi, which would last for some two months. His 



