The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-16 00:00:00

THE SUN,I LONDON, FRIDAY EVEIitZ46.,, AUGUST 16, 1861.

district, that it comprised an area of 1,732,000
acres, or 2,706 square miles, of which only 566,000
were cultivated, the remainder being waste, and even
this cultivation was imperfect, and there was no
irrigation ; that it yielded a revenue of less than half
a rupee an acre, and that the greater part of this
had been of late years subject to great vicissitudes ;
and under these circumstances they would be pre-
pared to learn that the condition of the people was
most wretched. Again, Sir Arthur Cotton said—
" You cannot imagine anything more melancholy or
disgraceful than all you see and hear of this delta ;
the people are steeped in poverty, their means of
cultivation are miserable, and the cultivation the
most wretched I ever saw. There is not one single
rood in the district that is practicable in the mon-
soons, by the floods washing across the country
almost without control." That was the present
condition of this district of Orissa, poor, miserable,
and wretched in the midst of the materials of wealth
and prosperity, with a soil that was capable of pro-
ducing the richest products. It suffered from two
evils, inundation and drought ; it was impossible to
conceive of two greater extremes, but one was an
antidote to the other, and all they had to do was to
apply the one to the cure of the other. It was im-
possible to conceive an enterprise more encouraging
than that hi which this company was engaged; it
commended itself to all their feelings of philan-
thropy, and what was perhaps of far more conse-
quence in this money-making age, it commended
itself to their pockets. He believed that it con-
tained within itself the elements of great commer-
cial success, and that there were no works either
in India or elsewhere that promised to pay better.
They were told that if the remedy was applied the
productiveness of the soil would be six times mul-
tiplied. He need not remind them of Tanjore, and
how that district had improved under irrigation,
nor of its effects in the Raja Mundy. But to show
them the results of irrigation he might point to
the remarkable instance mentioned by Mr. Smith,
an executive officer of Bengal, who stated that Mr.
Grose, at a cost of £230, made a dam across the
Damoodah nearly a quarter of a mile long, by whieh
he successfully turned the whole of its water into
another channel, from which he afforded irrigation
to 11,666 acres of rice cultivation, moderately
valued at £5,250. What this gentleman had done
in one locality they proposed to do with the Orissa
district at large, and there was no reason to doubt
that the profit, though it might not be so great as
that reaped by Mr. Grose, would be wonderfully
large. There was one point he might mention, and
that was the facility which the Mahanuddy gave
for navigation. The river was navigated by the
natives 200 or 300 miles above Cuttack, and during
floods much higher. When they had completed
their works the navigation would be extended up
to the Hooghly ; and by the Godavery on the one
hand, and the Mahanuddy on the other, one in the
west and the other in the south, they would open
up the Berar district, and give the means of con-
veying the important produce of that district to the
seashore. He did not consider that what they con-
templated doing was attended with any great diffi-
culty. It was a law of nature that no great
work was without difficulty, but the result in
this case would entirely compensate for the diffi-
cultips to be encountered and overcome. It had
been said that this work should he left to Go-
vernment ; but what had Government done
already ? The ancient works were neglected, and
it even suffered the main road from Madras
to Calcutta to be impassable during several
months of the year. He thought this company de-
served better treatment than it had received at the
hands of the Secretary for India. This, however,
was matter of the past. A great field had been
opened up to British capitalists, and he should be
greatly deceived in his estimation of British enter-
prise if that field wore not well worked, and he was
convinced that the result would be a large return
for the capital invested, and the gratitude of a suf-
fering but deserving people. He would only add
that the company had since succeeded in obtaining
their charter of incorporation and also in raising
more capital. They would find from the statement
of accounts that the amount received in deposits was
£45,000. The proposed capital was one million
sterling, hut they had reserved 5,000 shares for
allotment in India, but they did not of course ex-
ptct to allot these shares till the contract was com-
pleted, and they were in a position to tell the people
there that they could commence operations. In
conclusion, he moved that the report be received
and adopted.
General Sir G. POLLOCK seconded, and the mo•
tion was carried nein. dis.

Alderman Finnis and Mr. Bonar, jun., were then
appointed auditors.
Mr. ATKIN moved that the sum of £l,OOO be the
annual remuneration divisible among the directors
for their services. He said the manner in which
the directors had conducted their affairs showed
that they were every way worthy of the confidence
of the shareholders. They were entitled to the
gratitude of the people of India, and to the grati-
tude of Sir C. Wood, who had through them been
pre'vented from being handed down to posterity as
the slayer of private enterprise throughout India.
Colonel MANN seconded, and the motion passed
unanimously, as did also another, proposed by the
chairman, fixine, the salary of Mr. Westwood, the
secretary, at £l,OOO a-year. The salary of the
auditors was fixed at £2O.
The CHAIRMAN then moved that the annual ordi-
nary general meeting be fixed to be held sometime
in the month of April or May, and the half-yearly
meeting in October or November, the first of such
last mentioned meetings to be held in 1862.
The motion was agreed to, and after a vote of
thanks to the chairman the meeting separated.