THE SUPPLY TO THE AIADRAS PRESIDENCY. 93 



This system is advantageous both to the Government and the lessee. 

 Should the hunt be unsuccessful the former is not saddled with a money- 

 payment, whilst any really valuable tuskers, over eight and a half feet higli, 

 fall to his share. On the Government's part, the entire expenses of the 

 kheddah are borne by the lessee, so no loss can be sustained. Should Gov- 

 ernment give any assistance in tame elephants for securing the captives 

 when impounded, ten per cent of the latter are taken as remuneration. 



The supply of elephants to Government must always be kept up by 

 kheddahs and the licence system. The figure for which they are now cap- 

 tured need probably never be exceeded. The outer market is not likely to 

 become easier, as, though the demand will decrease to some extent as the 

 less wealthy native notables, and a few Europeans who keep elephants for 

 sport, must curtail their studs to the ability of their pockets, the supply has 

 decreased in a disproportionate degree owing to restrictions in hunting. An 

 elephant which costs Government £40 to capture would cost at least £150 

 in the market. 



The Madras Government is entirely dependent for its supply of ele- 

 phants on Burmah, as there is no Government catching-establishment in 

 the Presidency, as in Bengal, and the immense number of elephants roaming 

 the Madras forests is turned to no account. The elephants are shipped 

 from Moulmein to Coconada in vessels specially chartered for the purpose. 

 A batch of about 60, imported eight years ago, cost £176 eacli when 

 landed. Prices have risen since. The Collector of Coimbatore, a district 

 of Madras, commenced elephant-catching in 1874, upon the plan adopted in 

 Mysore, and between 1874 and 1877 captured 76 elephants, but the cost 

 has been so great (about £13,000), and so many have died, that the scheme 

 has been a financial failure. The idea, however, is a move in the riglit 

 direction. The experiment has necessarily cost proportionately more than 

 further operations need cost. It is evidently inexpedient that a distant 

 market should be trusted to, in which prices are rising fast, and must continue 

 to rise, whilst the jungles of the Madras Presidency abound with elephants. 

 A catching-establishment cannot be got into order in a day, nor by the 

 isolated eftbrts of one officer. The Dacca establishment has been workino' 

 in one form or other since the beginning of the century. If the Madras 

 Government is convinced of the necessity of keeping up its present stud of 

 elephants — a matter admitting of much consideration, now that good roads, 

 railways, and the settled state of the country have modified the former 

 military requirements — it would seem to be a matter deserving of con- 

 sideration wliether the Commissariat requirements in elephants cannot be 

 met from local sources. A fallacious idea that the Madras elephants are 



