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 Review minute :20th Sept. 1886. 
 
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REVIEW MINUTE 
 
 HIS EXCELLENCY THE EIGHT HON. THE GOYERNOE, 
 
 20th SEPTEMBEK 1886. 
 
 MADRAS: 
 PRINTED BY R. HILL, AT THE GOVERNMENT PRESS. 
 
 1886. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Inteodtjction 
 
 Chief Secretary's Depabtment — 
 
 Finance . . . , 
 
 General Administration 
 Political 
 Ecclesiastical . . 
 Police . . 
 
 Archaeology . . . . , , 
 
 Museums . . . . . . . , 
 
 Architecture . . 
 
 The Madras Manual 
 
 Eecords 
 
 Education . , . . , . 
 
 Marine . . , . , . . , 
 
 The Observatory 
 
 Emigration , . . . . . . , 
 
 Municipalities and Local Fund Boards 
 
 Medical 
 
 Justice . . . . . . 
 
 Legislation 
 
 Registration . . 
 
 The Three Agency Tracts 
 
 Literature . . . , . . , , 
 
 Eeventje Department — 
 
 Agriculture . . . . 
 Planting 
 
 WeUs 
 
 Minor Irrigation Works 
 
 Survey and Settlement 
 
 The Inam Commission 
 
 Land Eevenue 
 
 Board of Eevenue 
 
 The Covenanted and Statutory Civil Service 
 
 Deputy Collectors, Tahsildars, Subordinate Eevenue Establishments 
 
 Miscellaneous Changes connected with Land Eevenue . . 
 
 Wynaad Escheats 
 
 Forests 
 
 Cinchona, Horticulture, Botany, Economic Plants, 
 
 Famine . . . . . . , . . 
 
 Variety of Industries 
 
 Gold, Diamonds, Pearls, Iron and Copper 
 
 Salt 
 
 Abkari . . 
 
 Customs 
 
 Pottery 
 
 Fibres . . 
 
 Land-holding of Madras Civilians 
 
 Military Depaetmeot? 
 
 Public Works Department 
 
 Irrigation Department . . 
 
 Eailway Department . . 
 
 General 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 &c. 
 
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EEVIEW MINUTE BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE RiaHT 
 HONOEABLE THE GOYERNOE. 
 
 September 20* 1886. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Do not hope that there will ever be a repuhHo of Plato. Let it suffice thee to improve 
 things a little, and do not consider this result as a success of but moderate importance." 
 
 These were the words which one of the wisest of earth's rulers, in the posses- 
 sion of what is commonly considered supreme power over about one-hundred-and- 
 twenty millions of men, addressed to himself ; and I know no better advice for one 
 to take to heart who, stepping out of the Parliamentary life of Grreat Britain 
 suddenly finds himself in India, mainly responsible for the weal or woe of more 
 than thirty millions of whom only a few hundreds belong to his own race. 
 
 2. The first impulse of such an one will often be to try to make the institu- 
 tions amidst which he finds himself as like, as circumstances will permit, to those 
 which he has left behind. 
 
 3. From that natural and generous error I was saved by various circum- 
 stances, amongst them by having formed, for more than five years, a portion of 
 the machinery which connects the great paternal autocracy of India with the 
 crowned democracy at home. 
 
 4. I determined, from the very first, neither to form nor to adopt any wide 
 schemes, but to be content with carefully examining the condition of the Madras 
 Presidency, with a view to introducing those practical improvements, to which I 
 should eventually see my way. 
 
 5. Long before my first year of office was over, I took an opportunity of 
 announcing publicly that this was my intention. 
 
 6. Speaking at Tinnevelly on the 13th September 1883, I said : 
 
 " It only remains to thank you for all the good wishes, which you have expressed with 
 regard to my administration. I trust that to the eye of the distant observer, which is attracted 
 only by sudden changes and startling effects, it may appear utterly dull and uneventful ; but I 
 shall be disappointed if, when it is over, those who are brought into immediate contact with it are 
 not able to say, amongst other things, that during its course the Presidency of Madras obtained 
 the right of using, for her own urgent needs, a larger proportion of the taxation levied within her 
 borders ; that those of our departments which were not in a satisfactory condition, such as the 
 Forest Department, had been put on a better footing ; that the best men throughout our various 
 services had, very early in the day, come to know that their work was watched with sympathetic 
 interest at head-quarters ; and that they were not reduced to hopelessness by seeing all the most 
 influential positions bestowed, as a matter of course, upon meritless seniority. 
 
 " These are not very sensational ambitions, and the record of their fulfilment would no doubt 
 read, even when recorded by the ablest pen, as if it were traced with opium upon sheets of lead, — 
 a phrase which was, by the bye, originally used about the philosopher t who wrote the life of the 
 statesman with whose spirit a wise ruler of this part of India would most, I think, desire to be 
 filled, the life of Turgot. 
 
 " Of such good dulness, however, is woven the happiness of nations. I do not think one 
 could anywhere find a district which more naturally raises such thoughts thw this of Tinnevelly, 
 
 * I have determined to complete this Minute now, rather than a week or two later, because the conferences between 
 the Finance Committee and the Madras Government, which are about to take place, will form the oomnjenGement of a quite 
 new period, with the circumstances of which it wUl not be for me to deal. May they be such as to give heartfelt satisfac. 
 ition to all to whom the welfare of Soutlj India is dear J 
 
 f- Co»doroet, 
 
for Bishop Caldwell, who has so well told its history, finds it necessary to fill pages upon pages 
 with the events which occurred diiring the terrible period which preceded its passing under 
 British rule, while he finds a paragraph or two quite enough to desorihe the unbroken progress 
 and prosperity of the last eighty years. And why ? 'because those eighty years have been years 
 of profound peace, whereas before they began Tinnevelly had never, from the beginning of time, 
 known, as the Bishop very truly observes, eighty consecutive months, perhaps not even eighty 
 consecutive weeks, of peace." 
 
 7. The object of this paper is to set forth what has been effected, and incident- 
 ally to indicate in what directions I should advance during the next few years, if I 
 were beginning, not ending, my period of office. 
 
 8. On arriving then at Madras on the 5th November 1881, I set to work — 
 
 first, to carry on the ordinary business which had been left in a highly 
 
 satisfactory condition by my Acting Predecessor Mr. Hudleston ; 
 secondly, to become acquainted with most of the people through whom 
 
 I had to work at the seat of Government ; 
 thirdly, to visit, generally in the early morning, those public institutions 
 
 in and near Madras, about which I was likely to hear most in the course 
 
 of business, 
 fourthly, to fulfil the usual social duties of a Governor, 
 
 9. By the beginning of January 1882, I had made myself acquainted with 
 those things at Madras which seemed most essential, and I started for the first 
 of the eight tours which carried me, in somewhat under two years, through the 
 twenty-two districts of the Presidency, as well as through most of the Native 
 States with which we are closely connected. 
 
 10. In a very long Minute, published in the autumn of 1884, I narrated my 
 principal experiences in these journeys, which occupied in all about a fourth part 
 of my time between November 5th, 1881, and the same day of 1883. In this 
 Minute. I mentioned, I think, every request which the people had made to me in 
 their very numerous addresses, stated what had been done with reference to each 
 request, explained, where nothing had been done, the reasons for the attitude taken 
 up by Government, and dwelt on the truth which had been brought home to me in 
 the strongest manner that the thoughts of the best and most intelligent of our 
 people were turned towards the extension of material prosperity, rather than to 
 " dreamy" aspirations after political change, such as find an expression, from time 
 to time, in publications which uninformed persons at a distance sometimes mistake 
 for the opinion of India. 
 
 11. The Minute of which I speak was widely circulated, and I will not, save 
 incidentally and perforce, retraverse any of the ground which I traversed therein. 
 
 12. Since November 1883, I have travelled less, but I have nevertheless filled 
 up a variety of gaps in my knowledge of the Presidency, which I should have been 
 sorry to leave unfilled. 
 
 13. In this paper, however, I shall forsake the geographical arrangement, and 
 deal with the matter which I have to treat, not by districts, but by subjects. 
 
