gation of famine in the future and its relief when present, and reduced to system and order the individual attempts made in different provinces to solve the problems that had presented themselves in the course of recent famines. It would be difficult, and, indeed, of little use for me to enumerate any of the measures taken before this date, and although something had been done in previous years, I shall confine myself to a brief review of the action which has been taken since the policy of the government was definitely declared.

In a recent paper read before the British Society of Arts by Sir Charles Elliott, K.C.S.I., the greatest living authority on Indian famine administration, who was himself Secretary to the Famine Commission of 1877-8, on the subject of the measures taken by government for the prevention of famine in India, he summarized the recommendations of the Famine Commission under three heads, which I propose to adopt for the purposes of this sketch, slightly altering the order in which he placed them. They are:

(1) Indirect general measures, to be taken for the prevention and relief of famine in the accumulation of agricultural and statistical information, the organization of the establishment that will carry out relief measures, the development of the resources of the country, and the strengthening of the people to meet it.

(2) Direct measures, to be taken for the protection or relief of definite tracts.

(3) The action to be taken to relieve distress when the country is actually visited by famine.

Any complete review of the action that has been taken to carry out the recommendations of the commission under the first head would be strange reading to the average western agriculturist, accustomed as he is to the workings of an expensive and elaborately organized agricultural bureau. But it would explain to him, perhaps more clearly than anything else, the difficulties under which we labour in India, owing to the rigid economy that the poverty of the mass of the taxpayers imposes on the administration, and the want of educated intelligence on the part of those in whose interests we are working. It would

even include a dissertation on the primary education necessary as a prelude to the moral development of the people, by means of which they would gradually absorb lessons of thrift, union and self-reliance; and our Indian administrators do not lose sight of this important point, which is acknowledged by them all as the foundation on which all their measures must be based if they are to secure ultimate success. It would also include a description of the foundation of our Agricultural Department, the gradual increase of its powers and responsibilities, and an account of the action taken to survey the country in detail, and record the land held by each person, the crops he grows, his rights and responsibilities. The legislation of the past ten years for the declaration and maintenance of the rights of tenants against oppressive landlords, for the establishment of fixity of tenure, free sale and fair rent, and to assist the poorest cultivators to migrate from over-populated districts to those in which there is land to be had for the asking, would also come under review, together with many other measures connected with the general administration of the country which bear indirectly on the important question of the protection of the country from famine. And this question would be found to be the mainspring of most of the activity that has been shown of recent years in fostering the spread of the tea, jute, indigo, silk and cotton industries, and the encouragement that has been offered in various ways for the investment of capital in Indian trade.

Without attempting, however, to enter on such an extensive field, it will be sufficient to note the progress actually made in one or two directions, and to remark with regard to the other indirect means of protecting the country from the scourge of such distress, that they in no way escape consideration, and that they also advance as fast as the limitations of Indian administrative work will allow.

In the matter of agricultural statistics, in which such a notable example is given us by the Bureau at Washington, we have made very great progress in the past 12 or 15 years. It has been fully realized now, though at a somewhat late hour, that the secret of successful famine administration lies in the receipt of due warning, which will enable the administrator to make all

his preparations for the mitigation of distress before the pressure of that distress is upon him. Much has been done, consequently, to improve the efficiency of the Meteorological Department, and to secure a proper record of rainfall, with reports to central offices, in all parts of the country. With the assistance of this department the government has frequently been able to forecast the advance and character of the important southwest monsoon currents and the probable termination of the rain brought by them, and also to institute the most valuable comparisons between the meteorological statistics of different years.

