INDIA.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 782, 12 October 1853, Page 3

INDIA.

[ From the Bengal Hurkaru, June 28.]

The following is from Prome, da'ed June 13th “ Lord Dalbousie’s policy has told, cetainly for the present, as the Burmese Court has knuckled down and eaten 4 humble pie.* These are really curious barbarrians. Only think of the Ava Commissioners who got their roohsnt , as you know, from this place some time ago, having gone off and remained some distance from here ever since in a state of sad perplexity and bewilderment. The fact is, the poor devils did not know what to do; they were between Scylla and Charybdis. We kicked him out of Prome, and they were obliged to turn their faces towards Ava ; but they dared not go there, as they felt an uneasy sensation about their necks at the thought, and so they came to a stand some distance above Rlecaday, foudly Loping that we shonld offer them some belter terms, or endeavour to reopen negociations. We bar that there has been some more throat-cutting amongst the big-wigs at the capital, and that matters are in a sad state all through Burman Proper. However, the screw which our present position and the Governor-General’s policy and foresight have brought to bear upon them baa told painfully, and our bio'kade of the Irrawaddy has compelled them to in.” The fact is, as Lord Dalbousie foresaw, we have the key of Burmah in our hands; the country is isolated, and we can starve it at any moment that we choose to turn that key, lock the door at Pronce, and put the key in our pockets. Since writing the above, I have to report the receipt of the st pacific and submissive nature from the Court of Ava. It is evident that the stoppage of supplies baa June it all. The blockade on the river seems to have reduced the whole country beyond our frontier to a miserable state of want. Rice, the chief article of food, grew scarcer, and the blockade cat off all chance of obtaining supplies from down country and so the Courtof Ava, alarmed at gaunt famine staring it in the face came to the resolution of knocking under to the British. The terms proposed are the establishment of friendly relations on the most satisfactory footing. The removal of the blockade is stipulated for, and the withdrawal of Burmese troops from the vicinity of our frontier lines offered ; while every guarantee is given for the safe and friendly intercourse between the two jurisdictions. As an earnest the British prisoners have been released and safely returned to us. These preferred terms have not been finally accepted on our part, as certainly the blockade on the river has not yet been removed; but it is understood that both the General and Commodore are inclined to recommend the restoration of amicable rela* tiona on the conditions indicated.

Importance of Town Drainage. —lt is impossible to over-estimate the importance to a community of having the soil and the buildings kept in state free from moisture, not only as regards the health and comfort of the inhabitants, but also in reference to the preservation of property of almost every description ; but tbe removal of the offensive refuse arising from dwellinghouses, stables, &c., and the thousand deleterious compounds discharged from manufactories, forms a still more iir portant desideratum. The consequences of a good system of sewerage are not c mfined to mere bodly comforts or advantages, but produce an important effect in elevating the whole tone of society; while an inefficient one not only furnishes a fertile source of disease and discomfort of a physical character to all classes of the community, but renders the moral degradation of an otherwise degraded population more hopeless and complete. This, then, is the main object of draining a town—not that the soil be rendered free from damp—not that the town should be put beyond the reach of being damaged by an occasional flood—but that one great cause of that squalor and misery, to which (every one is frequently an unwilling witness, should be ren oved, and the air in the poorer and more densely-popu’ati d districts rendered pure and wholesome. —The Builder,