 14. Any arrangement of the very miscellaneous topics which I have to pass 
 in review, covering as they do the whole field of administration, must necessarily 
 be artificial, and without logical sequence. 
 
 15. That being so, I do not know that I can do better than class them under 
 the various Secretariats, through which papers connected with them usually reach 
 the Government. 
 
 _ 16. I will first then consider those matters which pass through the office of the 
 Chief Secretary, turn next to those which belong to the Revenue Secretary, pass 
 subsequently to those which are in the province of the Military Secretary, and 
 then take, in order, those which are dealt with by the Chief Engineer and his 
 lieutenants, who have charge, respectively, of Irrigation and Railways. 
 
CHIEF SECRETARY'S DEPARTMENT. 
 
 FINANCE. 
 
 17. It might be inferred from the preceding paragraph that the Chief Secretary 
 is charged with all those branches of administration which do not naturally group 
 themselves under the heads of Revenue, Military, or Public Works, and the 
 inference would be quite correct. 
 
 18. I may begin with Finance. Under that vitally important head, we have 
 made few changes, and I need mention only one, but it is of the greatest moment. 
 
 19. I was at the India Office when Lord Mayo's Decentralisation scheme was 
 started. The policy which prompted it appeared to me thoroughly wise, and I was 
 glad to be able, as soon as I arrived in Madras, strongly to advocate with my 
 honorable colleagues the acceptance in principle of the proposal which was made 
 by the Government of India to carry that policy further. 
 
 20. The new Decentralisation scheme came into effect in the beginning of the 
 financial year 1882-83, and various outstanding questions were settled to our 
 advantage in a series of conferences which took place at Madras in November 1882 
 between this Government and Major (now Sir) Evelyn Baring, who went northward 
 in the frame of mind in whicli I should like all Finance Ministers to leave this 
 Province, declaring that he was " a wiser and a poorer man." 
 
 21. Our Land-revenue varies of course with the vicissitudes of the seasons, and 
 although we have had no agricultural disasters, we have only in my time had 
 moderately good years ;* but in all the branches of the revenue which can be 
 affected by improved administration, and on which the Decentralisation policy has 
 been brought to bear, the most satisfactory results have been obtained, while better 
 still will, I am sure, accrue if we are given a freer hand. Stamps, for example, 
 brought in during the year 1885-86 four and-a-half lakhs more than in 1881-82, 
 the year in which I arrived ; while Forest brought an additional four lakhs ; Excise, 
 twenty-three and-a-half lakhs ; and Registration, three and-a-half lakhs. 
 
 22. We raise one year with another in round numbers about 970 lakhs, but all, 
 except some 236 lakhs, goes into the coffers of the Imperial Government, and only 
 a very moderate portion of it returns in any shape directly to this Province.f 
 
 23. From the time of Major Baring's visit up to the spring of last year, things 
 went relatively well with us, but wars and rumours of wars have worked cruelly 
 against our interests in 1885 and 1886. We reduced our budget in 1885-86 by no 
 less than 11^ lakhs, or nearly so, of Provincial funds, and had to forego an Imperial 
 Expenditure within our borders of more than 13 lakhs ; but I am convinced as well 
 from experience as from a priori reasoning that the Decentralisation policy is wise, 
 and should, when occasion serves, be pushed on. 
 
 24. The figures of 1885-86 appear to me eminently re-assuring. 
 
 25. Decentralisation arrangements, as hitherto worked, have been very one- 
 sided. I make no sort of complaint of this. Perhaps it was inevitable until the 
 bearing of the changes made five years ago upon Imperial and Provincial interests 
 respectively were thoroughly understood. 
 
 26. It is, however, obviously desirable that decentralisation should be decen- 
 tralisation, and that Provincial Governments should be allowed to manage Provin- 
 
 * The large fiinires of our recent land-revenue ariae from our having set our face against the misohievous practice of 
 allowing arrears to accumulate. The famine was accountable for many of these, but even before the famine they were 
 much too high— over 62 lakhs, mus avons change tout cela ! 'Siiej a,r:e novrYf^^'i: ^^ i^^t^s- ^ . , , 
 
 t A. statement lies before me giving in sterling at the old rate of Ka. 10 for the Pound the total amount raised and 
 brought to account through our treasuries in 1881-82. That amount, including, of course, a vast number of receipts which 
 have nothing to do with taxation, was in round numbers over £9,630,000, while in 1885-86 the total amount was over 
 £9 960 000 Thfi increase under purely revenue heads was even greater than the total would lead one to expect. That ia 
 not a bad result in a country where we are told by a certain school that revenue is wholly inelastic. 
 
 It must be remembered that just at the commencement of this period the salt tax was reduced by 20 per cent., and 
 
 nearly all customs duties swept away. , , „ t, . . , t • i i.- j; , ooo xi. ^ ii, c- ,i. -r. 
 
 Nor can the fact escape attention that it ia owing largely to the Provincial Legislation of 1882 that the Salt Kevenue 
 has so nearly recouped itaeU for the diminution ia taxation which was brought about by the wise action of the Supreme 
 Government in that year. 
 
4 
 
 cial Finance without interference. This will, I hope, be one of the results of the 
 approaching conferences. Of course, no sane man would object to the Imperial 
 Grovernment appealing under circumstances, such as those which occurred last year 
 and this, for some assistance of a pecuniary kind, and even, as last year, for very 
 large assistance, but, under ordinary circumstances, Provincial Finance should go 
 its own way. 
 
 27. "We have not had as free a hand as I hope our successors may have, but 
 irrefragable figures prove that we have largely increased the revenue by our 
 management, while so far from having been extravagant in our expenditure, 
 whereas we started at the beginning of the Provincial contract with a balance of 
 something more than seventeen lakhs, we end the fourth year of the contract with 
 a balance of thirty -five lakhs. 
 
 28. Such a result more than justifies the hopes which were cherished at the 
 India Office five years ago of the excellent results likely to accrue to this Presidency 
 from the financial decentralisation, which had not been then accepted by it, and 
 justifies no less our anxious desire to carry into effect various administrative reforms 
 which we could amply afford, even if they were not likely to be remunerative in a 
 pecuniary sense, but which will, as we believe, be even pecuniarily remunerative. 
 
 29. Well as the arrangement of 1882 has worked for this Government, it has 
 worked far better for the Grovernment of India. It is, I think, safe to say that about 
 48^ lakhs of net revenue had, up to the end of the last financial year, found their 
 way into its treasure-chest and some 36 into our own, thanks solely* to amended 
 administration here. It is thought that, at the close of the present contract, the 
 gain from that cause to the Imperial Grovernment will be not much less than sixty 
 lakhs. On these subjects I will not, however, venture to enlarge, because I do 
 not know precisely what new arrangements the Supreme authorities may desire 
 to make. Suffice it for me to bear my testimony to the success of the policy 
 which they inaugurated, after consultation with us, five years ago. 
 
 GENEEAL ADMINISTEATION. 
 
 30. Through the Department of the Chief Secretary pass likewise to Govern- 
 ment nearly all the graver matters connected with the actual management of the 
 country, all the more important papers relating to patronage, to the leave, promo- 
 tion, and transfer of members of the Civil Service, and an endless stream of 
 "personal questions." These "personal questions," very often insignificant in 
 themselves, take up, — thanks to some peculiarities of our Indian system, — a quite 
 unreasonable amount of time which had better be given to things more intrinsically 
 important. 
 
 31. In distributing the patronage of Government, I have done my best to 
 discourage the giving to seniority an altogether disproportionate weight, but like, 
 I presume, most other Governors, I have found myself terribly hampered by the 
 difficulty of disembarrassing the services of inefficient persons. 
 
 32. The existing rules make it tolerably easy to deal with the grossest and 
 most flagrant transgressions, although the process is tedious ; but to get rid of a 
 worthy man merely for being inefficient is a very labour of Hercules. When any 
 investigation takes place at home into the Acts by which India is governed, it is to 
 be hoped that careful inquiry will be made as to whether it would not richly repay 
 the State compulsorily to retire incapable officers upon proportionate pensions. 
 
