The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-08 00:00:00

AN INDIAN " IMPOSSIBILITY•"

We take the following extract from a pamphlet uper
the Government of India, recently published by Mr.
Dickinson :

"Lord speaks of the Court not having been
able to provide money for public works, while they were
struggling for existence in India, although they could
for wars which they were compelled to carry on at all
risks. But this begs the whole question, which is—were
they, by neglecting the public works, enabled to carry
on their wars, or were they so miserably poor and
swamped in their means because they neglected the
public works ? They are two very different things—the
carrying on new and extensive improvements, and the
keeping old works in repair. We will first take up the
latter. To say they could not find money for them is
nonsense. The works themselves provided money from
year to year, and if the repairs were not executed the
works did not yield their proper returns. Now, Tanjore
was the only district in this Presidency where the works
were kept in thorough repair. To give you some idea
of the extent to which this neglect was carried, the large
irrigation works in this district were never cleared out
for thirty or forty years, by which an entire dis-
trict was half ruined, My predecessor cleared out
one mile at a cost of 7,000 rupees (7001.), and
the revenue of the Talook (county) rose immediately
from 70,000 rupees to much above a lac (7,0001. to
10,0001) Probably 500 rupees a year (501.) would have
kept the channels clear ; and for want of this, 30,000 or
40,000 rupees a-year were lost (3,0001. or 4,0001.) This
has been the state of things. In 18271 found a channel
that entered two Talooks filled up six feet, so that when
it ought to have had eight feet of water in it, it had only
two. The revenue had fallen from three to four lacs to
one lac ; when it was cleared out the revenue rose in two
or three years about one and a half lac 'of rupees. One
or two thousand rupees would have kept this clear.
Thousands of works are at this moment out of repair, the
repairs of which would not have cost one year's increase
of revenue, though they have been neglected so many
years. This has been the state of things ; what nonsense
it is to talk of their not being able to find money. But
their own acts answer the question. All buildings are
kept in repair. How could they find money for this ?
And how did they find -money for Tanjore ? About
40,000 rupees a-year were spent in keeping up the works.
Where did the money come from ? Of course, from the
district itself. If they had not spent the 40,000 rupees,
they would have lost two or three lacs ; but further, they
spent steadily in Tanjore about 40,000 rupees in improve-
ments, by which, on an average, they just about obtained
a permanent increase of revenue of 40,000 rupees per
annum. Thus no outlay at all was required for keeping
these works in repair, nor even for a constant course of
improvement. Why should not this have been done in
every district ? The fact is, the Company were without
money for their wars, because they neglected to keep in
repair the old works upon which the revenue depended.
But they might and ought to have gone much further
than this, for without a very large expenditure at once,
a system of improvement might have been kept up, as
in Tanjore, that would have steadily yielded from 50 to
100 per cent. To confound such a proceeding with the
outlay of a vast capital, which after a few years will re-
turn 5 per cent., and then say the Company could not
spend money for public works, is merely throwing dust
in their own and other people's eyes. But this is not
the strongest point of the case. They did not take the
least pains to prevent famine. To say nothing of the
death of a quarter of a million of people in Guntoor, the
Public Works Committee, in their report, calculate that
the loss in money by the Guntoor famine was 216 lacs,
more than two millions sterling. If they could find
money to supply these losses they could have found a
hundredth part of the sum to prevent them. But now
with respect to works of actual improvement of consi-
derable extent. These works have much more than paid
their own way ; not a rupee has been taken from the
general treasury, but, on the contrary, seven lacs paid
into it. A schedule of various new works executed of late
years has just been printed, the average return from which
has been 50 per cent., counting from the first execution
of the works, though of course in the first year or two
their full effects were not developed, and this in direct
revenue. Of course the indirect revenues are increased
also ; and the increase of private property far exceeds
that gained by Government. But just look at this
case ; the saleable value of land in Tanjore has increased
much more than a million sterling since the Anicuts
were built—the land is now saleable at about 50 rupees
an acre. The land in this delta has as yet been unsale-
able ; it is much richer than that of Tanjore, much bet-
ter supplied with water by its river, and has a fine safe
port, so that when our works are in full operation, and
the population has filled up, which it will do with great
rapidity, the lands ought to be worth at least 60 rupees
an acre, or seven millions sterling for the whole irrigated
tract. This will give you some idea of what public
works are here. Let us take another case, viz., transit.
On the western road from Madras, say for 60 miles be-
fore the roads divide, there is now a traffic of about 500
tons a day, I believe 180,000 a-year, it costs 30,000
rupees a mile, or about 18 lacs a-year. This might be
carried on a canal for one lac ; here are 17 lacs a-year
lost in 60 miles of transit, and this is going on
throughout the Presidency Is it surprising
that on such a system of managing the country,
the people are poor, and the Government poor ; how
could it be otherwise I I am certian that if 50 lacs
a-year had been spent in public works here, there
would have been all along an immense additional in-
crease of revenue, and the country would by this time
have been a complete contrast to what it now is. Lprd
thinks it would be better not to blame the Govern.
ment ; how can we possibly point out how improve-
ment can be made without proving that there has been
neglect before If such immense sums can be obtained,
there must have been some stupid, merciless system be-
fore." (Remember that, reader ! that phrase is written
by one of the most distinguished men in India.) "What
inconceivable folly it is to shut our eyes to facts, and not
to take advantage of discovery, because if we do, it
would imply that those who went before us com-
mitted blunders, The discovery of gold in California
and Sydney proves strange blindness in those who
had been living so many years in those localities,
but that does not prevent men digging it up now,
The mine which exists in this country will bear com-
petition with those gold discoveries. An expenditure
of 30,0001. or 40,0001. in Tanjore, besides the
enormous increase in direct revenue, had added much
more than a million sterling to the property of the pro-
vince. If a man who could earn 301. a-year in other ways
went to the diggings, and there obtained gold to the
value of 9001. a-year, the world would ring with it; yet
it would not equal the profits in Tanjore ; and here they
promise very far to exceed that. Lord wonders at
my vehemence about public works ; is he really so humble
a man as to think no better of himself than to suppose
he could stand unmoved in a district where 250,000
people had perished miserably of famine, through the
neglect of our Government, and see it exposed every
year to a similar occurrence ?" (Remember that, reader !)
" If his lordship had been living in the midst of the dis-
trict at the time, like one of our civilians, and had had
every morning to clear the neighbourhood of his house
of hundreds of dead bodies of poor creatures who had
struggled to get near the European in hopes that there
perhaps they might find food, he would have realised
things beyond what he has seen in his —shire park."

