STATISTICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 315 



separate plan. It became apparent that vast sums of money would 

 be expended, while considerable uncertainty existed as to the 

 results. In the meantime, the Royal Asiatic Society pointed out 

 that when the local accounts came to be digested, there would be 

 no basis for comparative statistics, and much " of the original work 

 " \\ r ould have to be gone over again cle novo." This opinion was 

 shared by the Governor- General in Council, and Mr. Hunter was 

 directed to visit the various local governments and " submit a 

 " comprehensive scheme for utilizing the information already col- 

 " lected, for prescribing the principles, and for the consolidation 

 " into one work of the whole of the materials that may be 

 '•" available." The previous efforts were reviewed by the Viceroy 

 in a resolution dated 8th September 1871, the weak point being 

 shown to be the absence of a central organization, and the want of 

 a settled plan. 



Mr. Hunter's scheme was submitted to the Governor- General in 

 Council in 1869,* and received the approval of the Government, 

 who further secured for the execution of the design the supervision 

 of the designer. Mr. Hunter, who had been attached to the Bengal 

 Secretariat, and acted as Under Secretary to the Supreme Govern- 

 ment, was appointed Director-General of Statistics with a view- 

 to the construction and execution of a Statistical Survey of 

 India. The object of the undertaking was to provide a 

 storehouse of statistical information for the controlling body, for 

 administrators in India and for the public, and the operations were 

 to extend over ten separate Governments, which, with their 

 Feudatory States administer a territory '1,500,000 square miles, and 

 govern a population then estimated at 200,000,000 souls, but since 

 found to be at least 255,000,000. Roughly speaking, this area and 

 population may be likened to those of all Europe, excepting Russia. 

 With the view of uniformity in the supply of materials, Mr. Hunter 

 drew up six series of leading questions, illustrating the topo- 

 graphical, ethnical, agricultural, industrial, administrative, and 

 medical aspects of an Indian district. These served as a basis for 

 the statistical survey throughout India. In this way the unpaid 

 co-operation of the administrative staff throughout the 240 districts 

 of India was enlisted, the best local knowledge was brought to 



* Plan for a Statistical Survey and an Imperial Gazetteer of India. Printed at the 

 Home Secretariat Press, Calcutta, 144 pp., folio, 1870. 



