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88 $TNLE JEFON$ gence Department of the Government of India ? from the prices of 89 articles. The Prices Enquiry Committee index nmnbers published in 1914 only extend through the period 1890-1912, but they cover a better range of articles. The Commercial Intelligence Department index number includes a agricultural products wl?ich than most of the materials very have of large proportion of risen less in price copstrnction. As the is to basis exchange. Prices Enquiry Committee index number represents the latter adequately it is not surprising that it rises more rapidly in recent years. Both series of figures are plotted in graphs in the diagram on page 41. In both cases the index nnmbers represent rupee prices--that say, they have not been modified to a gold' in accordance with the fluctuation of sterling Reliable statistics of wages in India are not accessible for a long series of years, and doubt has been thrown on the accuracy ? of some of the figures which have been collected by Government from a number of sources throughout the coffntry since 1878, and which are published in the annual re'port on Prices and tVage? in India. These being the only figures available, however, I have had no option but to use them; and there is the satisfaction of knowing that such error as they may contain probably leads to an understate- ment of the extent of the rise of wages; because wages have undoubtedly in the long rnn risen more often and by greater atnonnts, than they have fallen, and the tendency is merely to report the same as last year. Choosing 20 series of figures, 12 being for Wages of skilled labour (chiefly carpenters, masons and mechanics) in various p,%rts of India, and 8 series of figures for agricultural and unskilled industrial labour, I have t See ]?%rintioas in India,? Price L?vel.? frown 1861 to 1915; by the Department o! Statistics (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, India). 2 V/d? Prices Enquiry Committee Report, Vol. I., Appendix G., p.