clxxxvi 



clean cotton per acre with reference to the quantity of cotton clothing 

 required per head of the population and having regard also to the 

 exports and imports of cotton and cotton cloth manufactured. The 

 quantity of cotton used locally was estimated at 28f million pounds, 

 13 1 millions being used by the spinning and weaving mills at work 

 in the Presidency and the remainder being used by the poorer classes 

 for spinning into the thread used for making coarser cloths used by 

 the rural population. The number of hand looms at work in the 

 Presidency was estimated at 300,000, and the quantity of twist worked 

 up into cloth at 34| milKoiis of pounds, of which 19 millions, or 55 

 per cent., were imported, 1 million mill-spun aud the remaining 14^ 

 millions hand spun in the country. 



6. In the number of persons engaged in the other occupations 

 specified in the statement, it will be seen that there has been a very 

 large increase ; that in items 6, 12 and 14 may be particularly noticed. 

 The increased facilities of communication between different parts of 

 the country have led to a great increase in the number of carts and other 

 conveyances, and railways, here as elsewhere, have not in any way 

 reduced their number, but on the other hand have since increased it. 

 Under item 12, the fish-curing industry is gaining in importance since 

 1881 on account of new facilities granted for the use of duty-free salt 

 in fish-curing operations. The large increase in the imports of metals 

 (valued at 11 lakhs of rupees in 1855-56, 40 lakhs in 1870-71, and 54 

 lakhs in 1887-88) and the great reduction in the cost of the articles has 

 led to an extension of the demand for them and the prosperity of the 

 metal industry. Among the persons included under item 14, 76,469 

 were gold and silver smiths, or 1 male goldsmith for every 408 of the 

 total population, while in England there is only 1 goldsmith for every 

 1,200 inhabitants. 



