The mirror., 1918-09-26
N no part of the world has
the engineer won greater
triumphs than in India.

HE9S8gSH the engineer won greater
HSfSNH triumphs than in India.
lA-Ag In this great British de.
tendency he has spanned mighty
rivers and deep ravines with sub
stantial steel viaducts, strewn the
continent with a network of rail
ways whose tentacles reach up in.
to the snow-clad Himalayas, built
ports and docks; but it is in subju-
eating the waters and reclaiming
the arid wastes of this wonderful
land wherein he has won his great
est conquest.
Yet little has been said about
those great engineering feats by
which millions of acres of desert
land have been reclaimed and the
once dreaded famine scourge sue.
cessfully combatted. This apparent
lack of knowledge as to what the
engineer has done and is still do
ing in reclaiming the arid wastes
of India is undoubtedly due to the
fact that the work is carried out
by the Government, by Govern.
ment engineers, with the result
that little mention is made of the
undertakings.
Yet there is no country in the
world where the irrigation en-
gineer has accomplished such won
ders and has been called upon to
fight such stirring battles against
the forces of Nature as in the
Eastern Empire. Here he has
built dams greater than those to
be found on the Nile or in Ameri-
ca, and miles of canals or artificial
waterways as wide and as deep as
the Thames. Furthermore, the
irrigation engineer has successful
ly fought the famine scourge and
thus saved millions of lives, and
herein lies his greatest conquest
and makes a reference to what he
has accomplished of more than Or
binary interest.
To fully grasp and appreciate
what the engineer has done in re-
claiming waste land and in fighting
the dreaded famine scourge one
should know that India, including
the native States, occupies an area
of 1,773,0OO square miles. about
equal to the whole of the European
countries, omitting Russia, and it
has a population of 316, 100000, or
seven times as great as that of the
United Kingdom. The children
speak 147 different vernacuIar
languages. This vast field has been
occupied by a corps of engineers
subjugating and directing the re-
sources of Nature for the benefit OF
a population equaling more than
fourth of the human race.
Famines in India are the dread
scourges which the work of the
engineers is designed to avert OF
diminish, first by the construction
of irrigation works, and second OF
railways. The first wiring smiling
harvests from a reluctant soil, the
second transport the produce from
the more highly favored to the
less fruitful districts.
Forty-eight years ago, in the
terrible famine of Orissa, million
persons, or one.fourth of the tota
population of the province, per-
ished of starvation, Notwithstanding
that one and a half millions ster.
ling had been expended on relie1
works. The CHASTITY terror of suct
visitation is well.nigh inconceiv'
able. By contrast with it even the
Black Death and the Plague appear
to lose something of their awful.
ness and magnitude. In 1877-7s
the death-rate through famine ir
India was five and a quarter mil
lions over that in normal years
while the birth-rate was less by
two millions. During the five
years 1878 the money spent II
relief works amounted to sixteer