Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF BURMA.
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other subordinates," represents the bulk of the population who are supported by
the extraction and refining of- the crude earth oil of the Province; The 4,044.
petroleum and kerosene oil dealers (with their dependents) shown under the next
succeeding head are concerned on the other hand with the refined Russian and
American petroleum so largely used by all classes in Burma. Sub-order 21 deals
with fuel and forage.
215. Order IX deals with buildings and the two sub-orders it embraces are.
Order /X-Buildings.
1^." 22 >
Building materials," and "23, Artificers
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in building. In Burma mat and thatch are the prevailing
building materials and the most strongly represented occupation in this
order is that of thatcher, which maintains 30,645 workers and dependents. Thatch
dealers number 3,301 and the two occupations combined are the means of support
of 5,961 more persons than at the Census of 1891.
216. Order X, which is devoted to the occupation's relating to the manufacx
—v vi d 4 ,ses.
ture °^ veh ' c^es arm vessels, claims the comparatively
sma]j totai f 1^019 actual workers and dependents.
It remains numerically at about the same level as at the last enumeration. A noticeable
fact, however, is that, while cart makers and the like are more numerous now
than ten years ago, the total of boat and canoe makers has fallen. Improvement
in land communications explains the former increase no doubt ; but the causes of
the diminution in the boat-building business remain somewhat obscure.
217. Supplementary requirements, details of which are given in Order XI,
„ , rrr „ consist of a large variety of callings providing a living
,
Order ^/.—Supplementary re- t* i j - o x 11 t u
quirements.
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4> 13 4 male and 5,983 female workers, or whom
nearly 30 per cent, labour in cities. In this order are
found the paper makers, the wood carvers, the lacquerers, the toy makers and the
cutlers of Burma. A rough paper used for wrappers, umbrellas and the like is
made in Mongnai and elsewhere in the Shan States. A description of its manufacture
is given at page 427 of the second volume of Part II of the Upper Burma
Gazetteer. Lacquerwork was the means of support of 14,274 persons of both
sexes. Of these 4,277 males and '2,072 females were actual workers and of the
actual workers 1,426 males and 1,294 females came from the Myingyan district,
the headquarters of the lacquerwork industry. The article on this district in the
Upper Burma Gazetteer contains an account of the processes followed by lacquerers
in their work. Wood carvers abound in Mandalay and Rangoon. Ivory
carving flourishes most in Moulmein. Nearly all the 25 actual workers shown
under this latter occupation were enumerated in the Amherst district. A useful
monograph on the ivory-carving industry of the Province has been written by Mr.
H. S. Pratt.
2 18. Textile fabrics and dress form the items of Order XII of Class D. Three
occupations stand out with prominence in this order,
Order jW—Textile fabrics and
narn ely, those of silk weavers, cotton weavers and
cotton spinners. In all three the female actual workers
exceed the male in number. In all 136,628 women and girls returned themselves as
cotton weavers at the Census. The corresponding total in 1891 cannot now be
ascertained, as mill owners and managers were then included under the same head
as workers by hand, but it seems probable that the total of females who gave
cotton weaving as their occupation was somewhat lower on the 1st March 1901
than it had been ten years before. There can hardly be any question, I think,
that the figure returned at the recent Census represents a portion only of the
female population who were in the habit of weaving cotton cloths, but the line
between the weaver who weaves for a living and the weaver who produces nothing
more than a sufficiency of coarse cloth for home consumption is as a rule
so shadowy and indefinite that considerable divergencies in the returns for the two
enumerations must be allowed for. Mr. G. F. Arnold is the author of a monograph
on the cotton fabrics and the cotton industry of Burma, as Mr. J. P. Hardiman
is of a note on silk in Burma. Silk weaving is by no means so universal or
so domestic, an occupation as cotton weaving. It flourishes most in Prome
Mandalay and Tavoy. Silk weavers were in the 1901 occupation list lumped
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