EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 



39 



The death took place on Sunday, at his residence, Leek, Stafford- 

 shire, of Sir Thomas Wardle, President of the Silk Association of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, who was widely known as one of the 

 greatest authorities of the day on all phases of sericulture and all 

 branches of silk manufacture. 



At the instance of Sir George Birdwood, who had been the first 

 to call attention to the great possibilities of the commercial utilization 

 of Indian tusser, the Secretary of State for India sent Wardle out in 

 1885 to report on sericulture in Bengal, and to collect typical silks 

 from various parts of the country for the then approaching Colonial 

 and Indian Exhibition at Earl's Court. This was the first of several 

 visits to the Eastern Dependency, followed by reports and recom- 

 mendations which contributed substantially to improve the methods 

 of sericulture and to the growth of this branch of Indian trade. 

 Sir T. Wardle' s most conspicuous service in this respect was the 

 revival of the industry in the valley of Kashmir. The industry was 

 of ancient standing, but had fallen into neglect, and successive 

 epidemics among the silkworms threatened it with complete de- 

 struction. It is not too much to say that in the early nineties this 

 fate could not have been averted had not Sir Walter (then Mr.) Law- 

 rence taken up the matter in his capacity as Settlement Officer of the 

 State. Subsequently the subject came to the notice of Sir George 

 Birdwood, and it was upon his initiative that Sir T. Wardle went out 

 to Kashmir as expert adviser to the Durbar. How innumerable 

 difficulties were overcome, and how a moribund industry was placed 

 upon a footing of prosperity such as it had never before experienced, 

 is told in detail in Sir T. Wardle's 1 Kashmir and its New Silk Industry ' 

 (1904), in which he was able to state that sericulture, besides giving 

 employment to large numbers of villagers in the " Happy Valley," 

 brought the State Durbar a revenue of from £90,000 to £100,000 per 

 annum. Sir Thomas had paid a further visit to Kashmir a few 

 months before the book appeared, and had given advice as to the silk- 

 weaving possibilities of the country. 



Sir Thomas Wardle was nearing the completion of his seventy- 

 eighth year, having been born at Leek on Jan. 26th, 1831. — The 

 Times, Jan. 5th, 1909. 



An incident, which appears to confirm the theory that Partridges 

 migrate, occurred at Margate this week. A large number of birds, 

 which turned out to be French Partridges, were seen crossing the 

 English Channel and approaching Margate. Upon reaching land 



