OCX XV 



in every respect — agriculture, manufacture, and commerce. The tillers 

 of the soil, the artisans, the manufacturers, and the traders — petty 

 and wholesale — are, as shown above, getting strengtliened day after day 

 in their natural course. Whatever may he said of the proportion of 

 increase under these heads to the attempts, inducements, and training 

 afforded by Government, and whatever may be thought about the 

 causes of the shortcomings in this proportion, the fact lies bare to 

 every observer that the lower and middle classes, i.e., the working 

 classes, are now much better off than what they were during the last 

 generation, though not as much as they ought or would be expected to 

 be under the particular attention paid by our Western rulers to improve 

 their condition by the establishment of several colleges and training 

 institutions all over the country. The fault is not of the poor classes, 

 but it is due to the indifference of their richer brethren, who, instead of 

 teaching and leading them, look to their own selfish ends, or spend 

 their energies and wealth in questionable directions. 



(7) Condition of the Weaving Industry in Madura. 



Note hy V. Rajagojmla Chariar, Esq., B.A., B.L., 

 District Registrar, Madura. 



Nmnher of silk wearers' houses. — The town of Madura is divided 

 into ten Municipal wards. Of these ten wards the silk weavers occupy 

 the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 9th wards, and the number of silk weavers' 

 houses may be roughly estimated at 5,000 or so. Houses are multiply- 

 ing in these wards and the fresh additions are generally thatched huts 

 occupied by the laboring classes. It would appear that weavers from 

 other parts of the district, finding no occupation in their respective 

 places, have migrated to the town of Madura and settled themselves 

 down here. The records of the Municipal office show that about 281 

 new houses have been erected in these wards. 



2. Number of silk weavers in the toivn. — The silk weavers as a class 

 are a very prolific people. They are said to multiply more rapidly 

 than the other classes. Fixing, therefore, the inmates of each house to 

 be from 4 to 5, the silk weavers' population of the town of Madura may 

 be roughly estimated to be between 20,000 to 25,000 including females 

 and children. Of these, about 10,000, including females, may be said 

 to belong to the actual cooly class who earn their living by daily 

 wages. Next to these come the petty traders who number from 400 to 

 500 families. Some of these sell threads, having purchased them in 

 retail from the bigger merchants ; some again sell lace in retail ; some 

 advance small sums of money to the holders of looms and order a small 

 supply of cloths and sell them to the richer merchants. Some are 

 brokers who collect cloths manufactured in the town and sell them 

 either to the merchants in the town or to those abroad and very few are 

 capitalists who have any very large trading concerns. The last class 

 may almost be counted on one's fingers and it is said they are likely to 

 be only between 10 and 20 on the whole. It is the brokers who form 

 a comparatively large number. Some of the silk weavers have become 

 agriculturists, finding that the profession of weaving does not pay. 

 Their holdings are small and they only eke out their maintenance from 

 the results of the agricultural labor. Some are said to keep carts and 



F I" 



