240 
On the Measure of Labour in India. 
[Augt. 
wul, and it mnst be more advantageous to employ cattle. — It would be useful to com- 
pare the application of the latter to different modes of raising water from our wells ; 
but I have no data whereon to argue. 
5. In building it is common in India for women and children to carry the mate- 
rials to the roof for the bricklayers, an average of such labour gives me the follow- 
ing data : — 400 bricks raised’ 18 feet, by stairs, in 60 journeys— 10 bricks to a 
maund, women receiving 1 anna per diem : their labour therefore is= 72 inaunds 
raised 10 feet. 
6. Having fitted up a windlass for the same purpose, I obtained, on an average of 15 
days’ work, 60 measures of three maunds each, raised 40 feet by two men per 
diem = 360 maunds, raised 10 feet. 
With regard to labour in carrying burthens on a plain surface, it is not difficult 
to procure a few examples in this country. 
7. The runners and walkers of India are notorious for the journeys which they 
can make. Grooms have been known to travel as far as 80 miles without resting; 
eight bearers will frequently carry a loaded palkee 30 miles : but such work could 
not be continued. Letter carriers and especially dak bearers will continue to carry 
a pathee weighing 400 lbs. 10 miles a day with S men. This is equal to 264 maunds, 
carried 100 feet per man, without reckoning their own weight, or the return jour- 
ney : and it is nearly half the work of a stout porter in Paris. 
8. There is in many of the towns in upper India a class of porters called pulia- 
dars, who carry grain from the river side to the different ganjes. They are esteemed 
the strongest men, and obtain high rates of hire. Their load is from J J to 2 
maunds, which they carry three times a day, to the distance of 1J miles: this 
is = 554 maunds carried 100 feet, and as nearly as much as a European would 
convey to the same distance. 
9. The common daily practice of a set of 8 pearnjes is to convey 7 stones each, 
weighing about 16 maunds, to the distance of 800 yards, including bringing them 
up the bank of the river 80 feet high : This labour may be divided into two portions 
336 mds. carried 100 feet 1 
+ 1 12 rads, raised 10 feet J per man ’ 
and it is about equal to the last example. 
We see, then, that the work of such native labourers as can earn two or three an- 
nas a day, bears a very fair comparison with that of Europeans whose daily wages 
may be twelve times as great. It is commonly the custom in this country to make 
use of a host of women and children as coolies, hut expt. ^ shows this to’ be disad- 
vantageous, even although their wages are less than half and this result was con- 
firmed by the caHriana experiment of raising water, which was twice as costly as 
the pooruiut method. 
I should like much to he able to add to the foregoing catalogue some measure- 
ments of the daily work of that laborious and active class, the boatmen of the Gan- 
ges, who toil for 14 hours without intermission under a grilling sun, along an in- 
commodious trackway, through long gra-s, or wading in currents and quicksands, 
dragging a heavy boat 10 or 15 miles a day ; and sometimes with light craft averag- 
mg more than 20 miles. But it would be impossible to come to any accurate de- 
termination without the employment of a dynamometer. I must re«t satisfied 
therefore with pointing out to those travellers on the Ganges who interest them- 
selves in scientific inquiries, how easily they may measure the force exerted in 
tracking a boat or the resistance of the current, by passing the gun, or hacking 
rope over a pulley at the mast head, and attaching a counterbalancing weight to 
the lower end of it:— where the draught is very variable, a succession of weights 
tL , arp le 1’ one T der other, 50 as to be lifted from the deck according 
quired 1 may be rOUgUy estlmated that about 10 seers per man will be re- 
I am. Sir, 
Postscript. 
Yours obediently, 
P. 
the Expedfencv Ofint, lmS J " at 7 a , cbed me > 1 I ,crcpi ™ an article “ On 
mosoerous and dUC ' D ^ Mactimery ,n , t0 Indla The 'writer holds out the most 
‘ dl wl !° W0,lId oogage in the establishment of 
mtod seen s to be n-, ; L ,' lg lsh ^mnin this country. I know not why the human 
ed in CLdncfn^S r y u 1° be , led ast , ray by a,,y delusion which is vail- 
£, barb ol beautiful and complex machinery, and to attribute to 
