1878.] 
Famines in India . 
445 
that expenditure incurred for the purpose will be directly 
remunerative ; but then, also, neither are roads ; and the 
arguments that are used in favour of spending money on 
the latter class of works apply also to the former. Means 
of communication in a country is the first necessity for the 
introduction of civilisation, which almost naturally follows 
upon the free communication and interchange of goods and 
ideas between people. As civilisation becomes more ad- 
vanced, improved means of communication are demanded, 
and have to be supplied. In India, Western civilisation and 
Indian semi-barbarism meet, and the requirements of the 
latter are being supplied upon a scale calculated by the 
experiences of the former ; and an advanced form of civili- 
sation, in the shape of communications, is thus being forced 
upon a people not yet educated up to the extent of their 
country’s requirements. Nevertheless, railways may be 
said to have proved not only a decided success in India, but 
an absolute necessity in times of famine. No other means 
of transport could have possibly met the recent requirements 
of Southern India; and the experience gained during the 
past two years, as to the value of the iron road, may be 
expected to lead, in the immediate future, to a large exten- 
sion of the railway systems in that country. What neither 
navigable channels nor country roads could have accom- 
plished has been done by railways, and the immense amount 
of food which they have been instrumental in conveying 
into the famine-stricken districts has proved the means of 
saving, probably, some millions of people from starvation. 
It is, therefore, by the judicious extension of railways, pri- 
marily, that the principal movements of food will for the 
future be conduced, and by maintaining an even balance— 
as might be done — between supply and demand, the onerous 
pressure of famine prices, as they have heretofore been ex- 
perienced in seasons of drought, should be greatly mitigated, 
and the occurrence of aCtual local famine be rendered im- 
possible. 
But although a perfect system of communications would 
thus render absolute famine — such as has been hitherto 
common in India — impossible, it would contribute nothing 
towards the avoidance of drought, and the consequent 
failure of crops. There can, however, be no doubt that, by 
an improvement in the present system of cultivation, much 
might be done towards rendering the crops less liable to 
total destruction in seasons of deficient rainfall, and enabling 
them better to withstand the effects of drought. Under 
existing circumstances the contrary appears at present to be 
