ApftiL 2, 1894.1 THE* TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
681 
baok to a native ruler — is governed on the 
moat modern and enlightened priuciplea. It haa 
a representative asaembly. It haa a Dewan, or 
Prime Minister, who seems to have the knaok of 
satisfying everybody, European or native. Yet 
still it is not happy. It haa always the fear of 
famine before its eyes. And the only way in 
whioh famine can be surely averted ia by diggini; 
very deep wells, so as to store the water which at 
certain times oomea down with something mere 
than plentifulness, but runs off or gets abaorbed, 
and is not always at hand when the thirsty grain 
or ooffee plant wants it. Of old, moreover, the 
natives used to hoard grain, after the mode of 
Joseph in Egypt. They hoard money today, and 
unhappily money does not always buy grain when 
grain is scarco. Yet they have mora money than 
ever, and there are plenty of railways, and more 
are being made, and there are more in projection, 
so that where money is, grain need not be far gH. 
.The reason there ia jnore money is the 
amount of wages that are distributed con- 
tinually, either by the mining companies or 
Jby the coffee planters, without any corre- 
sponding increase in the expenditure of the people, 
whose caste system binds them very generally to 
vegetarianism and teetotalism. With a wise and 
economical administration, there ought to be no 
difficulty in finding funds, under all the circum- 
stances, for the deaired deep wells. But the Go- 
vernment cannot do all at once, and, accoiding to 
Mr. Elliot, the reason private persona will not do 
it is because Mysore is prevented by the Indian 
Government from putting the land revenue on a 
fixed basis, for it is liable to a revision every 
thirty years. 
Indeed, there is a very great deal of food for 
thought in Mr. EUiot'a pages. He thinks things 
out for himself. He cannot do away with the Indian 
Oongress, but he evidently lovea the people he has 
so long lived amongst. He cries out not ao much 
against missionary work as against missionary 
work on the linea laid down by Bishop Wilson, 
whioh involve the renunciation of caste, and caste 
he regards, with Bishop Heber and others, 
as a Boeial arrangement with which Chris- 
tianity need not come into conflict. So long as 
converts have to give up caste they will always be 
the diega of the population, or hypocrites making a 
ch.-iDge of religion for the hope of worldly advantage. 
To all sorts and conditions of men this book ap- 
peals. But probably the greater number pf readers 
will relish best its sporting pages. Mr. filliot is a 
mighty hunter, and was Nimrod. His tales of 
great game and bow to encompass its death are 
stirring indeed. We must borrow from him at least 
one story, premising that very muoh better, though 
longer, ones remain behind. He bears willing 
witness to the pluck, readmess and endurance of 
the natives who took to the jungle with him, 
- many a time and oft, ocoasionally, alas, to meet 
the fate that, according to Hindu belief, is written 
on the forehead of every man that is born into the 
world, thougli we cannot read the invisible charac- 
ters — compare the f assage in Kcvelations about the 
elect. 0/ the nerve of some natives let this passage 
speak : — 
1 heivo alludej to nay seoood gnn-carrier on this 
oocasioii SB being a man who bad the greatest power 
of ronmiiiiiiu etiU under all circuuialauotH, out sliooliug, 
when it WDs neceaaary to do no, und 1 may alsj men- 
tiou thiit he wua a man who combined the greatest 
oooUicsi with the greatest aariug. Ho waa ol a Hindoo 
lieasaut family, entered my servicjasa workiuao.roso 
to bo a duffuilar or overseer, and tor many years has 
been head ovuraeeroD my coifou estates, and he is aa 
good as a pinutor aj he is as a shikari. loonld give 
many iustauces of his oool daring. On one oooasion ' 
a wounded tigress-it was the cold weather soa^on 
wheu every.hm;^ wasstill green about the edge, of he 
jUDg e-went rntoa raviue whioh was- flunked bv a 
fi^e feet high. The ualives 
looked at thiabed iato which the tigress h^d dul^ 
^^'1 . . and" one'^lf I'hl^ 
said, " How ia anyone 
go in herd ?" 