 33. This is only one of several important reforms which have suggested them- 
 selves to me in connection with the Civil Service, but it is the one which could 
 be carried into effect with the least disturbance of existing arrangements. 
 
 34. I may be permitted perhaps to say that I think very considerable changes 
 must be made ere long in the constitution of the Civil Service, and that the 
 flower of native merit should be encouraged to a greater extent than is now done, 
 to aspire to high places in it. This will necessitate a diminution in the number 
 of European Covenanted Civilians, but let us beware how we thin their ranks 
 
 * I say "solely," ioT the whole incna^e oi net revenue divided between Imperial and Provincial in these fom- years 
 was just under 100 lakhs. 
 
too much. If money ■were unlimited, I*would very largely increase the highly- 
 educated Europeans in the Madras Presidency ; but as money is not unlimited, I 
 would be content to diminish the quantity, whilst taking the greatest possible care 
 to improve the quality. If you cannot get first-rate young Englishmen at five- 
 and-twenty to come to India for the inducements which you at present offer to 
 youths, and of course you cannot, double your inducements, treble them if neces- 
 sary, but get the very best trained ability that is to be bought for money. The 
 more education of a certain kind spreads in India, -the more necessary will it be 
 that the educated class should be guided by men whose intellectual and moral 
 pre-eminence they cannot avoid recognising. If ever the day comes when Britain 
 cannot supply to India men entitled to govern by real superiority, then the hour of 
 the British Raj will have struck, but unless Britain is entering on a period of 
 decadence, which God forbid, that hour nmst be a long way off. 
 
 POLITICAL. 
 
 35. A very large number of papers come before Government in the Political 
 Section of the Chief Secretary's office, but they are not, for the most part, of 
 sufficient importance to be alluded to here. 
 
 36. We have endless questions about the pensions and commutations of pen- 
 sions of unnumbered stipendiaries, great and small, with attempts every now and 
 then to revive some hopeless claim rejected by previous Governments generations 
 ago. All these occupy much time with scant result. 
 
 37. On the other hand, of real political, or, as we should say in Europe, 
 diplomatic business, this Government has but little. Our relations with all our 
 neighbours from the most important to the smallest have remained perfectly 
 friendly during all my time.; and I have been able to visit the Nizam, the Maha- 
 raja of Mysore, the late Maharaja of Travancore, the Raja of Cochin, the Raja of 
 Sandur, the late Raja of Pudukdta, each in his own capital. No previous Governor 
 had, I believe, ever entered the chief town of the interesting little State which is 
 ruled over by our old ally the Tondiman. 
 
 38. The Nizam, the Maharaja of Mysore, the Ellaya Raja of Cochin (the Raja 
 himself being an invalid), the late Raja of Pudukdta, the Nawab of Banganapalle, 
 and the late Maharaja of Travancore have all come to see me at various places. 
 The last-named brought the two Ranees to a Fancy Ball at Guindy, and I had the 
 pleasure of presenting him in the Banqueting Hall at Madras with the insignia of 
 the highest class of the Star of India. 
 
 39. A long series of troublesome boundary disputes between Cochin and 
 Travancore were likewise examined by Mr. Hannyngton, the Resident, in the first 
 year after my arrival, and finally adjudicated on by the Government of Madras. 
 
 40. Various judicial and legislative improvements have been introduced with 
 our approval into Cochin ; and a valuable forest has been leased by us from the 
 Sandur State on terms advantageous both to it and to the Presidency. 
 
 41. By the death of the late Maharaja of Travancore, Southern India lost a 
 Prince of rare accomplishment. 
 
 42. The last Raja of Pudukdta fell at one time under the displeasure of the 
 Paramount Power ; but I had the satisfaction long before his death of seeing the 
 agreeable relations, which prevailed between this Government and his family, 
 completely restored. Pudukdta has advanced considerably in recent years under 
 the care of the experienced and able Minister whom we have now nominated 
 Regent for the grandson of the late Raja, who is still a boy. I trust that he will 
 grow up to be a credit to the Government with which his ancestors were so long 
 connected. 
 
 43. These, I think, are the events connected with our native neighbours 
 which dwell most in my mind ; but the annual reports which we have received 
 from those of them which are in immediate official relations with this Government, 
 have uniformly told of quiet progress. 
 
 44. An active correspondence is constantly going on with the authorities at 
 Pondichdry about many matters of common interest. 
 
6 
 
 45. In February 1885, I visited officially the late Governor of the French 
 Settlements in India, His Excellency Monsieur Richaud, and in December he gave 
 me, in return, the pleasure of his company for several days at Madras. 
 
 46. Nothing could be more agreeable than all our business intercourse with that 
 able man, and I found it highly instructive to compare notes with him as to the 
 present and future of India. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL. 
 
 47. Little has occurred, outside the range of routine business, in the Eccle- 
 siastical Department. 
 
 48. There was a good deal of talk, soon after I arrived, about the abolition of 
 the so-called Church establishment in this country, but we lent no assistance to 
 proposals which could not be carried into effect without raising most difficult and 
 thorny questions about native religious endowments. 
 
 49. Minor reforms might doubtless be suggested, but their consideration lies 
 outside the limits which I prescribe to myself in this document. 
 
 POLICE. 
 
 50. Our Police remains substantially the same force which was organised in 
 1859 by Sir William Robinson. It has been of great service in the interests of 
 law and order. I remember before I came out, Mr. R. K. Puckle, who gave me 
 much interesting information, told me that when he first went to Tinnevelly a 
 generation before, not a single night ever passed without a gang-robbery, accom- 
 panied by great atrocities. When in 1883 I was devoting special attention to the 
 Police, I asked Colonel Cloete how many gang-robberies there had been in that 
 district in 1882 ? The reply was " not one." 
 
 51. Mindful of old revelations connected with Madras, we take care to inquire 
 into any cases where the allegation that confession had been extorted seems to 
 be other than a " common form." Happily these have become exceedingly rare. 
 
 52. In these last years the Police have been relieved of their duties in direct 
 connection with the Salt and Marine Departments. 
 
 53. Considerable attention has also been given to improving their arms, and in 
 1882 an Act was passed which enabled the Government to employ an additional 
 Police force at the cost of the inhabitants in any town or district which was found 
 in a disturbed state. 
 
 54. In 1883, a piece of gross carelessness nearly cost the life of a smart young 
 officer. He was executing a dangerous duty unarmed, when his prisoners rose 
 upon him and his companion. A circular was issued, ordering officers on duty in 
 the districts, under ordinary circumstances, to carry revolvers. India is not a 
 country in which even a temporary defeat of authority is convenient. 
 
 AECH^OLOGY. 
 
 55. Towards the end of 1881 Dr. Burgess, who was already employed by 
 Bombay, was appointed Archaeological Surveyor to this Government. Owing 
 partly to his temporary loss of sight, partly to the small amount of time he has 
 been able to give this Presidency, partly, perhaps, to other unexplained causes, 
 the actual outcome of his labours has been as yet but very trifling, although it is 
 understood that a large amount of materials has been accumulated which one day 
 may eventuate in something useful to the Presidency. 
 
 56. What we most want is to have an intelligent and accurate account of the 
 various objects of antiquarian interest scattered over our territory. Their name is 
 Legion, but many of them still keep the secret of their history. 
 
 57. Long lists of ancient remains have been recently published under our 
 authority in two volumes by Mr. R. Sewell, who has a most laudable interest in 
 these matters. 
 
58. Professor Oppert has continued with success his search for Sanskrit manu- 
 scripts, and published lists of those with which he has become acquainted in 1883 
 and 1885. 
 
 59. Four volumes of the Archaeological Survey of Southern India have 
 appeared, the last containing translations of many curious Tamil and Sanskrit 
 Inscriptions by Pandit S. M. Natesa Shastri. 
 
 60. Quite recently we have recommended the appointment of Dr. Hultzsch, 
 an Austrian scholar well versed in the Dravidian tongues, to act as an Epigraphist. 
 
