THE INDIAN FAMINE.

Waikato Times, Issue 844, 13 November 1877, Page 2

THE INDIAN FAMINE.

Slit,---I.iorward you the enclosed ex ract from Macauley's eaßay on Lord Ulive, ;. which will be read with interest at the , present! hiqmeat:— ■■•■ • *-i a ( ne meantime, the impulae which . Olive hau given >o cue atimiiiiatration of j Bengal was constantly teouming taiafcec ,' "and fainter. His policy was, to a grtat k extent, aoandoucd ; the ajuses wbion he had suppressed beg >n tor-vive; and at * length the evus woioh a bad government ,' had engendered were aggravated by oue ■>■■ of those frarfal visi ationa wnion the beat I government cannot aveit. In Lhe summer of 1770,- the rams failed, tue earth was •? parched, the tanks were empty, tm rivers shrank: within their beds, and a famine, such as is known only in couutii-s where •every-honsfehold depends for support on its own little paten of. ca uvution, filled the whole valley of the Ganges with ' misery and death. Tender and delicate ■ ..women whose veils had never been hfied before the public gaze, forth from •'" their inner chainoerei % h1 winch Eastern jealousy had kept walfch over their bsauty, .threw themselves on the earth 'before the passers-by, and, with loud wailingsy-inrplored a handful of rice for : tHeirf children.. The Hoogly every day rolleddewh; thousands of corpses close to the porticos and gardens of the Kngliah i, conquerors, The very streets if Calcutta were blocked up by the dying and the 'dead. -The.l»-au aud feeble survivors had not energy enough to oear the bodies of their kindred co the funeral pile or to ihe holy river, or even to scare away the who fed ou t.uman /emainsjn the face of day. Th- extent of the morbaliiy was never a-*ceitaiued, but it .popularly recaoued by milliona This mel&noholyihtelligence added to the exoitement ./.which already prevailed in Englaad on Indian and tioh soon began to mingle itself wilh pity. , It; w*» rumoured thas the Company'a servants had oreated the famine by engrossing all the nca of the country ; thao they had sold grain for ten, or twelve times the price *t which they had bought itij that one English fuuctionary who, the year befoie, was not worth a hundred guineas bad, duriug that season of misery, remitted sixty thousaud pounds to London. These charges we believe to have been unfounded. That servants of ihe Company bad vcutured to deal iu rice is probable ; that if they dealt iu rice they must have gained by the scarcity ia certain. . But there is no reason for thinking that they either produced or aggravated au'evil whioh physical causes sufficiently explain. The outcry which was raised against them on this occasion was, we suspect, as absurd as the imputations which, in times of dearth at home, were once thrown by stalesmed and judges, and are still thrown by two or thie>j old women on the corn faotois " .Happily, no charges are now brought against Indian officials of aggravating the terrible calami y'which affWta .-o laige a portion of our ludian Empire. If the extract should open a siuglo puts**, or (uplirio tuocontiibuion to ine luud now to hVlp our perishing lellowsubj ;cts in India, the end proposed by the insertion A Uih graphic description of the famine ! of 1770 will be sufficiently I answered.- J. I>\ M. November 7h.

Waikatop- perhaps you wdura be good on :vxm<Mgk-.to teoeivetthis'BXpteHtfii «#? >|bfc w-:U.- QbjeoiiilihavttinovieWittwAanal m ftoptf ~,,„, for ,wMoh Irhav© foclmftdyi ye acted as agent in the.Weilmg*on 9 pro has been precluded by oiroumstan >es <frotii' .•) /bringing forward ife ,ol*itfW*o *■ ld in ,h^ Vv . , (Auckland) provinoe. The W tove Pe■MbUo mtoMQbttmietf&Wb Aim* Kepren« i' of '•■■} '■■- Parliament have reWrWupftn i^titlon ' or tKe ftapw in'qti;e^l6^ o ßß6i|iinebding * that therd shdftld 1 be an ( di their claims, and tb0 o bbJefcV6§ my. pre- ■ '■:■ ' font' visit'-'W'wmflfy 'to^aaifefcunt^rolJ: r;.-.:v, withthe' Ideality W'-fhtHMftio|aitaedn 'mi t and; with''the.'nature 61 the'opbositsion'l may prose cut iDg ~ i thelolaiin'^ 7 bl-niV ! 'olienite l l[«m[i<o<; oomanied by Tapa te Wfeataj' clyefcof *he ) I -i/iaj>it IJ> wpr&ent—tviz., ;>'Kgatricauwa£av; I beg to asuse yon that *eatty the wh,dlej.nfttter,T and "fchat *jhn fre,. auto ;,:;., mistakeinsupfoßinjfttn***^wtat.M assistance of the Kingites'A J I want simply snoh-justice as I hope and believe, -.-,,."» unite 4 ling to aoeord and assure to every individual Governor Browne , and King Pptataurohosetto quarrel about • ° between on* : ' and aubhorities_my. oUehts ; have'losti tneir land. I hope- - nay,-i g ~ .land is,-now strong enoujjh~g>eacetully to '' obihpel parties suji rfepaqation, as may be possible. 1 ask nothing morel ,1 filL-be content rwithr nothing less.—l '. . r , Auokland, Noveinbw 10, W^ 1 :"' «",

be good ita aoted rmce has >e* JrbW id in th\C tive Pe»f Uepre