132 CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES AND PRODUCTS OP INDIA, 



raent nionoply. The last season's manufacture amounted to 50,000 tons 

 of the one and 44,000 tons of the other. The production is considered 

 handsomely to remunerate the petty contractors who engage with Gov- 

 ernment for its supply, at 10 annas and 4 annas per maund for each 

 kind respectively, which is equivalent to 35s. 5d. per ton for the one, and 

 14s. 5d. per ton for the other, in English money and measure. To the 

 Pungah must be added about 50 per cent., to the Kuxkutch about 25 per 

 cent., for expenses of superintendence, &c. To the more extended 

 manufacture of the white salt, the present insalubrity of the producing 

 localities, and the consequent difficulty of procruing labour, as well as 

 the insufficiency of the fuel supply, are obstacles. The coarser kind may 

 be manufactured ad infinitum, but it is no where appreciated so much as 

 locally, that is, in the district, as, not being " cooked " like the Pungah, 

 it is more acceptable to the scrupulous caste prejudices of the Oryahs. 

 The bulk of both kinds is exported to Calcutta. The local retail price 

 at Cuttack in the shops of the bazaar for Kurkutch is 6s 3d. per maund 

 of 100 English lbs. ; Pungah is sold at the Government depots at' 8s. 8d. 

 per maund. 



The Local Committee of Cuttack, in specifying the local prices of 

 articles, do so with this explanation, that it is impossible to give any 

 rates which are average ones, or which are in any degree equally appli- 

 cable all over the district. Where any particular article is jjroduced, 

 there it is cheapest, and the cost and difficulty of transport and the want 

 of competition are such, that a distance of 50 miles between the place of 

 production and the central market, makes a difference in price of 50 or 100 

 per cent, in the rates at which some articles are bought and then sold. 

 This is especially the case with the oil-seeds of the province, cotton, &c. 

 Under these circumstances it would have been impossible for the Com- 

 mittee to have stated any average rates. The prices which have been 

 generally mentioned in the Indian catalogue are the local, that is, the 

 Cuttack bazaar retail prices. It may be as well to state that all articles 

 coming from Sunibiilpore or elsewhere, by river carriage, are cheapest 

 in the months of July and August, when the rivers first admit of 

 navigation, and that between July and January the rates for the same 

 articles may vary as much as 50 per cent. 



There are five salt mines in the Shahpore district worked by Govern- 

 ment in the salt range ; one at Kalabagh, across the Indus, and several 

 in the Kohat district, and the supply from these sources may be said to be 

 inexhaustible. An excise duty of 3 rupees per maund of 80 lbs., is now- 

 charged upon all salt sold, the rate having been lately increased (two 

 years ago it was but 2 rupees) ; and the revenue derived from this source 

 amounted to upwards of £280,000. The salt mines are the means of 

 supplying the traders of the Punjab with a kind of paper currency. By 

 payment of the regulated price at jany of the Punjab treasuries, a warrant 

 for the delivery of so much salt at the mines may be obtained ; these 

 documents are transferable, and pass from hand to hand like bank notes. 