 61. Mr. Bruce Foote, who has been examining, at the suggestion of the Madras 
 Government, which was put in motion by Professor Huxley, certain caves in the 
 Banganapalle State "vs ith the result of discovering great numbers of animal remains, 
 some of them of high scientific interest, assures me that a student of pre-historic 
 Archaeology would find a very mine of interest in our Ceded Districts. 
 
 62. Would we could attract hither persons to take up that and other branches 
 of Archaeology not as salaried servants of the State, but because they loved the 
 study. 
 
 63. Everywhere they would find work ready to their hand. In spite of the 
 labours of Sir Walter Elliot and many others, and in spite of the zeal of Dr. Bidie 
 in the cause of our collection, even the coins of South India are but imperfectly 
 known. 
 
 MUSEUMS. 
 
 64. To the G-ovemment Central Musetun we have given very special attention, 
 not only, or chiefly, because it is very popular with the native community as a 
 "house of wonders," but because the enlightened care of Dr. Bidie and others 
 have brought it into so good a state that very little is wanted to put it into a 
 position to become in a few years what it ought to be, i.e., a complete index to all 
 the scientific and economic facts connected with the Presidency, which have already 
 been observed and recorded. 
 
 65. With a view to putting it in that position, we obtained, when Dr. Bidie 
 was called to even higher duties, the services of Dr. Thurston, a man experienced 
 in the latest European systems of museum management. 
 
 66. In a few years, as I have said, our Central Museum will be a complete index 
 to all the known facts about the Presidency ; but, if the impulse recently given 
 by the importation of so many men of high scientific merit is as great as I expect, 
 it will take all Dr. Thurston's industry and energy to keep up with the acquisition 
 of new facts from the eternal darkness. 
 
 67. In May last he submitted the report of his first official tour, which resulted 
 in a variety of additions to the collections under his charge, and will, I trust, have 
 many successors. An expedition to Paumben in the last few weeks has, I believe, 
 been extremely successful. 
 
 68. In process of time, I hope that there will be small local museums ineach of 
 our districts, — indices to their several contents, as the Central Museum will be to 
 the contents of all South India. 
 
 69. Thus far they should go and no further. Nothing is more unsatisfactory 
 than a miscellaneous local collection, — a mere rubbish-heap of curiosities got 
 together without any definite purpose. 
 
 70. Mr. Lawson is beginning a small collection at Ootacamund, which will 
 doubtless be a good model for others to imitate. 
 
 71. It is to be hoped that ere long the Madras Museum may become the centre 
 of an unofficial Academy of Sciences, which should, in the next century, extend 
 its ramifications over all this part of the Peninsula. 
 
 ARCHITECTUEE. 
 
 72. I do not think we have at all yet got, so to speak, on the right line with 
 reo-ard to our Architecture, though it would be a mistake to deny that there has 
 been an advance since Lord Napier intervened for its improvement, and that a 
 
great many very respectable edifices have been erected of late years in Madras 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 73. The building which has satisfied my eye most is the Museum at Trivan- 
 drum, which was, I believe, buUt by Mr. Chisholm, our late Consultmg Architect, 
 but I have nowhere seen in this Presidency, nor out of it in India, any modern axclii- 
 tectural efforts which gave me so much pleasure as the group of which the Mayo 
 College at Ajmere is the centre, or much better still the lovely building at Jeypore, 
 the work of Colonel Jacob, which bears the curiously inappropriate title ot ihe 
 Albert Hall. 
 
 74. I went in 1882 to see Tirumal Naick's palace at Madura. Lord Napier's 
 project of saving and utilising that fine pile has been steadily acted upon. 
 
 75. In 1883 I visited Chandragiri, the mother of the fortunes of Madras, and 
 steps have been since taken to keep it in ruinous repair and prevent decay going 
 further. 
 
 76. A good deal has also been done under the advice of Major Cole, who 
 visited this Presidency by direction of the Government of India, to arrest the 
 progress of mischief at Vijajmagar and elsewhere. 
 
 77. Under recent arrangements the Archaeological Surveyor to the Government 
 of India will have the duty of advising this Government with regard to the 
 ancient buildings, which require the attention of the Public Works Department, 
 with a view to prevent the destruction of what still exists. 
 
 78. Personally, I am averse to anything that could properly be called restoration, 
 but scattered over this vast country there are numbers and numbers of buildings 
 which should, so far as our means will permit, be saved from the wind, the rain, 
 the peepul and the other powerful agencies, which make war in the service of time 
 against the works of man. 
 
 THE MADEAS MANUAL. 
 
 79. In the year 1882, complaints reached my ear from persons of high autho- 
 rity that the bureaux of the Government of India found it very difficult to get from 
 any existing works full and accurate information about our affairs. This seemed to 
 me a great and real evil. If Western Europe formed a single empire and Neapolitan 
 administrative arrangements were liable to be overhauled in their minutest details 
 by a number of gentlemen, however able and distinguished, who resided at 
 Christiania or Warsaw, it would be highly desirable that these should be supplied 
 with some full and accurate repository of information, from which they might 
 obtain a general knowledge of the matters with which some of those, whose arrange- 
 ments they had to overhaul, had been for years and years intimately acquainted. 
 
 80. We met accordingly more than half-way the wishes which were expressed, 
 and Dr. Macleane's admirable book, of which two large volumes have been pub- 
 lished while a third is in the course of preparation, yields, I venture to say, to 
 nothing of the sort that has been produced in India. 
 
 EEC0ED8. 
 
 81. The state of our Record-room and Records recently came before us. 
 Neither could be pronounced in any way satisfactory, and we have set on foot an 
 examination of them which will, I trust, result in an increase of space, a better 
 arrangement, more careful supervision and the publication of such portions of our 
 older official documents as are at once really valuable, and up to this time unknown 
 to the public. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 82. Writing in 1875 I said : * 
 
 " I believe that the most important thing you can do for education in India at present is to 
 throw as much weight as you can into the Scientific as against the Literary scale. You are in 
 great danger of raising up, especially in Bengal, an educated proletariat, with no amhition, 
 
 * J) otes of an Indian Journey, Macmillan, London. 
 
9 
 
 except to enter Government offices, become teachers, or write for newspapers. It is infinitely 
 important that you should multiply the as yet altogether trifling number of natives of India who 
 know anything about the material world by which they are surrounded, and the still smaller 
 nimiber who can turn what knowledge they have of it to practical use. Infuse, I say, into your 
 higher education a very large proportion of Scientific, and especially Technical, knowledge, — 
 that seems to me the first thing to do ; spread the net of primary education wider, — that seems 
 to me the second thing to do ; extend and improve your higher education, — that seems to me 
 the third thing to do. The last two are being done, and will be done more and more. I wish 
 I saw more general attention given to the first." 
 
 83. These are precisely the three main lines on which we have moved in the 
 period under review. 
 
 84. Bearing in mind the paramount importance of the first, we have re-organised 
 the School of Arts, bringing out Mr. Havell from South Kensington, and more 
 recently an instructor to help him. At the same time the buildings of the school 
 have been improved, and scholarships established. The greatest possible care is 
 now taken to preserve all that is good in Native Art. There could be no more 
 grievous mistake than to let go that cardinal principle. 
 
 We have remodelled the Civil Engineering College under the advice of our 
 engineering experts. 
 
 We have sanctioned grants for sending able young men to Europe, with a 
 view to their obtaining the instruction calculated to make them more skilful 
 teachers in various branches of industry. 
 
 We have developed the Agricultural College. 
 
 Last, but not least, we have started a great scheme of Technical and Industrial 
 examinations in almost every sort of art and handicraft, which is likely to take 
 root at present in South India. 
 
 These examinations cover such high subjects as Hydraulics, Applied Mecha- 
 nics, Heat, Light, Geology and Physiography, but do not omit Carpet-weaving, 
 Paper-making, Taildring, Tanning-leather or Lace-making. 
 
