INDIA. 



393 



lows: " While the Government desires to make 

 every effort, so far as the resources of the state 

 will admit, to prevent deaths from famine, it 

 considers it absolutely necessary, in the present 

 condition of the finances, to practise the most 

 severe economy. It admits that the task of 

 saving life, irrespective of cost, is beyond its 

 power ; and that to relieve all the constantly 

 recurring famines of India on the scale adopted 

 in Behar three years ago must inevitably lead 

 to national bankruptcy." After laying down 

 these general principles, the Government de- 

 termined to give Sir E. Temple directions for 



relief operations, based on the experience of 

 past famines. The people should, as far as 

 possible, be collected on large relief works, so 

 as to admit of close supervision. A strict 

 labor test should be applied ; wages should be 

 only such as will give a bare subsistence. Gra- 

 tuitous relief should be given only in cases of 

 extreme necessity. The relief works need not 

 be in the distressed districts, if the people can 

 be easily removed to a place where food is 

 more abundant. Private trade in grain should 

 aot be interfered with. The Madras Govern- 

 ment is censured for having, at the beginning 



THE PRESIDENCY COLLEGE, MADRAS. 



of the scarcity, purchased 30,000 tons of grain. 

 The Supreme Government believes such oper- 

 ations calculated to increase the difficulty of 

 procuring a food-supply, and it is confident 

 that private trade, if left perfectly unfettered, 

 may be counted on to supply the wants of both 

 Presidencies. The dispatch concluded by lay- 

 ing down a general rule that every province 

 ought, as far as it might be practicable, to bo 

 held responsible for meeting the cost of the 

 famines from which it might suffer, and that 

 the burden should not fall on the general tax- 

 payers. By the middle of February, the nu- 

 merous dispatches from the Supreme and the 

 local Governments, together with the reports 

 of Sir R. Temple, gave a complete picture of 

 the terrible calamity. Besides the large por- 

 tions of Bombay and Madras, the territories of 

 the Nizam and of the Maharajah of Mysore 

 were seriously affected. On the distress in 

 the territory of the Nizam, Sir R. Temple re- 

 ported a? follows : 



Out of the 17 districts which compose the domin- 

 ions of his Highness the Nizam, tnere has been a 

 bad failure of harvests in parts of 6 only. The fail- 

 ure has been most utter in the Alpur subdivision of 

 East Raichore ; there no crop whatever was saved 

 this season. In the rest of the distressed tracts it 

 is estimated that a yield of about one-sixth of an or- 

 dinary crop has been secured. In tracts adjoining 

 the distressed districts the harvests have not been 



so good as usual ; but over the rest of the country 

 the harvests have been fair; while in the districts 

 north of Hyderabad there have been decidedly 

 good crops. The harvests of the two previous years 

 had been good throughout the country, save in one 

 comparatively small tract, just where the present 

 failure is worst. Stocks are probably considerable. 

 The Be venue Secretary estimated that there must 

 be quite a year's food i'u the country. 



In Mysore, the Government reported that 

 nearly two-thirds of the whole area, and one- 

 half the population of the provinces, were 

 affected. Large numbers of people from the 

 surrounding villages flocked to the city of Ma- 

 dras, where eight relief camps were establish- 

 ed, and thousands of people were fed entirely 

 at the public expense. As soon as they were 

 strong enough to work, they were sent to 

 other camps outside the city, and set to work. 

 In the city smallpox and cholera set in in 

 March, and produced a terrible mortality. A 

 sign of the severity with which the famine was 

 pressing on the people was the amount of jew- 

 elry and personal ornaments tendered for sale 

 at the Presidency Mint. The value of silver 

 ornaments tendered from January to October, 

 1876, averaged from 300 to 600 monthly, 

 and this rose in November to over 6,000. In 

 May, 1877, it had reached the enormous figure 

 of 80,000. In the beginning of August, a 

 large meeting was held in Madras, in which it 



