CLOSING THE RELIEF WORKS 279 



' By the end of July the number of persons supported 

 on relief works had fallen to under 100,000, and the 

 bulk of them were confined to five or six districts. 

 This number sank steadily through August, as field 

 labour expanded; early in September it was only about 

 15,000, and on September 15 the last of the relief 

 works was closed.' 



The resumption of field-work does not, of course, 

 bring fresh stocks of grain into the market, and the 

 fall of prices was but slight until the autumn harvest 

 was garnered. The persons who were unable to 

 labour were therefore no better off than before the 

 rains, and charitable relief was extended to them in 

 undiminished numbers until the ripening of the 

 earliest autumn crops. The end of August still saw 

 400,000 on outdoor relief, and 34,000 people in poor- 

 houses. By the middle of September the recipients 

 of outdoor relief had fallen to about 231,000, and the 

 poorhouse population to 21,000. By October 1 the 

 corresponding numbers were 115,487 and 5,017. 'By 

 October 20 the Lieutenant-Governor was able to in- 

 form the Viceroy that the relief operations had been 

 practically closed by the distribution of the authorized 

 parting dole, and that there remained as a charge on 

 the Government only a few hundred infirmary patients 

 and 2,000 orphans.' 



The characteristic of this splendid piece of adminis- 

 tration was that State aid did not pauperize the people. 

 The relief was so organized that they were anxious, 

 whenever occasion permitted, to return to their normal 

 avocations.* This is shown by the extreme sensitive- 



* This result was obtained by steadily keeping the pay upon 

 relief works below the ' standard wage ' which could be earned in 

 any ordinary labour market. During January, February, and May, 

 the months when agricultural work is always slack, the attractive- 

 ness of the relief works for the able-bodied labourer on the look 

 out for a job was minimized by the regulation that no labourer 

 could earn more than the daily wage by doing a larger task ; and 

 the daily wage was calculated on a sliding scale, according to the 