 Each subject has its appropriate Syllabus, so that a youth can see at a glance 
 what he is expected to know, and with each Syllabus is given away an admirable 
 little paper containing general remarks concerning the object and method of 
 teaching Science. 
 
 A carpentry class attended by Under Graduates has been opened at the Rajah', 
 mundry College, and in consequence of the Chapter recently added to the Grant- 
 in- Aid Code dealing with Technical education, in a highly liberal spirit. Industrial 
 Schools are being started all over the Presidency. 
 
 85. Impressed with the great desirability of the second, we have spread the net of 
 primary education much wider. 
 
 The attendance in our primary schools at the end of March 1880 was under 
 248,000. At the same date in 1885, it had risen to above 395,000. On March 
 31st of this year it stood at 417,371. 
 
 We have also tried to enlist in the good work the co-operation of local bodies 
 by relieving them of certain other imposts, on the understanding that they would 
 take over the direct management of nearly all primary and some seconds-ry educ^,'. 
 tion. 
 
 86. Nor have we at all neglected the third. 
 
 Early in 1882, the University of Madras gave to the Natural Sciences an 
 improved position. As soon as the examining body had adopted that wise policy, 
 we re-arranged the Presidency College establishment, and created a Professorship 
 of Biology, which has been filled by Dr. Bourne, At the same time we made to 
 the most important institution, which competes with the Presidency College, q. 
 special grant for a similar Professorship, which has been fille4 by Dr. Henderson. 
 The two other first-grade Government colleges, Kumbakdnam and Rajahmundry, 
 have been provided with teachers and appliances for giving instruction in Experi^- 
 mental Physics and Chemistry, up to the B.A. Standard. Previous to 1875 there 
 was not one college in the Presidency, either Government or aided, in which these 
 two Sciences were taught. Now they are taught in all colleges but one. 
 
 The extension of the Natural Sciences in all these branches is the great desidey-f 
 atum in our Higher Education. 
 
 3 
 
10 
 
 It has other defects which only time, and not the direct intervention of Grovem- 
 ment, can cure ; but I said what I had got to say on that subject in my Convocation 
 Address as Chancellor of the University on the 25th of March in this year, and this 
 Minute will be long enough without repetitions. 
 
 87. Other important, though not quite so vital, matters have also engaged our 
 attention. Education has, for example, been made more self-supporting, the fees 
 being raised to a moderate and reasonable extent amongst those classes which can 
 afford to pay, while increased liberality has been shown to the schools maintained 
 for the poorest classes in the advanced parts of the country as well as to those 
 amongst the wild tribes. 
 
 88. "We have steadily extended female education, and the number of girls now 
 under instruction is much greater than it was when I arrived. 
 
 To this increasingly momentous subject Mrs. Grant Duff has, as is well known, 
 given as much or more attention than any of her predecessors. 
 
 Most of the proposals of the Education Commission as to female education were 
 already in force in Madras before it reported ; but we have recently, in accordance 
 with its suggestion, called on our Director of Public Instruction to report to us 
 about the progress made in providing suitable text-books for girls' schools, and have 
 in various other ways complied with their wishes. We consider that female educa- 
 tion has not yet arrived at such a position as would make it right for Grovernment 
 to withdraw from its direct management. 
 
 89. Much attention has been given to the training of superior teachers, and the 
 University, taking the same view of the subject as the Government, has created a 
 diploma for knowledge of, and skill in, the best methods of imparting instruction. 
 
 The Government Normal School, now the Teachers' College, has been re-orga- 
 nised on a more liberal scale, and for the first time a Graduate of one of the great 
 English Universities has been placed at its head. 
 
 90. Very special care has been given to the educational wants of Europeans, 
 Eurasians and Muhammadans. The last of these classes of the population is a 
 subject of constant and friendly watchfulness to the Government of Madras. The 
 love of intellectual effort is not in the blood of our Muhammadans as it is in that 
 of the Brahmins, and they find it extremely difficult to accommodate themselves to 
 a state of things in which the sword is no longer " the king of the pen." We await 
 with interest the report of a Commission lately created, which may point out to us 
 some new method by which we can make the gates of the temple of knowledge 
 more accessible to them. 
 
 91. The deplorable want of education in the Mappilla community having been 
 brought to our notice, we directed last year that the matter should be carefully 
 looked into, and the proposals now sanctioned will have, it is believed, the result 
 of doubling ere long the expenditure on Mappilla schools. The District Board of 
 Malabar wUl be bound to spend at least Rs. 10,000 a-year upon them, irrespective 
 of what it may receive for that purpose from Provincial Funds. Quite recently 
 one of our Muhammadan Statutory Civilians, Mr. Mir Shujaat Ali, has done himself 
 credit by calling our attention to the backward state of education in the Amindivi 
 islands, and we have acted upon his suggestions. 
 
 92. For some time previous to my arrival at Madras, a rather bitter controversy 
 had been going on between those who desired that the higher education should be 
 given in Government Institutions, and those who considered that aided institutions 
 were a fitter agency. 
 
 It was envenomed by the old quarrel between secular and religious teaching — 
 between those who wished simply to impart the positive knowledge of the West 
 and a section of the powerful Missionary body. 
 
 It is hoped and believed that the labours of the Commission appointed in 1882 
 by the Imperial Government, and the anxious care shown by the Government of 
 Madras to bring about a modus vivendi between the belligerent parties have been 
 attended with excellent results. 
 
 93. During the contest the late Maharaja of Travancore addressed to me a 
 singularly able letter, in which he hit various blots in our system, inter alia our 
 neglect to edu-cate the nobility of the land. 
 
11 
 
 I would fain see this attempted, but to effect it on an adequate scale would 
 take much time. Individual instances of great proficiency amongst pur magnates 
 are not wanting ; but there are whole regions in this Presidency where the idea of 
 educating their sons has never penetrated the intelligence of men of great posses- 
 sions and ancient name. 
 
 This is a real political evil. These are the powerful individualities who should 
 stem the tide of Nihilism which is only too likely to assail India in the twentieth 
 century, and in the month of April last we told the Director of Public Instruction 
 to send forward proposals for establishing a special school for their benefit. In 
 my judgment, if we were, as is generally admitted, right to begin the higher educa- 
 tion of the natives, it would be very wrong to withdraw from it till we had set it 
 in a good way. Up to recent times we have given it a wrong direction ; we have 
 made it Literary rather than Scientific, and have trained too many of our youths 
 to be sophists rather than philosophers ; disputers rather than men of business. 
 
 94. When the time has come to begin to withdraw, I would commence with 
 those subjects to which the native turns with enthusiasm, and which he will pro- 
 vide for himself without Grovemment aid. Every anna that can be thus saved 
 should go to teaching those natural sciences and industrial arts without proficiency 
 in which South India will always be poor and behind hand. 
 
 95. Scientific and Industrial, not primary, education should be the gainer by 
 our eventual withdrawal from a portion of the higher teaching. The future of 
 primary education is, I consider, already assured. 
 
 96. On no account, however, would I give up teaching Natural Science and 
 History in our Grovernment Institutions till I saw these branches of knowledge 
 taking root among the people. They have not begun to do so yet. 
 
 97. We have recently asked the Secretary of State to allow us to improve the 
 organisation of the Engineering College, with a view to enabling it to educate 
 Mechanical Engineers, to give special means of instruction to persons who seek 
 employment under railway officials, as well as other employers of labour, and 
 generally to promote technical education as far as may be found practicable. 
 
 MAEINE. 
 
 98. To a province which has so immense a coast-line, — the sea-beat province of 
 India, — Maritime affairs must always be of very great interest. Our ports are 
 endless, but unhappily they are almost all as bad as they are numerous. Over all 
 of them presides the Marine Department, whose head bears the humble and altogether 
 inadequate title of Port officer. 
 
 99. In addition to the ports, he has the general charge of all the lighthouses, 
 is the principal adviser of Grovernment as to Marine matters, and has miscellaneous 
 functions in great variety. 
 
 100. One of the first visits which I paid, upon arriving at Madras, was to the 
 Harbour, which had been commenced on the strong recommendation of my excellent 
 predecessor Lord Hobart. I found it rapidly advancing to completion, and all the 
 persons, more especially connected with the works, were in the highest spirits. 
 