show you," said Kama Gouda" quiet 1^7 'and he/ioked 
Hut the 
np sevevera large atones, threw them iu.o the fern* 
and then plunge.l mto Ihem. I afterwards & 
he t.greflfl on foot .u the raviae, but of course he ran 
the risk ot c .mmg npoo it m the ferr 
coolest thiog 1 ever knew him to do 
n.auager of mi. e wanted to fire at a tigTr^, it 
approaching h,m It w.s iu the days of tl,e muzzTe- 
loa,ler.-, and as Kama Gouda knew that to "peik 
would be fatal, he cjuio ly but firmly put bo n hb 
fidgets OQ the caps when my manager repre^eot^i the 
guu at the iger, and kept tbem there 'till the ti^er 
had reached the proper point lor action. Theu he 
withdrew them, and ray manager killed the tte* U 
IS contrary to all rule, on account of the teaters 
10 hie at a t.ger till he has passed you aud aa the 
mauaicer and Rama Gouda «ere seated on the ground 
If. the tiger had been tired at face to face an accS 
might have occurred. Qa only one occasion did I 
ever lee him d.atuibed, and ttat was when he took 
up a position at a beat for big game. Precentlv he 
heard a h,s., and on looking roucd found a reare^d uo 
cobra about to strike at h s naked thigu. He gaCed 
himself by a jump on one side, but he showed by his 
eye when he mentioned the oircamstance that he had 
bten somewhat commoved. '"as uo naa 
Altognher Mr. Elliot ia in this part of his work 
a very charming companion. The chapter on Void 
abounds with practical hints, although the auK 
assures the reader he haa no gold interests what! 
ever. Naturally the chapters on coffea panting 
are the most minute in their details, and hf 
in ito dogmatism on questions whioh it doea not 
need a long residence in India to apprehend in 
many bearinga that do not come home to the often 
diSnt Ho°w' '"''i'." '^'^.'-'^'S^^our, dozsn m"es 
distant. However, there la no need for inuhnH,, 
to read Mr. Elliott's lucubrations further than Je 
cares to do, and we can declare there is enough 
and to spare without wading through the currency 
who, baing a Soot, is, of 
tiieories of the author 
course, born with a mission lor putting everybody 
right on faaano.al subjects. There is oL pasCe^ 
however in this section that we must quote 1 ' 
ihe Government proposes to impose, and will 
impose if it can force up the exohange: an expor 
tax (or what is practically an export tai) of ? pe^ 
"5' "^.'l'.:"^ '° be ultimately raised to 21 per cent! 
And we have now to follow out the effects of thi. 
on the producers, the peopl 3 generally and the financial 
prospeots of the State. The producers in India of 
articles for foreign exports either, as llie planters 
genera y do, send their products for sale to London 
or as the mam body of producers do, sell them to 
merchants who export the goods. Both these claesea 
of producers are of course much benefited by a low 
rite of exchange-the former when tbey sell in so\a 
and remit money to India to pay for the upkeep of 
their estates, and the latter when they find that th« 
uierchuut can afford to pay more rupees than thev oonia 
into fifteen rupees instead of 
sovereiga 
I. ■ , , ■ sixteen rupees, it ih 
obvious that t.. make the same piolit as before he 
must give the seller of produce ono rupee less. Now 
let me take the bnainess with which, as a planter 1 
am most f.milmr. I have roughly ostimate.l ihe total 
Iv'n^.nf/^*'/';"^ 'lV"°''-''y pi"duc€d iu Mjsora ta 
tb/OOOO, and il for the sake of even numbers we 
knock off l/O.OCO a 7 per cent . xport duty on this will 
amount to 150,000, and it ih.. (J..v> rM,uo.,t could lai^o 
aa it proposes the rufuu to l).<;i. x'iti.s.OOO a yum 
