THE INDIAN FAMINE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5302, 23 March 1878, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE INDIAN FAMINE.

The Friend of India of December 11 says:— “ The famine in Southern India is now almost over. We cannot of course gauge the amount of distress that still lingers among the people as the effect of present want or past sufferings, but the occasion for State relief seems to have nearly gone by. The last report from Madras shows a steady decrease in the number on the works and receiving charitable aid, while prices are steadily though slowly falling. The objects of relief in Mysore are now chiefly those who are unfit for labor, and a proposal has been spoken of to issue a certain allowance for these amounting iu all to about 10,000 persons—enough to last them for two or three months, and then to close all State relief. It may occur to many on reading of these matters that it will be a noteworthy fact, and one creditable to the Indian peasant, if this famine pass away without leaving a pauper multitude to bo a permanent burden on public charity.” The following is from the same journal of December 2S : —“ At the meeting of Council yesterday, Sir John Strachey made an important statement of the measures proposed by Government to meet famine charges. The famine expenditure during the last five years has been £10,000,000 ; the cost of the recent famine, £9,250,000. The average amount to be provided annually for famine relief is estimated at £1,500,000. Recent measures of decentralisation have relieved the Treasury by £400,000 a year, and in March last £300,000 was provided by fresh taxation, chiefly iu Lower Bengal. There remains £BOO,OOO a year to be provided. This sum will be obtained partly by a license tax on trades over all India, in no case exceeding £2O; and partly by local rates on land in Northern India only, not exceeding 1 per cent, on rental. The annual surplus of £1 500,000 thus provided will be devoted ex’vely to famine relief and famine preveal by railways and canals, t o reducing the . i*ae debt, or preventing its increase. Omiting famine and reproductive works, the revenue and expenditure were before the recent famine in equilibrium. A margin of £500,000 is to be aimed at in future. Of this sum £300,000 is to be obtained from salt, and the remainder is expected to accrue from improvement in revenue. The governing idea in the financial policy of Sir John Strachey is still decentralisation. Each province will be primarily responsible for meeting its own expenditure, but will also contribute towards the relief of other provinces actually suffering from famine, a system of mutual assurance being thus established.”