 101. Within a week from that time a cyclone, by no means of extraordinary 
 violence, but accompanied by a greater disturbance in the sea than the amount of 
 wind fully explained, burst over Madras, and dashed all the more exposed portions 
 of the works to pieces. 
 
 102. Then followed a long period of uncertainty and anxious correspondence. 
 Would the Supreme authorities think it desirable, after this terrible experience, to 
 attempt to create a harbour at Madras at all ? If so, on what terms would they do 
 so, and what method of construction would be followed ? All these matters were 
 discussed and re-discussed, but at length the great work was resumed under the able 
 direction of Mr. Thorowgood, to whom, more than to any other person, will accrue 
 the honour if our Harbour is ever a real success. 
 
 103. The plan upon which it is being built did not commend itself entirely to 
 some of us on the spot, but the Secretary of State took the opinion of the very 
 greatest harbour authorities of the day. 
 
12 
 
 104. Some one told me before I came here that one of the first ceremonies at 
 which I should have to assist was the declaring the Harbour finished. I trust that 
 honour will fall to my immediate successor, and that the advantages to the Presi- 
 dency of its completion may be as great as any which Lord Hobart and the other 
 early friends of the project ever contemplated. 
 
 105. The legislation necessary for making over the Harbour to a Trust has been 
 completed, and the Board took office on the first of June. 
 
 106. Any one who looks at a map of the Madras sea-board would think that 
 there are a great many places where fair or even good harbours might be made, 
 with immense advantage to the community, and even the tourist, who saw certain 
 places under certain conditions, would probably come to the conclusion that the 
 Grovernment was very apathetic. 
 
 107. Alas ! Alas ! when these likely spots are carefully examined, it is found that 
 the hopes which their first appearance raises are very apples of Sodom. 
 
 108. First we may take Kundapur. To one looking from the sea in good 
 weather, it would seem that an easy bar was to be crossed, and that access would be 
 found by doing so to a fine deep lagoon ; but as I learned to my cost in October 
 1885, a very small boat could not cross this attractive-looking lagoon without a pilot, 
 except under the penalty of grounding on the shallows, and no trade that the place 
 could ever have would repay any expenditure there. 
 
 109. Further south comes Mangalore, an important town, where, however, the 
 wild proceedings of its two rivers, no less than of the sea, would make any consider- 
 able expenditure a mere waste of money. 
 
 110. Calicut and Beypore were once, it would seem, far better ports than they 
 are, but for harbour works they now present no facilities. 
 
 111. Next comes Cochin, and undoubtedly in the Cochin lagoon there is a very 
 deep hole. To turn that hole into a harbour would however make, we are advised 
 three-quarters of a million sterHng look very foolish, and what return could be 
 expected even upon a fraction of that sum ? 
 
 112. Besides, our chief adviser in Marine matters has pointed out in an 
 excellent paper, that no prudent commander would like to have less than 10 feet 
 between his keel and the bottom of the sea, even in an ordinary ground-swell, let 
 alone in such seas as prevail on our West Coast during the monsoon; while outside 
 Cochin there is a mile and-a-half of shoal water in which no engineering operations 
 undertaken with however little regard to expense could clear and keep open a 
 passage for ships of any size. 
 
 113. Further south comes Quilon in the Native State of Travancore. There, 
 I think, a good harbour might be made, but it would obviously be of no great 
 importance to Madras. 
 
 114. Then, there is the much-talked-of Paumben Passage. Well, let any one 
 make it who likes, provided he does not insist upon my being a shareholder. If 
 any combination of millionaires thought fit to do so, they would confer no doubt a 
 trifling benefit upon the town of Madras, provided always they did not care to 
 earn any dividend. 
 
 115. Nature is not less unkind to us all up the East Coast, so far as harbours 
 answering the requirements of large ships are concerned. At Cuddalore the 
 unfavourable conditions of Mangalore are repeated. 
 
 116. At Pondichdry our French neighbours are talking of making a harbour 
 and on the application of the late Governor of the French Settlements in India we 
 gave every help to the Engineer whom they sent to make inquiries at Madras, ' 
 
 117. Nothing I fear but local patriotism could make any one hope much from 
 expenditure at Masulipatam. The state of affairs at Cocanada seems more honeful 
 at least for the present, and we have done all in our power by legislation and 
 otherwise to assist the mercantile community there, 
 
 118. Vizagapatam flatters to deceive. It looks, at first sight, as if a safe and 
 excellent harbour might be made under the Dolphin's Nose, but the inquiries we set 
 on foot gave restJts no more cheerfid than those we made at Cochin. 
 
13 
 
 119. We hope and think that the pier at Gopalpur will be, if it can be com- 
 pleted at a moderate cost, of very considerable service to the trade of Ganjam, 
 which contains no place where a good harbour could be constructed. I have known 
 people imagine that the Chilka Lake, the vast sheet of water which lies on the 
 borders of that district and Bengal, might be turned into a great harbour, but 
 that is a mere delusion. It is gradually silting up, and will in time become a 
 sandy plain like Madras. No human power could prevent this, and no place could 
 be less suited for a harbour of refuge, even if such a harbour were wanted so near 
 Calcutta. 
 
 120. Into every one of the ports I have mentioned and a great many more have 
 we inquired since I came here ; for the improvement of Indian harbours interested 
 me as far back as my India office days ; and I heard, of course, a great deal about 
 the very natural aspirations of various localities whilst travelling up and down the 
 land for the purpose of coming to know, as soon as possible, about these aspirations 
 and other things which can be studied neither on the banks of the Cooum nor at the 
 foot of Dodabetta. 
 
 121. We have given of late increased attention to our lighthouses, but in the 
 inspection of these, as well as of our ports and in numerous other ways, we suffer 
 most cruelly from not having a vessel at our command. 
 
 122. A very considerable sum of money, far more than is wanted, lies ready for 
 application to the supply of this great want, and it is hoped that a correspondence 
 which may have the result of giving us a free hand in a matter so essential to 
 efficient administration is approaching its close. 
 
 THE OBSEEVATOEY. 
 
 123. Feeling very much dissatisfied with the constant accumulation of materials 
 in our Observatory, which were never published, and were thus lost to the scientific 
 world, we at length insisted that observation must be made subordinate to pub- 
 lication, and the result has been that some little progress has been made in turning 
 to profit the great store of facts which has been piled up by Mr. Pogson and his 
 predecessors. The works published by him up to this time, since the orders of 
 Grovernment alluded to were issued, have been the following : — 
 
 Telegraphic Longitude determination in India ; 
 Madras Magnetical Observations, 1851 — 1855 ; 
 Singapore Magnetical Observations, 1841 — 1845 ; 
 And another instalment is overdue. 
 
 124. A proposal to do away with the Madras Observatory has been frequently 
 discussed, but such a course would seem most unadvisable. An observer in the 
 southern part of this Presidency should be able to do work which can be done 
 neither at the Cape, nor at Melbourne, nor, so far as I am aware, at any Observa- 
 tory in the world. If any change is to be made, and unless publication goes on 
 far more rapidly in the hands of the present observer than it has hitherto done, 
 I consider that a change will be necessary, I would re-organise the establishment, 
 give the new Astronomer more assistance, get the most modern instruments, and 
 establish a smaller Observatory at Kodaikdnal on the top of the Pulney Hills. 
 
 125. Our Meteorological Department, the work of which like that of all other 
 departments has been rapidly increasing, has been transferred from the Observatory 
 to another building, and the work prospers under the able guidance of the highly 
 intelligent lady who presides over it. 
 
 EMIGEATION. 
 
 126. My experience at the Colonial Office, where the attention given to the protec- 
 tion of immigrants into the possessions which are managed by that department is 
 minute and incessant, led me to feel but imperfect sympathy with the hesitations 
 which I found prevailing about allowing our people to pass freely to the Straits 
 Settlements. After some correspondence between the Government of India and 
 ourselves, certain officers were sent to inquire into all disputed points upon the spot. 
 In consequence of their report, the Straits Settlements Emigration Act of 1877 was 
 
 4 
 
14 
 
 repealed, and the Straits Government, in its turn, passed an Ordinance for further 
 regulating the immigration of labourers. 
 
