1837.3 



or Putney Mountains, 



285 



the people is no doubt attributable, the cost of conveying their goods to 

 market absorbing so large^a proportion of their price that but little 

 profit can come to the sellers. * 



The accompanying tables, one supposes to have been prepared about 

 1820, but without date, the other in 1836\ show, that in these 16 years 

 the population has diminished more than a half^ I believe without any- 

 other assignable cause than emigration, induced by poverty and want na- 

 turally resulting from the obstacles to improvement inherent in the 

 character of the country itself, when not only not counteracted by- 

 artificial means, but increased by the abstraction, in the form of taxes, 

 of the small amount of capital which finds its way there. 



Believing it to be the wish of government both to preserve, and to 

 ameliorate the condition of, this interesting portion of the population, 

 as well as to extend the benefits which may be expected to flow from 

 the possession of a tract of country so large and centrically situated, 

 enjoying a climate widely different from that by which it is surrounded, 

 and fitted thereby for the production of so many articles not indigenous 

 to India, but the possession of which might prove of great impor- 

 tance : I shall take the liberty of offering a few suggestions for its 

 improvement, the result of my observations while there, which may, 

 if considered worthy of adoption, be the means of restoring the moiety 

 of the population it has lost, and tend to enhance the value of the 

 district they inhabit to the country at large. 



In attempting to ameliorate the condition of the hill population, two 

 plans suggest themselves : the first and most obvious, and the one ap- 

 parently most likely to produce a speedy effect is, to relieve the people 

 of their taxes for a given number of years, until it is supposed they will 

 have accumulated the means of paying them without inconvenience. 

 This, however, is not the one which presents itself to me as the best. I 

 object to such a plan, on the ground that what was first received as a 

 boon might afterwards be claimed as a right, giving rise to much trou- 

 ble and inconvenience in the re-establishment on the part of the sircar 

 of his original rights, and causing heavy discontent among the inhabi- 

 tants j while it is probable, the money so given would be squandered in 

 place of being employed in the manner intended. I would further ob- 

 ject to this plan, on the ground that no part of the money, so withdrawn 

 from the treasury, would be devoted to the improvement of the country 

 and roads, the object, of all others, most wanted. A third objection is, 

 that it might prove a premium to emigration from the plains, causing a 

 further loss to the state of the labour of the emigrants in a tax-paying 

 district. Opposed as it is, by such weighty objections, this plan can- 

 not be entertained for a moment. The second is, to devote the 

 revenue of the hills to their improvement, by which much good 

 may in a few years be accomplished at a very small cost j and that 



