128 HAPPY INDIA 



allowed the requisite sums of money, they would 

 soon make a very great change. It is not as if 

 India was a thinly populated country. There is 

 an enormous population, and many of the people 

 are only too glad to have some very poorly paid em- 

 ployment. If properly directed, the puddles could 

 be filled up, the broken pots and tins removed, 

 the banks of rivers, streams, canals and tanks made 

 straight, and petroleum could be put upon the 

 water where necessary. There are a great many 

 swamps and ponds which serve no good purpose. 

 They are not required for the water supply ; they 

 do not supply fish to any people, nor serve any other 

 purpose of use to the community. And yet these 

 swamps and ponds may breed a great many mos- 

 quitoes. If the swamps and ponds are far away from 

 human habitation, they may to a great extent be 

 neglected as not likely to do any harm, but, on the 

 other hand, it has been noticed for thousands of 

 years that malaria is found in swampy districts. 



In the construction of a railway it is frequently 

 necessary to make an embankment, and the material 

 for the embankment is often got by the excavation 

 of ground beside the railway. These excavations 

 become full of water, and may make capital breeding- 

 places for mosquitoes, and therefore they should be 

 drained or filled up. It is very easy, of course, to say 

 that, but where is the material to fill them up ? They 

 were made in order to get the material to make the 

 railway embankment. Nevertheless, a little labour 

 may cut down the steep banks into gentle slopes, 



