THE VICEROY IN INDIA.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 20 June 1901, Page 4

THE VICEROY IN INDIA.

His Efforts. The London Daily Mail’s correspondent, Simla, reviews Lord Curzon’s career, as Governor-General of India, at some length, and after- alluding to the fact that he had notv served half his term of five years goes on to say Lord Curzon is full of strenuous, restless energy which has carried him hotfoot from end to end of India to see things for himself, and has plunged his administration in a vortex of reforms These reforms involve almost every branch of the Government. Foremost among them arc measures directed to clearing the wheels of the official machine from the tangle of red tape—the clogging super-

fluity of report-writing. Closely associated are changes, now being introduced, to lesson tho constant transfers which weakens tho influence of officers in their own districts, Lord Curzon has further made an onslaught on militarism. He is fostering legislation to cope with agricultural indebtednees. Ho has inaugurated tho change in frontier methods advocated for many years past by experienced officers. He has been tilting at tho monopoly of tho cable companies. Ho is endeavouring to cauterise the cancer of police corruption, to stimulate irrigation as a preventive of famine ; to reorganise tho finance of railway projects; and to change tho Indian educational system from a breeding ground of sedition into a temple of the arts and crafts. Tho correspondent who is thoroghly versed in tho manners and customs of the Anglo-Indian residents says:— “His predecessors saw the same end to attain, the same ills to cure, but they, commencing their Indian careers in ignorance of India, allowed their their activity to be hampered by routine and tradition. It has remained to Lord Gruzon to eeize upon the factors in each case, almost to persuade himself he has discovered them, and to formulate an amazing array of measures ho is sanguine enough to believe will be be ficial. He forwards these with oxtrac nary persistence and industry. Hecoi isdoubtingand sometimes unwilling officials to forward them too.”

After alluding to subjects of a cornpar lively local nature in which the Governor General exercised tho power vested in him in opposition to the traditions of the established society rules, tho correspondent remarks:— The Indian official world is now discussing a supposed slight put upon the Punjab Administration in connection with the carving out of the Frontier Province. Here the susceptibilities of tho the Indian Civil Service have been touched by the supersession of seniors in the Punjab Commission in order to place so junior an officer as Colonel Deane — but eight years ago a captain—at the head of the charge. Colonel Deane is the ablest “political” on the frontier. He has enormous influence with the tribesmen, but is a youngster compared to civilians like Mr Merk and Mr Cunningham, hitherto in charge of the principal divisions in what is to he the new province. Other civilians are asking what guarantee exists that their own claims to promotion will not be similarly ignored when they reach the opportunity of fulfilment ? The question of the apportionment of posts between members of the Political Department and the local Punjab Commission is also becoming prickly.

Tho Government of India is a benevolent desposition, of which tho Viceroy is the head, and its members recognise its absolute authority. It would not be fair to name those whose views have been overridden, and who, in any other country, would constitute an organised opposition, There has been no one in Council to play Fiancis to Lord Curzon’s Warren Hastings, and mere grumbling counts for little.

With regard to the reforms initiated by Lord Curzon, the correspondent remarks :

Meanwhile, some of tho earlier of our present Viceroy’s reforms are bearing useful fruit. The reversal of Lord Elgin’s sugar duties policy has proved a pecuniary as well as a political coup. Masses of worthless returns have been abolished. The conversion of the rupee into a sterling coin has been proceeded with success. The country has gone through a terrible famine without finances becoming disordered or progress on railways and canals being stopped. Be-armament with modern weapons is progressing, and tho fighting strength of tho Indian forces has been increased. India has been able to respond magnificently to the demand for armed help to support England in Natal and China, There is oven a possibility of reducing taxation. Lord Curzon has shown himself willing to profit by experience, and it is beginning to be recognised that the real clue to his personal conundrum is a single-hearted determination to make India better and stronger and richer than he found it. There is more rough weather ahead, but tho crew are taking orders more kindly. Their confidence in the skipper is growing. There are still grumblers, but the voyage bids fair to prosper.