332 



INDIA. 



treasure in 1898 amounted to Rx 20,530,000, being 

 Rx 7,500,000 more than in the previous year. 



Navigation. The total number of vessels en- 

 tered at Indian ports during 1897 was 5,006, of 

 3,883,989 tons, of which 1,989, of 3,086,971 tons, 

 were British ; 921, of 138,101 tons, were British In- 

 dian ; 550, of 581,725 tons, were foreign ; and 1,546, 

 of 77,192 tons, were native. The total number 

 cleared was 4,934, of 3,814,596 tons, of which 1,980, 

 of 3.078,271 Cons, were British ; 926, of 137,856 tons, 

 were British Indian ; 484, of 521,341 tons, were for- 

 eign: and 1,544. of 77,128 tons, were native. The 

 number arriving by way of the Suez Canal was 643, 

 of 1,554,653 tons;' and clearing, 787. of 1,823,784 

 tons. The number of vessels entered coastwise was 

 94,806, of 11,040,072, tons; and cleared 89,349, of 

 11,092,238 tons. The number of vessels built dur- 

 ing the year was 81, of 2,975 tons; the number 

 first registered was 86, of 5,112 tons. 



Communications. The total length of railroads 

 in operation on March 31, 1897, was 20,390 miles, of 

 which 10.238 miles were state lines leased to com- 

 panies, costing 11x34,721,121 ; 5,095 miles were state 

 railroads, built at a cost of Rx 165,177,347; 2.588 

 miles were guaranteed railroads, which cost Rx 50,- 

 3:{:?.H37 : 428 miles were lines belonging to assisted 

 companies, which cost Rx 8,749,590 to build ; 893 

 miles were lines of native states worked by com- 

 panies, 146 miles worked by the Indian Government, 

 and 898 miles worked by the states, the whole hav- 

 ing cost Rx 11,584,262; and 59 miles were foreign 

 lines, which cost Rx 1,700,800, making the total 

 capital expenditure, including Rx 497,351 for sur- 

 veys and Rx 308,410 for coal mines, Rx 273,072,718. 

 The gross receipts of all railroads during 1896 was 

 Rx 25,366,043. The working expenses were Rx 12,- 

 197,688, being 48.09 per cent, of the gross earnings. 

 There were 160,817,267 passengers carried, paying 

 Rx 9,202,289, and 32,471,835 tons of freight, paying 

 Rx 15,415,151. The net earnings in 1896 were Rx 

 13,168,355, which gave an average return of 5.20 

 per cent, on the invested capital. 



The number of letters, post cards, and money 

 orders that passed through the post office in Brit- 

 ish India during 1896 was 374,223.042; of news- 

 papers, 28,928,622; of packets, 18,196.529; of par- 

 cels, 2,577,083. The receipts were Rx 1,712,961; 

 expenditure, Rx 1,643,316. 



The Government telegraph lines had a total 

 length of 46,375 miles, with 142,926 miles of wire. 

 The number of private messages forwarded in 1896 

 was 4,736,734. The receipts were Rx 1,085,940, 

 and expenses Rx 897,853. In 1898 826 miles were 

 opened, to be followed by 1,540 additional miles in 

 1899 and 2.522 miles in 1900. 



