The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-17 00:00:00

RICHES OF INDIA.

•
The first report of the select committee appointed
to examile witnesses on the policy of colonising por-
tions of British India with Englishmen who would
make that country their permanent home is now in
the hands of the public, and it contains much va-
luable information. Till the Company's charter was
renewed in 1813 no Englishman could reside in
India without a passport. In that year the exclud-
ing enactment was repealed ; but the power of hold-
ing land was not conceded till 1837, when the In-
dian Government passed a law to that effect, in
conformity with the 86th clause of the parliamen-
tary act of 1833, which deprived the company of its
trading privileges. Mr. Theobald, barrister, who
was examined before the colonisation committee,
sated that even to this day some legal doubts are
entertained on the subject, which arise from a con-
struction put upon that chapter in the Indian penal
code which is entitled, "On illegal entrance into
the territories of the Est India Company," pro.
viding penalties for such illegal entrance. The
authors of the penal code were also the authors of
the Indian Act of 1837, and, unless it be presumed
that they have c mtradieted themselves wilfully or
ignorantly, they must have been of opinion that
the act of 1837 did not repeal the prohibition, and
hence doubts have arisen. We have alluded to
these facts because, to a. certain extent, they ac-
count for the small number of Englishmen who
have permanently located themselves in India.
The class of persons who ought to emigrate to our
Eastern empire are very different from those who
emigrate to Australia, New Zealand, or Canada.
These three countries, scantily populated, require
labouring men of all trades, but in India they would
be superfluous ; nor, indeed, could they work out
of doors in the plains, on account of the heat of the
climate. The emigrant to India should be a capital-
ist, having a knowledge of European arts, and capa-
ble of directing native labour, so as to derive the
largest result from the least expenditure. Thus a
new field is open to a new class, who struggle in
vain at home against the severity of competition,
but who may easily enrich themselves in India,
either by agricultural or mineral pursuits. Hitherto
English settlers have confined themselves to the
manufacture of sugar and indigo ; but India is
rich in vegetable productions, such as wheat and
other cereals, cotton, opium, hemp, flax, tea, and
timber. In the culture of cotton the value of Eu-
ropean supervision is strikingly illustrated by a
s'atement made by Mr. Turner, who declared that
his house lost 7,0001. a-year by the dirt and refuse
with which the cotton is mixed, which would have
been saved had Europeans been living on the spot,
by whom its picking, cleansing, packing, and trans-
mission to Liverpool would have been superin-
tended. The culture of the sugar-cane also would
be very much improved if Europeans directed the
process, as the natives conduct it in a very unsci-
entific manner, and it is desirable to introduce the
West Indian method. Indigo, transferred from
the West to the E fist Indies, has been so improved
in quality by English management, that it now
readily commands the best price in the markets
of the world. General Tremenheere gives an in-
teresting account of the operations at the Poosah
Stud Farm, on the Gauges, under the supervision
of Colonel Apperley, where, by improved agricul-
ture, mere than 700,000 bushels of fodder were
produced, the yield, under careless management,
having been only 458,281 bushels. Carrots were
grown at this place fourteen inches long, and
weighing four pounds each, the cost of which,
when fed off, was only is. per ton. The natives
pay little or no attention to manure. In many
plac-s they burn it for fuel, and in the neighbour-
hood of villages beeps of scattered bones remain
untouched, which Turopeans would convert into
bone-dust and mix with the soil. Gen. Tremen-
, heere remarks as a curious fact, which does not
appear to have attracted much attention, that "the
surface of the land in India is very often covered
by a saline efflorescence which is impure carbonate
of soda. I believe that to this moment no one knows
the correct chemical properties of this substance,
or what might be made of it ; but I have no doubt
that if it were mixed with the carcasses of animals
it would produce nitrate of soda, which is very ex-
cellent manure, for the nitrogen given off by the
decaying eubstance would combine with the soda in
this saline substance. I have no doubt that through
the prevalence of this substance lands which have'
been rendered sterile might be turned into fertile
tracts." This would be an operation suited to British
skill, as well as the construction of works of irri-
gation.
Mr. Hooker, who visited India as a b itanist in
1848, and who gave evidence before the committee,
stated that there were very great capabilities for
extending the cultivation of tea along the Himalaya
mountains, and indeed the whole distance from!
Assam to the Indus, about 1,300 miles, following
tg9ourse of the Himalaya. Tea succeeds excellently
and is a very favourite beverage in India, ,
atlit Mr. J.-looker thinks there would be no "limit
to'the cultivation gild consumption of tea in Asia,
both in Central Asia and India." He further con-
siders that Dae feeling, in the Himalayan range,
elevated to some
is an eligible positT
0,
nOofOr
otmo Bw, ohoi
cOhfeßerti at
ibs oh veen
ttehrepsrei
sae,
might establish trade with Central Asia. We have
there a sanitarium for invalids, and the climate is
excellent. Sikkim is the shortest mountain pas•
sage across the Himalaya into Tibet, and is the
direct route from Calcutta to Lassa, the capital of
Eastern Tibet. That the hill tribes would gladly
trade with us is proved by the fact that when Dr.
Campbell established a fair about thirty miles from
Darjeeling, it was very much frequented by
the natives. Ponies, silk, and woollen cloths,
musk, amber, beads, and salt, were brought
from the hills and exchanged for the products
of the plains. In Tibet gold abounds, and Mr.
Hooker says, "according to report, it must be
another California.' Mr. Turner, who was sent
into the country by Warren Hastings in 1783, t
open up trade between Calcutta and Tibet, stated
tliet it was produced in great abundance in the al-
luvial soil of Tibet, and that the quantity was so
great, that during a severe frost, when the ground
open's, the value of gold, from so simple a cau-e
very much decline I—from 21 to 9—because it was
e ataieed. Strange to sey, sections of tea
made up in the for m of bricks are used as currency
in parts of Central Asia. These bricks are also cut
into per ions, and Ouse portions represent the sir
culating medium. Woollen manufactures would
lied a ready market among the Tibetans, and even
in 1775, ae it appears from the report et Mr. -Bogle
to the Government of India, the trade must have
been considerable in broadcloth. In these hills,
bthuesnin,
eisesaeomypeldouycmietendt yionunEg
ngmlae nndw
mh oaycarielarloistefi
an
nd
independer:ce.
India is alsorich in mineral wealth especially coal
and iron, copper and tin. The coal beds of Burd wan
and the Nerbudda are excellent in quality and most
extensive in range. Iron is abundant in the Hima-
layas and the Tennasserirn provinces, andalso in the
Kumaon and Gwalior territory. There are large
deposits of tin throughout Tennasserim, and copper