 127. It is to be hoped that the system now in force will work to the mutual 
 advantage of all concerned. That abuses should not occur from time to time m 
 the management of any laboiir traffic, it is almost hopeless to expect ; but abuses 
 must be great to outweigh the obvious advantages which accrue to a labourer who 
 passes to a colony in which arms are wanted, from some of the districts of Tanjore, 
 where the density of the population is equalled, I apprehend, in few agricultural 
 districts of the civilised world. 
 
 128. Migration to all parts of British India, to Ceylon, and to Burma is com- 
 pletely free, while permission was given three years ago to recruit emigrants for 
 British Guiana, Dutch Guiana, Trinidad, Jamaica, Grenada and Fiji, as it had 
 been given before my time to recruit for Mauritius and other places. In the same 
 year we received a visit from Colonel Mitchell, Colonial Secretary of Natal, and 
 we gave him what help we could. 
 
 129. In truth, however, the question of emigration is but a small one, in so far 
 as this Presidency is concerned. Our people move little, even in times of famine, 
 and those who do soon return. Excluding mere visitors fromi neighbouring 
 districts, it is probable that 99 per cent, or thereby are now living where they 
 were born. 
 
 At the time of the Census of 1881, it was calculated that in the ten previ- 
 ous years the balance of loss on migration, emigration and immigration was under 
 23,000 souls. 
 
 Of those who expatriate themselves migrants up to say 63 per cent, (for we 
 have no absolutely reliable figures) go to Ceylon, mainly from the southern 
 districts, while perhaps 22 per cent, go, chiefly through the northern port of 
 Cocanada, to British Burma. The emigrants proper make up only 15 per cent., 
 even if we include those who go to the Straits Settlements. 
 
 The following remarks taJken from the " Statistical Atlas of India" published 
 this year, are worth attending to : 
 
 " The emigration whioh. takes place from India, though comparatively insignificant in its 
 effect in relieving the over-crowded tracts of the country, is of advantage in enriching the culti- 
 vating classes and enabling them to spend more capital on their cultivation. It is true that a 
 considerable quantity of waste land is available in India, but the absence of capital, save in 
 exceptional cases Hke that of Assam, renders its cultivation a matter of difficulty, and emigration 
 to it unprofitable. In the Colonies where a fertile soil and a geiieraUy well-distributed rain-f nil 
 renders the opening up of fresh country remunerative, capital is forthcoming, and the difficulty 
 to be met is want of labour. This difficulty India can, and to a great extent does, supply ; and 
 it is a matter of some importance that Indian labour should establish itself in the Colonies before 
 the competition of Chinese labour-supply renders its establishment difficult, if not impossible." 
 
 Quite recently Porto Novo has been used as a port of embarkation for the 
 Straits Settlements, and we have made the Sub-Magistrate there an Emigration 
 Agent, while Colonel Fischer has been made Emigration Commissioner. 
 
 Information has also reached us that a native passenger traffic is going on 
 between Negapatam and Sumatra, mainly, it would seem, in the interest of the 
 Deli settlement in that Island, which has become so important in the tobacco trade, 
 p,nd we have directed inquiries to be made with regard to a practice which might 
 easily le^d to illegal acts, 
 
 MUNICIPAUTIES AND LOCAL FUND BOAUDS. 
 
 130. Long before the famous resolution of the late Viceroy in Council as to Local 
 3elf-Govermnent, great progress had been made in this Presidency towards giving 
 to the population at large a great share in the management of purely local affairs. 
 
 131. We had, in the early summer of 1882, forty-eight Municipalities and 
 thirty-two Local Fund Boards. 
 
 132. It was imagined in some quarters that these bodies were so worked as to 
 leave only a nominal, not a real, control to the people. That may have been so 
 in some cases, but the constant tendency was for over- worked European officers to 
 IjBaye as much as they could to Native hands, 
 
15 
 
 133. The following extract from a letter to a friend, written by me on June 
 23rd, 1882, will give, I think, a fair idea of the results of our old system under 
 favourable conditions : — - 
 
 " I can perhaps put the true state of the case most clearly before you by taking that one of 
 our districts, viz., Tan j ore, with reference to which I am in a position to supply the best inform- 
 ation, and which shows perhaps better than any other the results obtained by the plans on which 
 this Grovemment has been working. 
 
 " In Tanjore, then, we have five municipalities, every one of which is under ordinary 
 circumstances presided over by a Native, and aU of which are almost exclusively composed of 
 Natives. 
 
 '' The Collector is ex-offlcio chainnan of all of them, and occasionally presides over the 
 meetings of the outlying ones when he is on circuit. 
 
 " I take by preference the budget of the most obscure of these municipalities, Mannargudi, 
 and I find that the municipal authorities of that comparatively unimportant place raised in the 
 year 1880-81 a revenue of about Es. 24,000 by — 
 
 (7) Assignments by Grovemment ; 
 
 (8) Contribution from Local Funds ; 
 
 (9) Fines and Fees ; 
 
 (10) Endowments ; 
 
 (11) Miscellaneous ; 
 
 (12) Advances recovered. 
 
 (1) Eates on houses and lands ; 
 
 (2) Taxes on Arts ; 
 
 (3) Taxes on vehicles and animals ; 
 
 (4) ToUs; 
 
 (5) Licenses ; 
 
 (6) License-tax ; 
 
 They spent the revenue upon — 
 
 (1) Public Works, including roads, buildings, sanitary arrangements, and so forth ; 
 
 (2) Education; 
 
 (3) Hospitals, vaccination, registration, medical college, and conservancy ; 
 
 (4) Miscellaneous purposes, lighting, watering roads, &o. ; 
 
 (5) Supervision and management ; 
 
 while at the end of the year, they had to the good nearly Es. 6,000, having begun it with about 
 Es. 4,500. 
 
 " I have before me a most elaborate report from the Vice-President, who is a Native of the 
 name of Kanchi Balaji Eao, going all through the items of receipt and expenditure in the most 
 careful manner, and giving the most minute details about even the smallest matter. 
 
 " If putting aside the question of election, against which I have not a word to say, but 
 
 which has nothing to do with Mr. 's observations, this is not real as distinguished from 
 
 formal local self-government, I do not know what the phrase means. 
 
 " The various documents which I have mentioned have, indeed, all passed under the review 
 of the President of the Municipal Commission, in other words the Collector, who submitted them 
 to this Grovemment, which in its turn made some observations on the facts put before it. I gather, 
 however, from your letter that nothing is further from your wish than to put an end to the care- 
 ful supervision of local self-government ; so these reviews will not be held in any way to establish 
 Mr. 's contention that our Madras local self-government is of a vaeTely formal character. 
 
 " We ride our municipalities with a very light hand, agreeing with the Government of India 
 Eesolution of October 21st, 1881, in paragraph 9 of which it is observed that it would be hopeless 
 to expect any real development of self-government if local bodies were subject to cheek and 
 interference in matters of detail. 
 
 " We agree, I say, with this observation, and we endeavour to act in accordance with it, 
 
 * « « « « 
 
 " I turn now to our Local Fund Boards, which administer, but have not hitherto raised, 
 their own revenues. In the district of Tanjore we have two, — one exercising jurisdiction over 
 the western, the other over the eastern part of the district. The first of these is located at 
 Tanjore, and has thirty-three members, seventeen of these are Grovemment officials, eight of the 
 seventeen being Natives. Of the remaining sixteen, fifteen are Natives, and one is the European 
 engineer in the service of the Local Fund Board. 
 
 " The receipts of the Tanjore Local Fund Board in 1879-80 amounted to Rs, 3,90,503 
 derived from — 
 
 (1) Eoad Fund, (3) General Fund, 
 
 (2) Endowment Fund, 
 
 " The road fund was raised by two-thirds of the landrcess levied on the assessment of land, 
 from a pound fund, from dues paid for the right of fishing, and from toUs. 
 
