MANUAL LABOUR. 181 



F, Penalties. 



The third part of the conditions of agreement gives the penalties 

 for infraction of any of the above stipulations. 



Such penalties may be pecuniary, such as deductions from 

 wages, temporary suspension from work, or dismissal, and when- 

 ever the woodcutter obtains certain privileges from the forest 

 owner, such as land for cultivation, wood, litter, &c., temporary 

 or permanent deprivation of such privileges. 



Certain offences by woodcutters and other forest labourers are 

 punishable under the forest law. 



The penalties should be those usual in the district, and within 

 the means of the working population. 



Deductions from wages and deprivation of privileges are the 

 most suitable penalties for the poorer workmen. Wherever 

 experience shows that penalties are unavailing, it is better not 

 to include them in the conditions of agreement, for in such a 

 case it is better to have no law than one which cannot be carried 

 out. There are many districts where at present this is the case, 

 and penalties cannot be enforced owing either to the poverty of 

 the people or the scarcity of labour. 



3. Wages. 



(a) General Remarks. — -The remuneration to the woodcutter 

 for his labour consists chiefly in a regularly contracted payment, 

 but partly in undertaking to contribute to his support or that 

 of his family in cases of accident, sickness, undeserved want, &c., 

 and occasionally in special rewards paid to skilled labourers for 

 difficult and unusual work. 



One of the best means for retaining the services of the better 

 part x)f the labourers for forest work is to allow them certain forest 

 privileges gratis, or at reduced rates, such as small areas of land 

 for cultivation during good behaviour. Societies for saving money, 

 to which the forest owner contributes in proportion to the regular 

 contributioDS by the labourer, may also be mentioned here. 



Among all these items the wages are naturally the most 

 important, and these may be either contract- wages by the piece, 

 and proportional to the amount of work done, or merely daily wages, 

 reckoned by a fixed number of hours daily daring which the 



