of the year. The general average in March 1923 was lower by 8 per cent. as compared with March 1922. The changes in the index numbers of wholesale prices in Bombay are shown in the following table :—

Broach cotton sold at Rs. 625 per bhar (24 maunds of 40 lbs. each) in August; in October the price went down to Rs. 540 and by the end of the financial year (March) had risen to Rs. 675. Seed cotton increased from Rs. 225 to Rs. 250 per bhar. The price of timber and bricks decreased considerably in the Thana District.

LABOUR AND WAGES

Although prices fell considerably during the year under review there was as anticipated no corresponding fall in wages. There is an increasing tendency among labourers to improve their status in the same way as skilled artisans and all classes of labourers are reported as becoming more independent. With the increase in wages there is, it is reported, no corresponding efficiency in the work turned out and the tendency to spend surplus wages on drink is increasing. The rapid growth of the Presidency as an industrial province has resulted in a consequent insufficiency of labour and a rise in wages.

Agricultural Labour.-Field labourers in all districts of the Presidency are migrating in increasing numbers to towns and cities where employment is available on good wages in cotton mills, cotto nginning and pressing factories and other industrial concerns. As a consequence of the general shortage in the supply of labour and the increase in the cost of production due to the high wages paid to field labourers agriculture has suffered in the Northern Division. The conditions of cultivation do not give scope for the adaptation of any labour saving devices and as a result of this the rice fields in the Thana District were neglected in some places and remained uncultivated for want of tenants and labourers. Agriculturalists in the Surat and Broach districts imported labour from the neighbouring Indian States. Spice gardeners in the ghat tracts of the Kanara district complained bitterly of the high wages which they had to pay owing to the dearth of labourers. Supa and Haliyal imported labour from Goa. Owing to the unseasonableness of the monsoon in 1922 in the Karnatak there was a sufficient supply of field labourers in the Belgaum, Dharwar and Bijapur Districts, but wages continued nevertheless high.

Wages in the Central Division were higher than last year owing mainly to an excellent season and the consequent demand for field labour. Satara had to import labour for the purpose of harvesting the groundnuts and crushing the sugar cane grown in the district.

Sind is the only Division in the Presidency where wages remained at the same level as that of last The following

year.

table gives the average daily wages of field labourers in the neighbourhood of district head-quarter towns by Divisions and Economic Circles and for the Presidency and Sind.

Unskilled Labour.-The wages of unskilled labourers rose in all Divisions of the Presidency Proper. The continual and rapid industrialisation of Ahmedabad and Sholapur, the activities of the Development Department in Bombay City and the Island of Salsette and new construction work elsewhere have created a demand on good wages for unskilled labourers. Wages, for example, in the Panch Mahals are likely to rise still higher owing to the construction of locomotive workshops at Dohad. Labour too in the Poona district was attracted in large numbers to the power works of the Tata Companies where regular employment was offered on higher wages with the additional advantage of good housing accommodation. The Satara district supplied 36,000 professional labourers to Bombay, Karachi and other industrial towns and cities. These labourers returned to their houses on the advent of the monsoon. Unskilled labourers from Ahmednagar and Aurangabad migrated to the two Khandesh Districts to work in cotton ginning and pressing factories. Wages in Sind were slightly lower than last year owing mainly to the remarkable drop in the prices of food grains. The following table shows the daily average wages of unskilled

labourers in district headquarter towns in the same manner as

Skilled Labour.-With the exception of the Southern Division the wages of skilled labourers rose in all Divisions of the Presidency. The largest increase was in the Northern Division where wages rose by 18 per cent. above those of last year. The demand for skilled labourers in the year under review was increasing and the supply was inadequate in all centres. There exist, therefore, none of the factors which make for a reduction in the wages of skilled labourers. The following table shows the daily average wages of this class in the same way as in the two preceding tables :

FORESTS

For purposes of administration the Presidency has been divided into four Forest Circles, three of which are in charge of Conservators and one (the Sind Circle) in charge of a Deputy Conservator. The Chief Conservator is at the head of the Forest Department.

The Controlling Forest Staff has been divided into an Imperial Service and a Provincial Service. The Imperial Service now consists of one Chief Conservator, three Conservators and 24 Deputy and Assistant Conservators. The Provincial Forest Service consists of 25 officers, viz., two Extra Deputy Conservators of Forest, and 23 Assistant Conservators.

Forest administration is a branch of the general administration and the central authority in forest matters is the Commissioner. of a Division, subject to the general orders of Government. The Chief Conservator is the local head of the Forest Department and the technical adviser of Government in forest matters. Forest Officers in charge of Circles have full powers in all professional operations of technical forestry; but in all other matters, such as those of rights and privileges of the people in forests, local supply of grass, grazing and fodder, and generally as regards the relation of the department with the people, control vests in the local revenue officers and the forest officers are subordinate to them for these purposes. A Working Plans Division is maintained in each Circle and the duties of the divisional officers are to ascertain the capabilities of the forests in the production of timber and other forest produce and to prepare scientific schemes for the exploitation of the forests so that they may be worked for the greatest benefit both of the State and the people. The work in connection with the preparation of working plans is generally well advanced, but revision of plans is carried on continuously. The classification of forests into forest proper, fuel and fodder, reserves and pastures has been completed in all Circles and the areas classed as pastures have been transferred to the Revenue Department for management.

Nearly 15 thousand square miles or approximately 12 per cent. of the area of the Bombay Presidency comes under the Head of "Forest ". During the year under review the surplus

H 559-13