98 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [vol. ix 



educated," and, "All educated natives should be employed by Govern- 

 ment." So those who do not get Government positions are dissatisfied and 

 are fully persuaded that they are the only ones who know how to govern 

 India. They, by many orations, also carried on the campaign of calumny 

 against the Government and the inevitable result has been that many of 

 the students have become fanatics and in that condition they are ready 

 to do anything. It is a melancholy fact that all the bomb throwing and 

 murdering of officials have been done by youths under 20 years of age. 



These orators are forever proclaiming the high sounding phrase of 

 a United India and you would imagine that they were martyrs for the 

 people, but to those who know India it is known that such a dream is an 

 absolute impossibility and that should they get their desire of driving 

 the British out of the country they would be the very first to be silenced 

 by the first military power to arrive on the scene. No greater punish- 

 ment could befall India than for the British to withdraw. These 

 nationalists have absolutely no care for the people and their religion 

 teaches it. If they had they could show their fitness for Government in 

 the relief of famine and plague, but what do you find instead? They 

 spread reports that the British Government is sending the plague among 

 them by poisoning the wells, and while the Civil Servants and Medical 

 Officers under a burning sun are striving with all their power to combat 

 the famine and the pestilence, they are inciting the people to deeds of 

 violence against their greatest benefactors. 



In the discussion which followed the lecturer was requested to give the statistics of the 

 irrigation works of India, and a brief statement of them is hereby appended. 



Irrigation works in India are divided into "Major and Minor," and the former are 

 again subdivided into "Productive" and "Protective." Productive works are built by 

 borrowed money and are expected to pay at least the interest on the capital outlay; on 

 the other hand the Protective works are built by money taken from the general revenue 

 of the country, and are constructed in order to provide food grains as a protection against 

 famine. 



The Minor works include a miscellaneous collection of works of different kinds, and 

 while very numerous are generally of small extent. In many cases there is no record of 

 their original cost. 



The capital cost of the Productive works up to 1908 was about 151 million dollars and 

 the area irrigated 13.7 million acres. The profit derived from these works was about 7.4 

 per cent. The capital cost of the Major Protective works was seven million and the area 

 irrigated 400,000 acres. Minor works irrigate over lyi million acres but the exact cost 

 of them is not known. 



The total outlay on irrigation works up to 1908 was about 180 million dollars and the 

 total area irrigated over 21 million acres. 



The crops grown on the irrigated areas are about equal annually to the capital cost of 

 the works and it is estimated that about a third of this is due in normal years to irriga- 

 tion, but in famine years the story is entirely different. One example will suffice. In 

 the famine year 1896-97 the land irrigated by the Sone Canal in Bengal produced a crop 

 valued at 8.9 million dollars and the canal cost 8.96 m.illion dollars. The crop on all the 

 surrounding country was an absolute failure. In this one year the people realized in 

 crop almost the total cost of construction of the canal, while they paid in water rates 

 only 7 per cent, of the value of their crops. 



