l3l 



trolled by 30 postmasters; at the close of 1889-90^* there 

 were 1,691 imperial post offices, 1,412 letter boxes, 985 

 postmen, and 898 village postmen, besides 68 district post 

 offices and 748 village postmen. The telegraph offices have 

 of course been all estabhshed since 1850. The number of 

 letters posted in 1853-54 was 3'66 millions and newspapers 

 0-29 millions; in 1889-90 the numbers were 48 and 3'8 

 millions respectively. I have no exact statistics as regards 

 the number of hospitals and dispensaries in 1850; these 

 institutions were maintained only at the head-quarter stations 

 of the several districts and the rural tracts had not the 

 advantage of them. In 1889 there were 393 institutions, 

 in which 2J millions of persons were treated, the daily 

 average attendance being 17,000. 



57. The standard of living and the general condition of 

 the different classes of the population. — For purposes of this 

 enquiry, the general population may roughly be divided 

 into four main divisions ; viz., I, the agricultural classes, 

 comprising landowners, tenants and agricultural labourers ; 



^■^ The following extracts from the petition presented by the Madras Native 

 Association to Parliament in 1852 complaining of the insufficiency and unsatisfactory 

 character of the postal arrangements at that time will be read with interest : 



" That your petitioners will now advert to some other subjects requiring redress, 

 such as the Post Office, which, besides being very tardily and slovenly conducted, acts, 

 by the exorbitance of its charges, like a dead weight upon commercial correspondence 

 and the circulation of knowledge ; and which weight would be considerably lightened, 

 were the conveyance of official papers, which form three-fourths of the mail conveyed 

 by tappal, placed to the expense of the Government : this would make the Post Office 

 revenue four times the amount now credited, and of course would permit of a corre- 

 sponding reduction in the cost for carriage ; a letter or package which now is taxed at 

 Is. might then reach its destination for the cost of 3d. ; and still the returns of the 

 department would more than cover the expenditure, even without an increase of 

 correspondence, which, however, woidd certainly take place to a considerable extent, 

 as a consequence of a diminution in the rates of postage. 



" That a necessary auxiliary to the increase of correspondence is a thorough reform 

 in the management of the Post Office departments, beginning at the capital, and 

 extending to the most remote boundaries of the Presidency, which, although containing 

 an area of upwards of 140,000 square miles, has no more than 130 post offices, con- 

 trolled by 30 Postmasters, a number totally inadequate to the wants of the public, 

 to meet which efficiently your petitioners suggest that there should be at least one or 

 more offices in every taluk, according to its size, so that no inhabited part of the country 

 should be more than 10 miles from a post office. At present, the arrangements for 

 distributing the letters among the native population, even at the stations where the 

 offices are situated, are most defective and imperfect ; the agents employed are of an 

 inferior description, who frequently retain the delivery for days, till the parties to 

 whom the letters are addressed submit to some unauthorized demand ; while, as regards 

 places at a distance from the post stations, the evil is much greater ; enormous delay 

 extending not unfrequently to weeks, is incurred and a heavy charge besides ; while 

 after all, the delivery of letters is uncertain, and wrong parties are sometimes permitted 

 to obtain their possession. 



"That these combined circumstances, the paucity of offices and their inefficient 

 supervision, the delays, exactions and uncertainties, cause the post office to be greatly 

 less trusted, than it would otherwise be by the Native public, who, in very many 

 instances, have established dawk transit at their own expense, thereby depriving the 

 State of a part of its income, to an extent necessarily unknown, but as necessarily of no 

 trivial importance ; and your petitioners, therefore, request that there may be a 

 thorough reform in this department, reaching to the whole of its branches ; and that 

 every paper or package passing through it shall be made subject to the same uniform 

 rate of charge." 



