The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-09-30
HORROR OF HORRORS.
THE FAMINE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
l 500 600 People Starved to Death.
London Tablet, Sept. /,

India far exceeds, both ia extent and in |
severity, any famine of which there ls
record. The details are positively over
wbelming. 1t is calculated that a million |
and a half of persons have already died
literally of starvation. And this NUMBER
leaves millions unnoticed whose health mas
been irIeparabiy injured. So far back as |
last December the death rate In one dis-
trict had risen from one thousand to eleven |
thousand This means that in one district |
and in one month, ten thousand persons |
had been starved. There is grim pleas |
antry in the report of one of the omclas, |
that sin the most distressed districts there !
are very few poor to be seen" Inc reason
ia that the very poor have all dled' Let ue
take one district only, the Salem district
! in that there sFe eleven relief camps. Last |
May the average strength of this camp |
opalation was 7 900 the monthly deaths |
were 746 the annual ratio was l,3oS per
thousand. Thus exsiection would take
place within one year. Once more; In North
Acct, for the same month, the average
number under camp relief was ,2O2 the
monthly deaths were All the annual ratio
was 457 per Thousand. If such death
rate were to be universal throughout the
| world we could count the months Of the
worl6's brief remaining life.
1t is not death from starvation which ID
| the sole or the especial horror of this calam-
! ity which is now decimating fndia.- We
| have to imagine population which ls
! emsciated to skeleton points, which drage
! itself about in mere bones and loosened
joints; the voice thinned to a treble and
all energy gone, nothing remaining but
| Just the life. Such is the picture which
| many writer's from Southern India, give us
of the bulk of the population. And even
| in Northern and Central India there is
| terrible increase in the want which must
| lead to starvation. The distress of one
| necessarily affects all the others: inter
trade being almost arrested, and every
| thing that can be spared being distributed.
1t is reported by Off tial writers from
Bangatore that "people fall down dead in
the streets at the rate of from IL TO ~ q
| day." aud the police in Madras give the
same tidiugs. Moreover, the concomitsnt
horrors of such continually recurring
! scenes are almost So painful as are the
deaths. The most distressing reflection is
that there SCENE little hope of any immedi
ate removal of the evil. The population
being smitten down by the sufferings of
famine are wholly unequal to any LABOR
and even if they could labor there is little
to be done, for all business and trade are
in stagnation. The causes which led to the
| famine are 10 as tuil operation now as Six
months ago ; the rain has come too late for
the September supplies; the early crops IN
the Msdurs district, on which the people
were relying, are said to have perished by
blight, 30 that only a third of their harvest
will be saved the richer districts of Trich-
inopoly and Tanjore-among the most pop
ulated of India-are subjected to the
swarming hosts of starving immigrants,
who devour all the little they can yield,
aud leave nothing for the native popula
ton. 1t Is we'll known that the staple
food of the laboring classea of Southern
India consists almost entirely of grain !;
and that this grain is dependant on the
rainfall not only for it's luxuriance but for
its existence. Colonel Gordon Forbes, who
has had much experience in India, says
that large class OF grain, and of pulee and
oil seeds, are grown in India without the
aid of irrigation; because to Hood such
, crops in the way the rice fields are Hooded
! would destroy them instead of refreshin 6
|, them; and moreover such crops are usually
cultivated on elevations which are quite
beyond the reach of irrigation. Thus it
follows that these crops are at the mercy
of the season and when exceptional arid :
ity marks the season exceptional failure
ensues. There ia no counteractiug this
a simple law Of nature; there is no process
+ of we'll sinking which would succeed. II
! the heavens are unfavorable the earth
= must be dried up and the people must &C
. that in India there is 80 much reliance upor
a this one staple item of popular food. Bu
=. the climate and the constitution of the
n natives make all such regrets quite nm
r fruitful. 1t is true that rice is in great de
@ mand for caiiy food, but rice too is depend
"
! rice which are watered from tanks, ant
y these tanks are kept supplied from th'
h rivers; but there are conhgurstions o
o ground which made river supply impossi
1 bie aud this is the case in most rice tietde
4 Thus nature must be the despot over pient,
v and famine, nor can art device means t
y supplant her.
u 1t is profoundly creditable to the goo
It feelings of Earopesns that they have dom
It their best to alleviate the starving indiana
8 vet we are told that ten millions of none
y will be wanted to meet the necessities. On
Is of the regretable features in all our Englis
g subscriptions for the relief of those wh
II suffer in remote parts is that We are neces
% sarily late in beginning, and therefore lat
y in practically utiiisiug, the contribution
lie which are wanted on the instant. 1t
l. certain that we are quite capable of maxim
re Parliamentary grant which would at ono
er meet the whole of the emergency, and W
le shall probably have to make such a grant
1t but it will be put off to the last moment
4, till another million of victims shall hav
of fallen a prey to the famine. Meauwhil
need we urge on all private individuals th
vast claim which this misery has on them