294 



MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTfaCT. 



Committee 

 of inquiry 

 appointed. 



CHAP. xn. was evidently viewed vi^itb doubtful favor by the Court of 

 Recent Directors,, and about six months before he resigned office that 

 History, eminently frugal and cautious body of rulers addressed a 

 despatch to the Madras Government, asking for more definite 

 information than had yet been given of the advantages which 

 had attended the occupation of the Hills. They desired to know 

 the number of houses, their cost ; the names of owners and 

 occupiers ; past and present cost of establishments, and a list 

 thereof ; also to be furnished with a medical report ; and ordered 

 all correspondence on the subject of the Hills to be submitted to 

 them. The Government, however, seem to have been forewarned ; 

 for in July, whilst the despatch was on its way, a Committee 

 was appointed by Government to investigate the expenditure 

 hitherto incurred, and that still necessai'y, on buildings, roads, and 

 bridges, and the prospects of the Hills. The report of this 

 Committee, which was composed of Major Strahan, Deputy 

 Quartermaster-General, Major Hutchins, Adjutant-General, and 

 Captain Eastment, who succeeded Major Kelso as Comman- 

 dant of the Nilagiris, was submitted on the 10th August 1832, and 

 contains much valuable information. The Committee enter at 

 some length into the subject of the experimental farm established 

 at Kaity Valley in April 1830, referred to in the chapter on 

 agriculture ; they recommend the employment of prisoners from 

 Malabar on the Hills ; they support Major Crewe's scheme ^ for 

 encouraging colonization, having no hesitation in giving their 

 opinion that cultivation might be carried to a very great extent, 

 and remarking that " the flourishing appearance of the fields of 

 grain around the small villages of the native Burghers prove the 

 excellence of the soil, and the many flowing and unceasing 

 streams of water from springs on the hills ensure constant 

 irrigation during the driest parts of the season, and when the 

 pei'iodical rains may be scanty ','' they recommend that great care 

 should be taken in fixing the boundaries of lands g-ranted to 

 settlers and builders, and that the borders of the lake should be 

 kept free from encroachment; they urge the desirability of 

 forming an establishment for breeding cattle for the public service 

 and supply of " salted provisions for the use of His Majesty^s 

 Navy," having observed " the herds of fine cattle belonging to 

 the pastoral tribes." They then proceed to report on the pubHc 

 buildings, having " the advantage of the attendance of Lieutenant 

 Pears,^ of the corps of Engineers." The buildings detailed are 

 St. Stephen's Church, the Convalescent Depot, Southdowns, the 

 Public Quarters, the Native Barracks, the Choultry, the Lock 

 Hospital, and the Public Bazaar, portions of which they think 



' See Appendix VI, Baikie, 1st Edition. 

 ^ Now General Thomaa Pears, R.E. 



