MANUAL OF THE NILAGIKI DISTRICT. 



899 



Notes on- 

 Public 

 Works. 



have sometimes to be paid for in full. The climate is not CH. XVlii. 

 appreciated by any class of imported Native, least of all by the 

 skilled workmen. These latter, with few exceptions, leave the 

 hills when the period for which they have been engaged termi- 

 nates. Breaches of labour contract are also not infrequent. Very 

 few women and boys are employed as labourers, proportionately 

 far less than in most other parts of India. 



Work by contract is seldom performed. It is nearly all done 

 departmentally, by waged labourers who are tasked, their work of 

 eveiy kind being periodically measured and priced at certain 

 rates. Suppliers of materials are not numerous, but lime, sand, 

 firewood, road-metal, &c., are all furnished by contract. The 

 procuring and managing of all labour and the obtaining of the 

 means of transit for building materials, are the greatest difficul- 

 ties against which an engineer has to contend on the Nilagiris. 



Appendix 16-D compares rates of labour and materials in 

 the Coimbatore and Nilagiri Districts, and gives the increased 

 percentage of the latter over the former. 



It will probably at the same time be useful to record the prices 

 of food-grains in those two districts, as is done in following 

 table : — 



Statement shoiving Comparative Prices of Food-grains, ^'c, on the Nilagiris 

 and at Coimbatore. 



In conclusion I would draw attention to table (Appendix No. Cost of 

 16-E) showing the cost of the various edifices constructed edifice! 

 throughout the Nilagiri District. 



