ASSAM

Hokitika Guardian, 3 July 1930, Page 8

ASSAM

AN INTERESTING COUNTRY

OFFICIAL ON FURLOUGH. Mi- W. L. Scott f C.1.E., son of the •to J. G. L. .Scott, lor twenty years •endmaster of the East Christchurch ■cliool, at present is visiting Christhureb, where from the age of two be resided till lie left to take up a position in the Indian Civil Service twenty-eight years ago. Rangiora was Air Scott’s native town. Mr v r>t.t holds the important position of Director of Land ‘Records in the proince of Assam and is at present on furlough. Ide is a. graduate from Canterbury College and during the oast few days he has been renewing many old acquaintanceships. T n the course of a conversation Mr Scott gave some interesting particulars regarding the province of Assam.

WILD LIFE. Certain parts of the Indian peninmla are connected ■ in the minds of many with the wild animals that inhabit the jungle and Assam has a variety of these. It is the only place hi the world, Mr Scott said, where the Asiatic rhinoceros is still found; : n;fact,""the official-crest oi Assam is a rhinoceros. It is a protected animal; owing to its scarcity; it is also ex-, tremely shy and is never found near human dwellings; in fact it is only "mind in game sanctuaries. Much the same applies to the elephant. The inngle.s are 'full of wild elephants, hut '•<>v are protected by the Government. ■ Their sale forms a considor- •'!>!(• item in the revenue of the pro- j vince. Sometimes the Government undertakes the catching operations, 1 and at other times it farms them out. t Th f » only shooting that is done is that >f “rogue” elephants, in almost every issue of the Government Gazette notices appear regarding elephants Hint have boon proclaimed “rogues.” T he chief value of elephants in Assam J is for hauling timber in the jungles; ; the tuskers are bought by Indian j rajahs for show and for use in proces- j sions ; the female and ismaller inn res ‘ are.bought by timber traders.. Tim-ber-getting in Assam is nearly all in j ••retty inaccessible country and the ! method adopted is to drag the logs to j flic nearest waterways by means of . elephants. They are sometimes used I for transport purposes. Forest officers j and beads of districts are provided ; with one or two elephants to carry Hioir baggage when travelling in the less accessible parts of the country. T’ ere are plenty of tigers and loonnrds and black Himalayan hears. These lo“f--mentioned are dangerous beasts, and Mr Scott remarked that more veople wore seen who had been damaged bv them than by the more car- I nivorous animals: the boars are very bad-tempered. Buffalo, several varieties of deer, and crocodiles also are otm+ifut. The doer do a [certain ) amount of damage to vice gardens on the edges of the jungle. PROGRESS OF THE PROVINCE. Assam is being opened up with ex- j traordinary rapidity, said Mr Scott. | country consists of two valleys—- j ;.li<- Brahmaputra Valley being the j lore important—and much hill conn-! t'-v. The main portion of the flat •nuntry is in the Brahmaputra Valley ind mi to twenty years ago In every 1 oart of it there were enormous areas of unopened land. During the same mwiod the population has been m- J '‘reusing at a relatively enormous rate, partly by immigration, particularly from the crowded areas of East- 1 urn Bengal ; partly by the [.settlement ? coolies imported to work in the tea a''dens whose time had expired; and also bv the g-owth of the in-j ' mnous population. In the old days, '[.■snin was R'U)”''sed to be extraordinarily unhealthy—many were' sup- ■ ■»(! to die of malaria within five • veers—lint line- mere is known about I • disease and the mortality has been ( '•'"’atlv reduced. Epidemics of keG. j "/nr at one time used to devastate the , •untrv, but the Medical Department | , '•ns learned bow to control this dis-1 ease and nraticallv has removed this j menace. The result is that over the , "renter part of the Brahmaputra V" 1 - , •'!' prnq of waste land is rcltllivelv' smsii • < hep are, of omirse unonened areas in plenty in the hnekhlncks, These include areas in the hill districts peopled by wild tribes who most-

ly practise shifting cultivation —that is, they clear a portion of the jungle, cultivate it till its" fertility is exhausted, or the weeds prove too much for them, and they move on to clear another area. These'. : hill tribes are still uncivilised, and as the country is not very suitable for the methods of cultivation , in use on the plains, it is left to the wild tribes. From the point .of view of value, tea. is the principal crop; but the rice crop, if it were all valued, would exceed the value of the. tea crop. However, practically all the rice crop is consumed in the province by the workers in the + en gardens. ROAD-MAKING, Until a few years ago the Government, bad -great difficulty in getting any support for ,its policy ol roadmaking. The Indians considered that, it was a waste of money, but since the end of the war there lias been a great increase in the number ol motorbuses,. and everybody wants to travel in them. Consequently the views of the population regarding ronding have undergone a- complete change and now everybody is in favour of spending money on roads. Two years ago the Government initiated a programme of road extension and improvement by borrowing a crore of rupees about C'50.000. A body similar to the High ways Board of Now Zealand has taken over the main roads and is improving them. The natural arterial means of communication in Assam are the rivers and railways, and it is the improvement of the roads leading to the rivers and railways that are being pushed on. Mr f-Vott leaves this week for Nel- | son and will then go on to Palmerston A 'r>rth, where he will spend the. remainder of bis furlough.