says, 'the pálikápus are companions to their master's sons-in-law,' they remind him of his petty tyrannies during the past year and haggle over the renewal oi their agreements.
The rates of wages for pálikápus, which are always fixed by the year and (except in Bhadráchalam) in paddy, vary, when commuted into money at the usual rate of 10 kunchams per rupee, from Rs. 24 (or one anna a day) in Pólavaram to Rs. 60 (two annas, eight pies a day) in Peddápuram, Pithápuram, Rajahmundry and Rámachandrapuram. These labourers are also given a small varying quantity of straw and unthreshed paddy at the end of the year, a new cloth, some tobacco and a palmyra tree, or, if the master has no palmyras, a gift of one rupee. They also get advances of their wages free of interest. In Amalápuram various different customs prevail. These rates of wages are said to have increased by one-third or one-half in the last ten or fifteen years. Payment is usually made at the end of the year.
The day labourer is paid from two to four annas a day, women getting half these rates. The rates of wages were only about half these sums a few years ago. Labour, however, is not really scarce. The great immigration from Vizagapatam (p. 38) has done much to supplement it, and there is no 'labour problem' as in some places, the Tanjore delta, for example. The rates of interest on loans are much the same as usual, 12 to 24 per cent, being common. Loans are often made on the security of standing crops on the condition that they shall be sold to the sowcar at less than the market price, an arrangement which is known as the jatti system.
