MR. FORTESCUE HARRISONasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether the Government has any information enabling it to compare the wages paid to labourers on the Relief Works in the famine districts of Bengal with the terms offered by other employers of labour in the same locality, and notably in Rannegunge, where it is asserted some of the collieries have been stopped in their working owing to the more favourable terms offered to the men at the Relief Works?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONSir, the Collector of Burdwan, in whose district Rannegunge is situated, reported that, on the 4th of May—
Some correspondence is going on, in regard to the rate of wages paid on the Relief Works in charge of the sub-divisional officer in Rannegunge. The managing director of the Bengal Coal Company has complained that his coolies are attracted away by the rate of wages, two annas and one pice, equivalent to 3d. a-day, given on the Relief Works. The matter is under inquiry.Though we have since received several Reports from the Commissioner of Burdwan, no further allusion has been made to this subject, from which we infer that the alleged evil is satisfactorily settled, especially as we know that the number of persons upon the Relief Works in that district has largely diminished. We have no sufficiently accurate informa- 1519 tion to enable us to draw comparisons between the wages paid to labourers on the Relief Works and those offered by other employers in the same localities, but if the hon. Gentleman wishes for that information, a specific question upon that point can be addressed to the Government of India.