164 C. W. ODLING^ ESQ., M.INST.C.E., C.S.I., ON 



There are certain parts of India, Eastern Bengal for example, 

 where this standard is always reached, as the rainfall is invariably 

 sufficient to mature the crops. But there are parts of 

 India where a percepti]3le proportion of the population is 

 always on the verge of starvation, and where actual distress 

 follows a deficiency of rainfall. Irrigation will do much to 

 remedy this inequality. It is not a panacea for all evils, and 

 there are parts of the country where any irrigation schemes 

 are quite inipracticable. The necessities of life are few and 

 simple in such a cUmate, and in those parts where the means 

 of earning the little required to procure them can be made 

 secure, I know no country where the mass of the people live 

 in greater comfort. Railways have done much to render 

 famines, like those of old, impossible ; great industries like 

 those connected with tea, mines, jute, indigo, and other articles 

 have done something to provide employment for the popu- 

 lation, who have, in parts of the country, multiplied beyond the 

 power of the soil to support all. There are large tracts of the 

 country still awaiting cultivation, and it is to be hoped that 

 with the freer means of communication, the people will be less 

 reluctant to change their domicile. This is to some extent 

 already happening, as large numbers of labourers Imve migrated 

 to the tea districts and mines, whilst a beginning has been 

 made in colonizing the waste lands of Burmah. It would not 

 be right in this paper to omit to refer to the marvellous 

 effect irrigation canals have had on the wild frontier tribes, 

 wliose constant fighting seems to be partly due to want of 

 sufficient occupation. The Swat Canals, near Peshawar, may 

 be taken as an example. They were constructed with armed 

 guards protecting the work-people, and ever since their 

 construction have been the scene of murderous conflicts. They 

 have, however, turned a tribe of marauders into a prosperous 

 agricultural community. The same result has followed the 

 construction of canals in Beluchistan and elsewhere on the 

 frontier. 



My paper has dwelt exclusively with the material wants 

 of the country, the other and not less important spiritual 

 wants, which are more commonly the themes under con- 

 sideration at this Institute, I leave to other hands, merely 

 mentioning them here, to show that they have not been 

 forgotten. 



