Note 6 — Chapter XXXVII · THE CONVICT MINES OF KARA.

Thus the Government allowed him 4s. 6d. per sajen for 8,000 sajens of wood for fuel, which, instead of buying, he procured by sending his unemployed miners into the forest to cut, giving them, to their great satisfaction, a small payment, and effecting a saving of 1s. per sajen. A year’s economy, therefore, in wood brought him £400. He found, too, by being his own timber-merchant, he could procure a log from 20 ft. to 30 ft. long for 7½d., for which dealers would have made him pay 2s. Then, again, the Government allowed him 7½d. per pood for 7,000 poods of hay, instead of buying which he sent his prisoners into the neighbouring valleys to cut three times the normal quantity. Part of this was for feeding the horses he had already, and the rest for feeding others he added in order that he might be his own carrier, and so save the contract for carriage.