DESTRUCTION OF A VESSEL BY FIRE.—A serious loss
took place yesterday morning, off Dungeness, by the
destruction of a French vessel by fire. She was a fine
schooner called the Zelinia, Viaud, master, and was
bound to London from Nantes, with wine, and a general
cargo of merchandise. She at length took the ground
between No. 3 and No. 4 stations, some four miles to
the westward of the Ness. The fire had obtained, how-
ever, too powerful a hold of the ill-fated craft to admit
of her preservation. The flames continued to extend
over the vessel until at length she was burnt to the
water's edge. It is gratifying to add, however, that
the crew and all those who assisted in endeavouring to
stay the conflagration, succeeded in reaching the shore
in safety, not a life being lost. At present the cause of
the fire has not transpired. The unfortunate ship and
cargo are reported to have been insured for considerable
gums.

RESCUR FROM DROWNING.—HUMANE AND HEROIC
CONDUCT OF AN OFFICER.— We should, indeed, take
great shame to ourselves did we omit to mention, and
that in terms of the highest possible commendation, the
humane and heroic conduct of Captain Grierson, com-
manding officer of the 15th depot, quartered here, who
under Providence, was the instrument of saving the life
of a young lad on Saturday last. The "Lord's Hole," a
pool of inconsiderable depth and extent in summer, but
which, by the continuous and heavy rains of this winter,
has been converted into a lake, situated on the eastern
end of our fair green, immediately close to and over the
canal, and apparently supplied by a spring somewhat
near its centre, has been from time immemorial, the
theatre where the youth of our town, not having the
fear of broken bones or wet jackets before their eyes,
took lessons in the slippery art of skating and sliding
whenever frost converted it into a field suitable for such
purposes. The frost of the two or three preceding nights
having, in the opinion of the juveniles, imparted on the
day named the necessary degree of firmness to its surface,
considerablea number of them were amusing themselves
upon it, when one unfortunate wight, carried away by
the excitement of the moment, incautiously approached
too near the spring, where, the ice being thin and
weak, it suddenly gave way under his weight, at once
reepitating him in the deepest portion of the pond,
and where the water was considerably beyond his depth.
Rising to the surface, be continued to catch hold of
the table ice, but either through fright or cold, or both
combined, he made no further efforts to extricate himself);
and as his companions, influenced most likely by the
same feelings, also seemed incapable of affording him any
assistance, contenting themselves merely with acting the
part of passive spectators, his situation was every mo-
ment becoming not .only more painful but perilous in the
extreme. Fortunately at this juncture Capt. Grierson,
who was coming from the barracks, seeing the commo-
tion about the pond, rushed down, and perceiving the
perilous position of the boy, and, also, that none of the
bystanders, of whom there was a goodly number on the
banks of the pond, were willing to risk their lives or
subject themselves to a wetting with the thermometer at
the freezing point, in an attempt to save the lad, boldly
and at once plunged into the water, broke up the ice in
his immediate vicinity, severely lacerating his hands in
his efforts, and after considerable danger and difficulty
succeeded in dragging him ashore in all but an exhausted
condition. Not content with doing things by halves, he
did not stop even here, but had him at once conveyed to
a neighbouring house, wrapped up in blankets, and re-
storatives applied, and wasted not even a thought on his
own dripping condition and bleeding hands until he had
the satisfaction of knowing that, under Divine Provi-
dence, he had been the means of not only preserving a
fellow-creature from a sudden and violent death, but al so
a decent and worthy family from affliction and mourning.
Westmeath Guardian.