156 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTKAL INDIA. 



plements but their little axes, and their employers being 

 wholly indifferent to economical processes, these woodcutters 

 procured their material in the most wasteful way possible. 

 To produce a post for a cattle-pen a straight young teak sap- 

 ling of ten or fifteen years' growth would be felled, and a piece 

 six feet long taken from its middle, all the rest being left to 

 perish. To procure a plank for a door a mature tree would 

 be cut down, and hewn away to the requisite thickness with 

 the axe. Timber was then doubtless cheap because nothing 

 but the labour of these down-trodden races was expended in 

 procuring it, and as many of them as they desired could be 

 procured by the spirit-dealers for a wage which to the latter 

 was almost nothing. In those days, the excise arrangements 

 being very lax, the duty levied on spirits was very low ; and 

 enough liquor could be brewed to make a Gond drunk for 

 about a penny of our money. No forests could stand such a 

 drain as this ; and this wasteful system of working them was 

 one of the main causes of their impending exhaustion. 



It is fortunate that, under an improved administration, 

 means were found at once to put a stop to this wholesale 

 waste, and to greatly ameliorate the condition of the abori- 

 ginal labourer. The first step in this direction was the intro- 

 duction of a new excise law, under which the formerly unre- 

 stricted power of establishing spirit-stills and grog-shops among 

 the aborigines was withdrawn. Liquor was allowed to be 

 distilled only at certain central places, and on payment of a 

 fixed and considerable still-head duty. A certain number of 

 retail shops only were allowed, sufficient in number and 

 position to supply all the proper requirements of the people, 

 and capable of being regulated by the police, without forcing 

 temptation in the way of the less provident classes. The 

 licenses for this restricted number of shops were let by public 



