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in the town alone. This, that was the garden of the world, is turned into a 

 wilderness. A brief account of twoor three of the great famines in our time 

 will suffice to show you something of their extent. In 1895 the rains 

 failed in the province of Agra and next year also over the United Provinces, 

 the Central Provinces, parts of Madras, Bombay, Bengal, the Punjab, 

 Upper Burma, Rajputana, Central India, and Hyderabad so that all 

 these areas were plunged in famine. The total area affected was 307, 

 000 square miles, an area larger than Ontario and Manitoba, with a 

 population of 69,500,000. Well might any Government stand appalled 

 in the face of such a catastrophe. Here the Government was called 

 upon suddenly to make provision for fighting the famine and at 

 the same time to carry on the ordinary routine work of Government. 

 The numbers on relief exceeded at times 4,000,000 and throughout 

 the famine over 821,000,000 units were relieved. The famine ended in 

 1897 when the autumn harvest was ripe but it was followed by heavy mor- 

 tality from fever and a plague of rats. Altogether about 750,000 per- 

 ished in British India alone, but much of this was due to the reluctance 

 of the wild tribes in the hills to accept relief on ordinary terms. 



The effects of this famine had scarcely disappeared before the coun- 

 try was plunged into a still more intense famine. In 1899 the rains 

 failed over the west and centre of India. The total area was 475,000 

 square miles, or an area almost equal to Ontario and Quebec, with a 

 population of 59,500,000. In July 1900 no less than 6,500,000 were re- 

 ceiving daily relief. The distress was further aggravated by the failure 

 of fodder and the water supply. Cattle died by the millions. Then 

 this famine was most severe in native states. These states manage 

 their own affairs and to within a few years ago did practically nothing 

 to relieve famine, with the result that in this famine the people 

 of the native states migrated by the hundreds of thousands 

 into British India and disorganized the administration, for by 

 starvation and wandering they were so exhausted that it 

 was impossible for medical skill to save them. Then the failure of the 

 water supply with its consequent pollution caused very virulent outbreaks 

 of cholera so that 200,000 are estimated to have died from it. Then the 

 unhealthy autumn caused a further heavy mortality so that almost 

 1,000,000 perished in this famine in spite of all the work the Government 

 did. 



Yet while these figures are appalling they are nothing to what they 

 used to be before the British Government organized proper relief, and in 

 the last great famine of 1906-7 in the United Provinces and adjacent dis- 

 tricts, although from one to two millions were at times receiving relief, no 

 one is known to have died from starvation. An excellent testimony to 

 the results of British rule and the perfecting of their famine system. 



