3
PRICES.-Rice of the second sort is the staple food in Salsette Tluka.
The following are the rates per rupee from 1901 to 1912 :-
Year.
Seers (80 tols = 1 seer).
Chattaks.

Year.
Seers
(80 tols = 1 seer).
Chattaks.
1901
10
3
1907
9
4
1902
10
3
1908
7
6
1903
11
2
1909
9
4
1904
10
3
1910
9
2
1905
10
2 1/2
1911
8
2
1906
9
14 1/2
1912
7
5
POPULATION, CASTES AND EMPLOYMENT.-The three munici-
pal towns of Salsette are Thna, Bndra and Kurla. Their census population,
with that of the rest of the tluka, is given in the following table : -
Name of town or rural circle.
Census of 1891.
Census of 1901.
Census of 1911.
Thna
17,455
15,410
15,591
Bndra
18,317
22,075
22,885
Kurla
11,469
14,831
15,081
Rural Salsette
78,878
94,016
98,895
Total population of tluka
126,119
146,332
152,452
The chief occupation of the rural population is the cultivation of rice,
on which not only members of regular agricultural castes but a great many
other people are mainly dependent for their livelihood. Though there is only
the one crop, and the rice-fields lie fallow for the rest of the year, the various
processes incidental to the cultivation and storage of rice seem to provide the
average cultivator or field labourer with work for the year round. A certain
amount of market-gardening is done, especially in the coast villages, and in
different places timber-felling and carting, grass-cutting, mango-growing,
toddy-drawing, sea-fishing and salt and lime working provide the different castes
with employment. Though there are a few large mills at Kurla town in the
South of the island there is not the migration for work in the mills of Bombay
that is so marked in the sea-coast tlukas of the neighbouring Kolba District.
In rural Salsette there is little of a Musalman population. Of the
better class Hindus there are a certain number of Brhmins and Parbhus.
Besides those who more or less definitely follow some one occupation, such as
Dhobis, Lohrs, Shimpis (tailors), Mlis and Sonrs, and those whose occupation
has always been mainly agricultural, such as Marthas, Pnchkalshis and
Dhodyas, there are castes who have more or less deserted their tribal or
caste occupations to become occupiers of agricultural land or field-labourers,
such as gris (originally salt-workers), Bhandris (originally only toddy-drawers)
and Dublis and Varlis (originally forest tribes). The population of some
villages mainly consists of Kolis, the term Koli being applied to several groups
of fishermen and cultivators of mixed descent now classed as Hindus. Mahrs
are met with, mostly in their capacity as out-castes and village servants, but
also sometimes as well-to-do labourers, and even mechanics.
All along the coast, both in the town of Bndra, and in the villages, a
proportion of the population, most unusual for the Bombay Presidency, consists
of Indian Christians. These are the descendants of the early converts of the
Portuguese. In the villages they are nearly always cultivators, but Bndra
town supplies Bombay with a considerable number of its clerks and mechanics.
They are rapidly learning English, and becoming more and more Europe-
anized in their dress. Although their higher standard of living makes them
more resistant to Malaria than many of the classes among which they live,