98
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 30 MARCH, 1861.
are presented to us, so clear in outline and so vivid in coloring, that none who look on them are likely to refuse to the sufferers their earnest sympathies, and, if need be, their abundant help.
Excepting only in the narrow tracts of country lying under the shadow of the Himmalayas, and having their climatic condition influenced by the vicinity of the mountains, there has been no rain crop from lands naturally irrigated. It is only where artificial irrigation from wells, tanks, or canals is procurable that any food-grains have been raised for man or best. Scores of niles of country are spoken of, which present no green spots to the eye, save here and there a few sickly patches of stunted wheat, living feebly on the limited water supply that is available, and promissing a harvest that will be but mockery to a people perishing of hunger. The cold-weather crop, the great food crop of the Provinces, has not been even sown in these stricken Districts, except under the influence of artificial irrigation. The aspect of the country generally was described, so far back as the end of November last, as that of vast arid plains, where the soil has been baked to the hardness of iron, and where all agricultural effort is paralysed. Whole villages are said to be migrating to less desolate territories. The last extremity of all, death by starvation, has not been unknown. "His Houor has traversed the Doab diagonally," says the official report, "from Anoopshuhur to Muttra; the Commissioner has traveled through it from Meerut to the South-Western boundary of the "Division, secing everywhere the same unmitigated state of drought." And if this was the condition of things on the 16th of November last, it is scarcely necessary to say that the lapse of six runless weeks between that thue and this must have intensified deplorably the misery of the people. Even those Christmas rains which usually make the season one of security and gladness to the native, almost as much as to the European in the North-West, have this year utterly failed. There is now not a hope of mitigation from ordinary or natural sources to brighten the gloomy prospect that lies before us. Under these circumstances it seems to us desirable that we should make some endeavor to measure the true magnitude of the calamity. There is as much danger in exaggerating as in underrating it, and although it is undeniable that all data available for tho investigation of the subject are liable to some doubts, it is still practicable to arrive at conclusions that will be of the highest value in directing our future course.
It is very important to note, first, that the Famine is, correctly speaking, a local one. Its range is no doubt large, and the population it affects is numerous enough to make the difficulty of saving then from starvation most grave and formidable. Still it is unquestionable that the famine-stricken area is small in comparison with that of the Districts adjoining it, whence surplus grain may be attracted by farine prices. Hence, we would hope for an effective palliative from, that source. But all foolish interference on the part of ill-informed local officers, with the natural flow of trade under conditions like those we have · to deal with, must be peremptorily checked. Such interference can have no other result than to aggravate the horrors of Famine, while it inflicts a grievous injustice and wrong on the farmers and traders of the protected Districts, by depriving them of most profitable markets. So far as perfectly reliable information is as yet before us, we conclude that the Famine is restricted in its greatest intensity to the Districts of Seharunpore, Mozuffernuggur, Meerut and Boobandshuhur, East of the Jumma, and Muttra, Westward of that river. Future experience probably will extend the range of the Famine, but for the moment, at any rate, the above are the only Districts in which its pressure is such as to have elicited official reports or to have required active measures to lighten it. To these Districts, therefore, we request attention, and primarily to the extent of their population. The following Abstract will serve to give a sufficiently accurate conception of this for all practical purposes:---
Seharunpore Mozaffernnggur
Meerut.
Boolundshuhur.
Allyghur
Muttra
Agricul-
tural.
Non-Agri- cultural.
Total.
.400,000
130,000
530,000
.210,000
300,000
540,000
.300,000
460,000
850,000
.350,000
345,000
695,000
340,000
400,000
740,000
.300,000
340,000
700,000
1,975,000
4,055,000
Total....2,080,000
Although the statistics of the North-West Provinces may not be perfectly reliable, we shall not be far from the truth in assuming that the six famine-struck Districts contain a population of about 4 millions, distributed in very nearly equal parts between the agricultural and non-agricultural classes. It is on the 2 millions forming the first mentioned class that the cala- mity will fall with its most disastrous force, but no such great convulsion as is implied in their misery can possibly occur, without producing the most serious distress among the traders and artisans of the towns and villages, who form the man sections of the non-agricultural class. Hundreds of bonds link the two classes together in intimate union, and their adversity, like their prosperity, must be a common fortune. Hence, we must expect that the suffering masses will be largely supplied from sections of the community, not directly dependent on the land.
But a considerable deduction must be made on account of the population of those parts of the Districts where artificial irrigation is sufficiently abundant to save the crops. After full consideration of this point, we believe that about three-fourths of a million will fairly represent this fortunate section of the community. Further deductions must be made on account of persons having independent resources, of the number who will manage to subsist on reduced means and avoid absolute destitu- tion, for emigrants who will leave the Districts, and for those who, on many miscellaneous grounds, may be preserved from the necessity of appealing to public charity, Making, however, the largest and most liberal allowance for these numbers, it is im- possible to conceive that they can exceed from about 1 to 1 millions in all the Districts together. We fear much, that in assuming these figures to represent the aggregate of the classes capable of self-support, we present too favorable a picture of the possibilities of the case, but taking even the highest, we come to the terrible conclusion, that in a very short time hence- perhaps in a month or six weeks-we shall have, at the very least, a million and a half of men, women and children, between whom and death there will stand nothing, but the helping hand of human charity.
What resources are available to meet this sad demand upon us? All the suffering Districts, except Muttra, are traversed by canals of irrigation. Seharunpore, Mozuffernuggur and Meerut are, in this respect, doubly fortunate, since on one side they are watered by the Eastern Junina Canal and on the other by the Ganges Canal. Boolandshubur and Allyghur are par- tially irrigated from the Ganges Canal only. The rivers supplying these Canals are, however, in a sensible degree, affected by the drought, and it is sometimes a matter of difficulty to fill them. The Lieutenant-Governor laments, that the failure of the Ganges Canal supply at the most critical period of the rain crop should have aggravated the general misfortune; but, for the cold weather crop, the supply is as abundant as it is possible to admit with safety into the channel. The supply of Eastern Jumna Canal has been continuous, both for the rain and cold weather crops. Whatever therefore of alleviation can be given at the present time from canal irrigation, must be attributable to the Eastern Junina Canal only, and it will not be before the very end of March, or beginning of April next, that the influence of the harvest saved by the Ganges Canal can be felt in the markets. The food-grains of the rain crops saved by irrigation from the Eastern Junna Canal must have amounted to about a million of maunds, of which about 700,000 would be reserved for feeding the population of the Canal Districts, while surplus produce to the extent of 300,000 maunds will have been made available for export, and would realise at present Famine rates about a million and a half sterling.
It will give a more complete view however of the Palliatives to be found in these Canal works, if we take their action for a complete year. The last is the best we can have, as its results must have influenced very materially the present state of affairs. In 1859-60, the produce of food-grains, from lands watered by the Eastern Jumna Canal, was, we are informed, in round numbers, about 24 millions of inaunds. Of this quantity about 1 millions must have been required for local consump-