Miscellaneous. 



444 



(November, 1910. 



fertile fields and the pax Britannica 

 ensures to every man the enjoyment 

 of his possessions, but the people them- 

 selves have not changed— their ruling 

 passion is still to hoard their wealth in 

 a portable form and they still live 

 much as their forefathers did. The 

 main result of British rule has been a 

 startling increase in numbers rather 

 than a marked rise in the standard of 

 living. 



A striking commentory on this un- 

 proved charge against British administra- 

 tion is that in the five years ending with 

 April, 1908, the net imports of bullion into 

 India amounted to £92,287,000, nearly 

 the whole of which has gone to increase 

 native hoards of precious metal, that 

 still represent to the people the most 

 desirable form in which to accumulate 

 wealth, This, it must be remembered, 

 is in addition to the gold raised in India 

 itself, which amounted during the same 

 period to more than ten millions sterling. 

 For all practical purposes these hoards 

 are useless, save as an indication that 

 the material development of India under 

 foreign stimulus is really at a faster rate 

 than that at which the people are deriv- 

 ing benefit from it. 



What a capital expenditure of twenty 

 millions a year would effect in India 

 may be inferred from the fact that in a 

 single year it would furnish sufficient 

 capital to establish the whole of the 

 cotton mills of Bombay and of the jute 

 mills of Bengal, In a year and a half it 

 would provide the forty-four crores of 

 rupees which the Irrigation Commission 

 reported could be judiciously expended 

 by Government in bringing a further 

 six and a half million acres under 

 irrigation. It is five times the whole 

 amount annually spent on education — on 

 the education of an empire containing 

 three hundred million people — and it is 

 approximately equal to the land revenue 

 of the whole country and to the total 

 annual expenditure in the military 

 department. Surely, then, it cannot be 

 contended that when so large an amount 

 is put on one side every year and merely 

 hoarded, that the people are becoming 

 poorer ? Is it not rather fair to assume 

 that they are accumulating wealth faster 

 than they know how to use it ? 



Various estimates of the hoarded 

 wealth of India have been made but they 

 are all mere guesses and it would per- 

 haps be unwise to give further currency 

 to them ; it suffices for our purposes to 

 assume that the sum total is very large 

 and that it is enormously greater than 

 any possible demand that can be made 

 for generations to come for capital for 

 the development of the country. From 



an international point of view this hoard- 

 ing of gold in India is of great import- 

 ance in preventing an inconvenient de- 

 preciation of the monetary standards of 

 the world ; in time to come, when the 

 folly of the practice has been recognised, 

 the dispersal of these hoards may 

 be equally serviceable, in maintaining 

 equilibrium, if the productiveness of the 

 mines should fall short of the demands 

 of an ever increasing traffic and com- 

 merce. This service India renders to the 

 world at large and its people pay the 

 costs not grudgingly but with a cheerful 

 alacrity which is the outcome of extreme 

 simplicity. 



It must be remembered that this 

 hoarded wealth is very generally diffused 

 and it can only be rendered useful by 

 concentration in the hands of a com- 

 paratively small number of men who 

 are competent to assume the respon- 

 sibility of directing the enterprises 

 which can be started by returning it 

 into circulation. This implies the exist- 

 ence of an instinct for co-operative work- 

 ing that at present is but slightly 

 developed ; also a knowledge of and 

 desire to participate in the amenities of 

 life which our modern civilisation offers, 

 finally, what is in no way less important 

 than these, an intelligent comprehension 

 of the elementary principles of credit 

 and finance, without which it is im- 

 possible to create the feelings of security 

 and confidence which form the basis of 

 commerce and industrial enterprise. 



Need op Education. 

 It is only by educating the people that 

 any progress can be made in this 

 direction, and the efforts now being 

 made to extend primary education may 

 be viewed with intense satisfaction by 

 all who are interested in the welfare of 

 India ; but much more might be done 

 than has so far been attempted. In the 

 year 1907-1908 the total expenditure of 

 British India on education was £3,018,764 

 or slightly over four pence per head 

 of the population. This is not extravag- 

 ant, but in the native states it is even 

 less and if a rational system of education 

 can be devised to meet the requirements 

 of the people, it is certain that it would 

 be wise policy to increase very largely 

 the expenditure under this head as such 

 expenditure would greatly promote the 

 moral welfare and material well-being of 

 the people. The finances of India are 

 in a flourishing state, the incidence 

 ol taxation is light and the natural 

 growth of revanue is equal at any rate 

 to the demands upon it. This is due to 

 the excellence of the administration, 

 which exercises a most careful scrutiny 

 over the spending departments of Gov- 



