INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

APPENDIX. 237
"I have to observe that the men's wages, being one
awl a half anna, the women's one anna, and the children·s
half an anna, the \verage wage, carefully worked
out by myself, was three-halfpence per head, affording
a daily ration of a pound and a half of rice, with no allowance
for salt, dall, or other life-sustaining condiments.
" A.t the date of my Durbungah telegram there was
no resiuent European supervision on any relief-work in
that subdivision, and peculation and delay in the payment
of wages were everywhere rife. I personally discovered,
not one, but numerous cases of irregular P!lYment,
entailing incalculable intensification of the distress.
" The transport arrangements actually suffereu dela.'"
from the inability of the Durbungah treasury to meet the
contractors' requirements. The contractors were driven
in consequence to borrow sil ver from the native bankers.
"Similar inconveniences still exist in Seetamurree.
From the low state of the treasury the erection of
~torehouse8 is delayed. The contractors, to whom
public money is owing, are compelled to borrow right
and left, to enable them to go on."
A rticle by , Daily News' on receipt of foregoing
Telegram, Friday, April 3d.
"The telegram from our Special ColllIllissioner in
India which we publish to-day, confirms the criticisms
\\·e have already made on the Viceroy's reply to Lord