Considerable progress has also been made in the detailed survey of the whole country on the scale of 16 inches to the mile, the survey being accompanied in all cases by the compilation of a record of the crops grown, the tenures and rights of the holders and the rent paid, with other similar details. Of recent years this work has not been confined to those areas only in which the land revenue is only temporarily settled, and where it is required as a preliminary to the re-settlement of the revenue, but has also been extended, in the interests of all parties concerned, to large areas in which the land revenue has long since been permanently settled, and where it is required for the proper settlement and regulation of the relations between landlord and tenant, and also for the information of the administration. And it has been recognized that the greatest value of these cadastral surveys in some of the more backward districts in India lies in their efficiency as an educational agency. They have done much to facilitate the introduction of many important agricultural and other reforms by strengthening the lower classes of tenants in their rights and teaching them something of their responsibilities, and also by removing something of the suspicious prejudice which has hitherto been attached to all government proposals, the ultimate benefits of which were not to them immediately discernible.

Much importance has been rightly attached, by the more farsighted of Indian statesmen, to the recent foundation of the Agricultural Department, and to the action taken by the various branches of that department to secure greater complete

ness and accuracy in the matter of agricultural statistics, and to introduce reforms in the methods of agriculture practiced by the native landholders, and in the food-producing power of the crops grown by them. The stern rule of the Financial Department, all powerful in these days of a depreciated rupee, of costly and inevitable frontier expeditions, and of reductions of revenue through failure of the crops, has stood in the way of rapid progress in these matters, and most of the purely agricultural work of the new departments has scarcely yet passed beyond the stage of experiment, but it is hoped that some substantial benefits will soon be secured to future generations by the introduction to the country, through these departments, of new food crops, new fodder grasses, new fruit-bearing trees and new fibre plants. The improvement of agricultural implements, the adoption of air-motors for irrigation and other purposes, and the adaptation of the labour and time-saving machinery of the west to the needs and the poverty of India are also under active and fruitful consideration. There are now local branches of the central agricultural department attached to every province owning a separate local government or administration, and these branches are being gradually strengthened, as financial exigencies permit, by the addition of expert agriculturists to their staff, and by increasing the local agencies on which they depend for information and to carry out their experiments or educational demonstrations. Before many years are out we hope to have an agricultural expert permanently added to the administration staff of every district forming the unit of administration within the provinces, and to have agricultural science introduced as an item in the curriculum of every elementary school.

And from the action, small as it is, that we have already taken, it will be seen that we have been warned by the experiences of our own and other countries to protect our scanty funds from costly experiments and expensive fads. The advice of experts has been called for in all cases in which any large outlay has been contemplated, and all experiments are being, as far as possible, conducted on a strictly utilitarian basis, and with the sole object of improving the position of the poorer classes

among the cultivators. Our Agricultural Departments have accordingly come in for less of the chaffing criticism that is so commonly the lot of their kind, and, although their paths are beset by many peculiar difficulties, they have made fewer blunders than might reasonably have been expected of them.

Turning next to the more direct measures that have been taken for the protection of definite tracts from famine or for their preparation for it, we need not specify more than three of the principal heads:

(a) Financial preparation.

(b) The extension of artificial irrigation.

The extension of railways.

I have introduced the first of these heads in order that I may refer briefly to the action that has been taken by government to provide directly for the extra expenditure incurred on famine relief in lean years, by a steady appropriation of funds during the rich years that may precede them, and this action has been clearly described by Sir Charles Elliott in his recent paper referred to above. With reference to the figures given by him I must explain that Rx stands for tens of rupees, and the figures would represent pounds sterling were the rupee now worth two shillings instead of one shilling and threepence, its present value. Sir Charles Elliott writes: "It was found that during the ten years preceding 1877 the government had spent about 15,000,000 Rx as famine relief. It was argued that a similar expenditure might be required in the future, and, therefore, that the government ought to raise a surplus of 1,500,000 Rx every year, in order to pay off 15,000,000 Rx of debt in ten years and start free of accumulated debt to meet the next famine. Afterwards this intention was so far modified that it was decided that a portion of the money should be expended on the construction of railways and canals required for the protection of districts especially liable to famine. But the original idea was never altered, which was that the income and expenditure of the government should be proportioned so as to show a balance of 1,500,000 Rx, to be devoted in one way or another to famine relief." This simple and admirable plan proved to be