THE FAMINE IN PERSIA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 35, 23 September 1871, Page 3

THE FAMINE IN PERSIA.

The Indian papers continue to publish reports of the severity with which famine is pressing upon the mass of the population in Persia. The “ Times,” of India says:— The crops having failed in the province of Phars, the most fertile of all the provinces in Persia, the distressed inhabitants, unable to maintain themselves even by selling their own children, left their homes and fled to distant cities. Thus the government being deprived of the usual levy of five lacs of rupees from the city, the Governor Asfudola agreed with the people to receive the meney by long instalments ; the King, however, did not approve of the arrangement, and in the meantime a certain noble having offered him six lacs for the province, the King granted him the Governorship. It may well be conceived that the new’ Governor will try his utmost to cover the latter amount —to be paid by him to the King—besides resorting to any means to raise as much else as he can for his own purposes. In Kerman wheat was usually sold at about two annas per maud, but people from different parts having fled, through famine and oppression, into the city, and the crops turning out very poor, prices have increased tenfold. The clamor of the famishing populace has obliged tlie authorities to search for corn in all the houses and cellars and to confiscate all found in them for the purpose of selling it to the poor in the bazaars. The mortality in Kerman arising from this state of things is described as fearful. The soil of Yezd being well suited for the growth of cotton and opium, was never turned to the purposes of growing corn. The quantity needed for consumption was therefore imported from Sheraz, Kerman, and Ispahan. But these latter cities having stopped their supplies since last year, the terrible misery in Yezd may be imagined. Although about twenty thousand to thirty thousand of the inhabitants have evacuated the city, the people remaining part with their children for trifling sums. At the first stage of extreme hunger, people look to devouring camels, asses, and horses’ flesh, and cats also; but there being no more animals in the city, many of the lower classes kidnap children and devour them. It is said that even dead bodies are eaten by the hunger-maddened populace. Relief measures are being organised in India, and about £4OOO have been already subscribed by the Parsees for their co-religionists in Persia.