THE INDIAN FAMINE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 253, 25 October 1877, Page 4

THE INDIAN FAMINE.

[Lyttelton Times.] Those who know anyihiug of the Hindoos are aware that they are cheerful, simple, and contented under conditions of existence which would "be simply intolerable lo any other people. The majority of them at tLe beat of times live only from hand to mouth, aad never have the means or thought to provide for impending calamity or want, to which they meekly submit, aad under which they suocumb. Months ago, when the north - west monsoon failed, people exper ieuced in these matters predicted scarcity, famine prices, suffering, aud want, aad every possible provision was made by the Govern*^oisq& to mast tha emergency, Notwith-

standing this, what have we before us ? Tfie crops have faiidd,and in tjh© Bombay Presidency alone the area of country affected by, the famine embraces nearly 35,000 square miles, and there are upwards of five millions of people famishing or nearly so. The country folk at first ate the seeds of the bamboo, then they boiled the leaves of herbs and trees, and so Bked out, or at least prolonged, a miserable existence. In the larger towns, or petters, the sights and sufferings are appalling* Famished men, women, and childrenskeletons enclosed in skin — fight with the dogs for ihe garbage in the street gutters in hopes of getting some nourj iabment. Iu the Madras Presidency*-* the famine affect**, an area of country in which there are upwards of eighteen millions of people. Of these there are nearly two million in receipt of and dependent on daily relief. Since the first of the year, up to the end ofj August last the date of oar latest advices— the deaths from famine alone; iu excess of the usual average, have ' been aa we informed, our readers last! .week, upwards of 500,000 ! and the-south-west monsoon having failed there can be no relief from crops now sown till January or Febuary next. All depend on the foreign aid poured in,: and surely no one can read this tale without doing something to help. The Madras papers stato that the famishing poor are dying by scores, aye by .hundred sin the public streets. Crowds of emaciated men and women follow the Baudies or Lorries conveying the rice from the wharves to the Grodowns, picking up even a spoonful and this they thankfully accept for tbe day's meal. Ia the country districts the sufferers have unthatched their cottages to feed the cattle, and sold the frameworks of bamboo to aupply a scant allowance of rice for a daily ration.

The Berlin correspondent of the Times says : — " Professor Gerataecker, one of the zoologists directing the anti-Colorado measures near Cologne, having discovered that the beetle when depositing his eggs proceeds in a regular curve, the dangerou3 insect can be traced and destroyed with greater certainty. At the Berlin Agricultural Museum numerous Colorado beetles are j being carefully nursed and tended, to afford naturalists an opportunity of studying the habits and customs of the ' unwelcome stranger." Land and IVater&tsyv. "There is one point we ! wish to call attention to — it ia the preparing for the dreaded invasion of the Colorado beetle by a studied preservation of its enemies These euemies are, without doubt, rooks. We wish to persuade the owners of rockeries that by sparing tha young rooks next spring they would double the defensive force in the country against the expected invasion, the rook and you will stamp out the beetle. The rook is the true ** beetle crusher."