Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-03 00:00:00

OUR COTTON SUPPLIES

We have frequently taken occasion of late to
remark upon the importance of this question, as
one in which the country at large is deeply in-
terested, and in which Liverpool, as a great
national mart, has of course an especial interest.
It is certainly most satisfactory to find that our
supplies of an article—the consumption of which
is still so largely increasing—are not likely
to be restricted, if only due care be taken to
render available the opportunities that are
being presented, of obtaining new and extended
sources. There are other reasons why it is
important we should have such sources—reasons
quite independent of the amount of the demand.
But regarding it as a necessity, arising from the
growing probability of our present principal
source of supply failing, from whatever cause, to
meet the augmented demand, it possesses an
importance which can scarcely be over-rated.
At such a moment, then, it is most providential
that India can be looked to as likely to stand us in
good stead, if only the present conjuncture be
turned to proper account. Notwithstanding the
recent most dreadful disasters in those distant
possessions of the British Crown, never, perhaps,
since this country has had a connection there,
were the prospects of that general prosperity
greater than at this moment, which will secure it
the advantage of a thorough development of its
resources. A new era has been opened in India
by the very mischiefs which have had to be
encountered. Its government, its legislation, the
promotion of its material progress, the advance-
ment of its social imnrovement_ will now by
suoject to the control of the Imperial
Parliament. The sceptre of India is hence-
forth to be swayed in its entirety by the
Queen of England ; and on her Majesty's Govern-
ment will devolve the responsibillty of seeing to
the proper direction of its vast concerns. It is a
crisis full of anxiety for the future of an empire
which promises to be a source of national wealth
and greatness not easily to be over-estimated.
"Public companies," we read, " are already in
process of formation, and private merchants are
on the alert, with a view to engage extensively in
the wide field now opening for Indian commerce.
But why," it is asked, "do they hesitate ? They
wait," it is replied, " for the assurance that all
reasonable facilities shall be afforded to their ope-
rations, whether by the grant of lands upon
equitable terms, or the guarantee of protection
against the system of fraud and injustice that has
ruined the fortunes of so many legitimate private
speculators under the old regime." Nothing could
be more prudent, nothing more reasonable than
this. And it is to be hoped that the present
Session of Parliament will not be allowed to pass
away, without such an assurance having been
secured.

One of the foremost of the practical advantages
to be thus assured of, is that most important one,
alike to our manufacturing, our agricultural, and
our commercial interests, of our abundant supply
of Indian Cotton. The Indian soil, it has been

ascertained, possesses an extraordinary expansive
capability for Cotton cultivation- The productive
powers of the Indian soil for such cultivation, were
shown in evidence before the Seleet Committee of

the House of Commons on Colonisation and Settle-
ment (India), to be very great indeed. The yield
per acre of cleaned Cotton in Goozerat, for instance,
was shown to be at the rate of 2501b5. to 2,0001b5.

in extreme cases. "Of clean Cotton in a good
season," said one witness of experience, "it is
impossible to ascertain exactly what is the yield
of the district under the Company's rule, inasmuch
as it is mixed up with that grown in the Baroda
district, of which we have no statistics at all ; but
on questioning the ryots, which I have done fre-
quently, I have ascertained from them that they
get from 1251b5. per beegar up to I,ooolbs. per
beegar, a beegar being half an acre. In Goozerat
100 beegars would be perhaps 104 or 105 acres ;
the kuppas vary from 3 dhurrees, or 1601bs. to
I,ooolbs. of seed cotton a beegar." " About 30 per
cent. of that is cleaned cotton, is it not ?"

it was

asked : to which the witness replied in the affir-
mative—adding that it ranged from 1001bs. to
6001bs. an acre—the latter in extraordinary- yields,

making an ordinary average of from 2001bs. to
2501b5, an acre of cleaned cotton, the cost of the
production of which would not mach, if at all,
exceel half of what it is in America.

But, to accomplish that, there must be enterprise
and energy directed to the object. And to encou-
ra,gc this, there must be inaugurated an entirely
new system of legislation, and a new and better

principle of land tenure, in India. There must, in
a word, be deraanded of the British Government
justice for India. Hitherto there, have been
impediments that have harassed and lettered the
progress of our Indian trade, and have obstructed
the advancement of its productive industry. But
for such hindrances and discouragements, we
might long ago have had large supplies of Cotton
from India. The time is at length come, hoNiever,
when there is the sure prospect ,of their being for
ever removed out of the way. Doubtless there are
yet many difficulties in the path of progress. But
they are not insurmountable; and the new system of
rule and governance which has, through so terrible
an ordeal, been brought about, will be found, let us

hope, in no long time, to have surmounted them
effectually.