68 



37^5 Neilgherry Mouniains. 



[No. 



parents as small as possible, while, at the same time, the best system 

 of education should be adopted in the establishment; but, owing to 

 pecuniary difficulties, this excellent scheme remains for the present 

 in abeyance. 



Charitable Institutions. Excepting the Government hospital and the 

 dispensary, there is no charitable institution^ 

 properly so called, on the Hills. There is an association amongst the 

 European residents of the cantonment, for granting out-door relief to 

 aged and indigent poor, who attend daily at the door of the church 

 to receive it in the form of food, money, or clothing ; but there is no 

 establishment into which paupers are received and sheltered. The 

 public choultry or caravanserai is intended more for the accommo- 

 dation of travellers and market men from below, than for a refuge for 

 ihe sick and poor. 



The hospital is in charge of the senior medical officer, but, owing 

 to the prejudice which exists amongst the natives against such an 

 institution, a patient is very seldom received within its walls. 



state of litigation and The" most fruitful sources of litigation are 

 "^'^^™^' disputes about boundaries of land, trespassing 



of cattle, and adverse claims to the right of water from particular 

 channels. 



These, especially in the cantonment, run very high at times ; but 

 it is to be hoped that the permanent fixing of all boundaries by means 

 of the present survey, will put an end to these difficulties in a great 

 measure. 



Crime is certainly not common on these Hills ; as bej-ond cases of 

 petty theft, and these for the most part confined to the cantonment, 

 the general criminal calendar is a very light one. Murders have 

 been committed, and possibly are so still, at rare intervals, upon the 

 persons of unfortunate Coorumburs, accused of witchcraft, both by 

 Surghers andTodars; but as such deeds are generally massacres 

 perpetrated by a whole village, it has frequently been found impossi- 

 ble to trace the actual murderers. Upon the whole it must be ad- 

 mitted, that in spite of their proneness to lying and dissimulation, all 

 the tribes inhabiting these Hills are free from the stain of serious 

 crimes. Drunkenness and violence are unknown amongst them, and 

 in this respect they offer a striking contrast to the other native resi- 

 dents, whO; both Malabars, Mysorians, and other emigrants from the 