The Plague. In the winter of 1897-'98 the bu- 

 bonic plague assumed the proportions of an epi- 

 demic once more in Bombay. The searching of 

 female quarters, the compulsory removal, not only 

 of plague patients, but of all persons who have 

 come in contact with them, to the sanitary camp, 

 and the loss or destruction of household goods were 

 so resented by the people that cases were concealed 

 as far as possible, and dying people were frequently 

 turned into the streets". Poona was visited with 

 the disease shortly after it appeared in Bombay, 

 and a malignant type broke out here and there in 

 the rural villages throughout western India. The 

 powers of segregation and enforced medical treat- 

 ment, which the epidemic diseases act conferred 

 upon the authorities all over India, were no longer 

 violently resisted in Bombay as they had been at 

 first. The sanitation of dwellings, however, could 

 not be enforced, and the municipal authorities were 

 sullenly indifferent to the sanitary condition of the 

 streets. Hence the Government obtained power to 

 tear down and rebuild Bombay as far as might be 



necessary, and to spend Rx 5,000,000 for this pur- 

 pose. From the first outbreak of the plague in 

 September, 1896, to the beginning of February, 

 1898, there were 71,000 deaths from the disease in 

 the Bombay Presidency, one fourth of them in the 

 city of Bombay. Among Europeans there were 

 only 26 deaths. In Bombay city the pestilence 

 reached its lowest point in August, 1897, and then 

 gradually increased until the deaths reached 1,250 

 a week in the middle of February, 1898, a rate 50 

 per cent, greater than in the previous year. Dr. 

 Haffkine's inoculation was not put in practice, and 

 in experimental trials it seemed to have no effect in 

 preventing infection, although it did in reducing 

 mortality. The natives were willing to carry out 

 only one of the preventive regulations of the Gov- 

 ernment, that of forbidding the ingress of strangers 

 into uninfected villages. In many places the vil- 

 lagers were too ignorant or callous to observe even 

 this precaution, which in larger towns it was im- 

 possible to apply. The difficulty was met in a 

 measure by establishing inspection stations on the 

 railroads, at which every passenger was examined 

 by medical officers and no train allowed to proceed 

 without a certificate showing that all on board were 

 free from suspicion. Owing to a lack of medical 

 officers, it was impossible to carry out this plan 

 thoroughly. Quarantine barriers were erected in 

 all directions to prevent the exodus from Bombay. 

 The plague committee in Bombay was opposed by 

 the municipal authorities in its action, and the 

 failure of the municipal administration there and 

 in Calcutta to provide for sanitation led to new 

 legislation abrogating in a great measure the right 

 of native self-government and transferring to the, 

 Provincial Government powers and duties that had 

 been intrusted to the municipality. 



The system of hospital treatment, which the 

 British authorities considered indispensable, was so 

 repugnant to Hindus and Mohammedans alike that," 

 whatever their degree of education, they would 

 prefer to see their women die of the plague rather 

 than have them taken to a public hospital. British 

 private soldiers were employed in searching Hindu 

 houses up to March 5, when the popular indignation 

 rose to such a dangerous pitch that the practice 

 was discontinued after numerous attacks on search 

 parties. Four days after this riots occurred, occa- 

 sioned by the measures which the plague committee 

 had ordered and the distress resulting from the 

 penning of the people in the city when trade and 

 industry were prostrate. In the previous year the 

 exodus reduced the population to 450,000, but now 

 there were 800,000 people confined in the city. Out- 

 side of Bombay city deaths from plague decreased 

 from 2,000 a week in November, 1897, to 750 in 

 February, 1898. A new rule, ordering the examina- 

 tion of corpses when no death certificate was pro- 

 duced, angered both Mohammedans and Hindus. 

 The municipal corporation refused to supply more 

 money to the plague committee. When the Mo- 

 hammedans and Hindus, no attention having been 

 given to their petitions, closed all their shops and 

 places of business, and all laborers struck work, the 

 authorities began to devise a means of harmonizing 

 their plague measures with native susceptibilities, 

 especially after an armed uprising of the people 

 had resulted on March 9 in the death of four Bri> 

 ish soldiers and five other Europeans. The attempt 

 of a plague party to remove a Mohammedan woman 

 to a hospital led to the riot, which, after the polite 

 had killed a number of the mob, spread to the 

 whole population, Mohammedans and Hindus, who 

 assailed Europeans and attacked their houses and 

 the public hospitals until the military took posses- 

 sion of the streets. After a change of policy WHS 

 inaugurated, the brothers Natu, who had been de- 