 " The endowment fund was derived from the proceeds of pest-houses endowed under Native 
 rule, 
 
 " The general fund consisted of the remaining third of the landrCess, receipts from aveoue 
 clippings, school has, receipts from trayellers' bungalows, s&p. 
 
16 
 
 " The expenditure in the year to which I am alluding amounted to ahout Es. 3,06,000. 
 
 " The road fund was spent on Public Works of all kinds,— repair of buildings, new road^ 
 and, above all, in connecting outlying villages with highways, some 46,000 rupees being applied 
 to that last purpose alone ; and 684 miles of road previously existing were kept in good repair. 
 
 " The endowment fund provided food gratis for great numbers of pilgrims according to^ ancient 
 custom, and, in harmony with more modern views, supported two boys' schools, one girls' school, 
 and seven dispensaries. 
 
 " The general fund went partly to Public Works, partly to education, sanitation, and other 
 good objects. 
 
 " Inter alia, I may mention that during the year a School of Midwifery was established, and 
 midwives sent aU over the country. Ten dispensaries were maintained, at which over 1,200 in 
 and over 30,000 ow^-patients were relieved. 
 
 " Nor was education neglected. The Board's Inspecting Schoolmaster examined 142 schools, 
 containing 2,586 pupils. 
 
 " Large sums were spent in vaccination, and the exertions of Mr. Forster Webster, the then 
 Collector, and our present Eevenue Secretary, were mentioned with high approval by the Sani- 
 tary Commissioner with the Grovernment of India. 
 
 " I win not teaze you with the details of the Negapatam Local Fund Board, which, as I 
 stated, presides over the eastern portion of the district, but the same sort of results have been 
 attained, having regard to the fact of its being smaller and less wealthy. The Local Fund Board 
 is presided over by a Native Deputy Collector, and has been worked entirely by Natives, the 
 Collector occasionally, and only occasionally, attending the meetings. 
 
 " I am assured that no part of the Tanjore district is unrepresented on these Boards. 
 
 " Now putting aside the question of election, and bearing in mind that we ride our Local 
 Boards, as I said we did our municipalities, with a light hand, is this real or only ' formal ' 
 self-government ? 
 
 " As to the phrase that the Local Boards are here regarded as institutions still in their 
 ' infancy,' I apprehend that institutions which are only eleven years old may fairly enough be 
 described as still in their infancy, even in an age of such breathless change as our own. 
 
 " With regard to the word ' restraint,' I should have preferred to see ' guidance ' or ' assist- 
 ance ' substituted for it ; but I ask you, after reading the above, to say whether the administra- 
 tive powers of the Local Fund Boards in Madras have hitherto been ' extremely Umited in 
 character, and have not as yet been properly utilised as a means of training the people in the 
 independent management of their own local affairs.' 
 
 " Again, I hope you will not accept without inquiry the statement contained in the 3rd para- 
 graph of the letter that it is ' practically impossible for the non-official members of the committees 
 to be of any real use.' That assertion may be quite correct, but it is susceptible of proof, and 
 cannot be decided by a dogmatic statement. Of my own knowledge I cannot affirm or deny it ; 
 but am positively assured by men whom I can thoroughly trust, and who are intimately acquainted 
 with the working of these committees that their non-official members are of real use." 
 
 134. So much for the state of things I found : now for that which I leave. 
 
 135. As soon as the new policy with regard to local self-government was 
 announced from Simla, we set to work loyally to second the views which had found 
 favour with the Viceroy in Council. 
 
 136. Our first step was to appoint a committee, with instructions to report (1) 
 what was the actual state of local self-government in the Presidency ; (2) how the 
 system which prevailed could be best extended. 
 
 137. In the end of 1882 it reported ; while in the spring of 1883, we passed 
 orders on its report, appointing a second committee to draft as well a Municipal 
 as a Local Boards Bill upon the lines which we had laid down, and in general 
 accordance with the views of the first committee. 
 
 138. This second committee drafted two Bills, which were sent up to Govern- 
 ment, and by Grovernment laid before the Legislative Council, from which they 
 emerged in April 1884, and received eventually the sanction of the Supreme 
 authorities. 
 
 139. Then rules for countless matters of detail had to be framed under them 
 and the new, or rather renovated, machine began to work. ' 
 
 140. Bearing in mind the brief summary which I have given above as to what 
 was, and remembering that the scope of the authorised alterations is extending from 
 
17 
 
 week to week, the reader will, I think, have no difficulty in gathering their nature 
 from the following paragraphs : — 
 
 (1) Municipalities have become more numerous. We have now fifty -five, 
 
 excluding Madras ; others which fulfil the conditions laid down by 
 the new law may soon be added to these. 
 
 (2) The Collector is no longer ex-officio chairman of Municipal Boards in his 
 
 district. He guides them, if necessary, ab extra. Thirty-nine muni 
 cipalities already elect their chairmen. 
 
 (3) Half the members of these Boards used to be officials nominated by 
 
 Government. Government can now only nominate officials up to the 
 proportion of one-fourth. 
 
 (4) Election is being much more largely substituted than heretofore for 
 
 nomination in constituting Municipal Boards, and the franchise has 
 been extended to many more electors in places where it had been 
 introduced before the new Act. 
 
 (5) Municipalities have been divided for electoral purposes into wards, so as 
 
 to help small communities, Muhammadan and other, to a fair repre- 
 sentation. 
 
 (6) The control of municipal authorities over education has become far 
 
 greater. 
 
 (7) They have far larger powers than formerly as to vaccination and sani- 
 
 tation. In ten municipalities vaccination has been declared com- 
 pulsory. 
 
 (8) Municipal accounts, formerly imperfectly audited in the several localities, 
 
 are henceforth to be audited by more skilled and responsible persons. 
 Thus far I have been speaking only of district municipalities, — municipalities, 
 that is, other than that of Madras. 
 
 141. The Madras Municipality is now governed by an Act of its own, which 
 passed through the Legislative Council in 1884. Its administration is vested in 
 a President, two Vice-Presidents and thirty -two other commissioners. The Presi- 
 dent is a salaried officer, frequently a member of the Covenanted Civil Service ; 
 the Vice-Presidents, of whom one who is an engineer manages public works while 
 the other looks after financial affairs, are also salaried. Of the thirty-two com- 
 missioners, twenty-four are elected by the inhabitants, and the rest are appointed by 
 Government. 
 
 142. The Municipality of Madras controls the whole of the " Province not 
 covered with houses," upon which stainds the ramblingest of cities, extending over 
 seven-and-twenty square miles, and containing only something over 400,000 people, 
 upon whom the incidence of local taxation is only Rs. 1-13-0 a head. 
 
 143. It has been a hard struggle to make the ends meet, and I am very sorry 
 not to have been able, — thanks to the heavy demands made upon us by the 
 deplorable necessities of the Imperial Exchequer with which we most deeply 
 sympathize, — to give the Municipality much more direct help. 
 
 144. In 1884, however, before our first troubles came upon us, we were able to 
 make it a grant of Rs. 86,000, and, if the exigencies of Imperial Finance permit, 
 we shall, I hope, be allowed to give out of our Provincial balance a still larger sum 
 this year. 
 
 145. The Municipality has exerted itself in a most creditable manner, both 
 with regard to drainage and water-supply ; but the first is a terribly costly 
 business on account of the vast surface to be dealt with, and of the fact that 
 much of the land lies below or near the level of the sea. I once saw it stated in a 
 paper drawn up by grave and official persons at home that '' the wealthy mercan- 
 tile community of Madras could do it all." I murmured as I read those words, 
 " ! for an hour of King John ! " 
 
 146. There are now twelve sewage farms, which are worked at a slight profit. 
 Both the Cooum and the Buckingham Canal are much cleaner than they were five 
 years ago, while another important step in the interest of public health, has been 
 taken by making vaccination compulsory,, and placing it, as well as conservancy, 
 under a health officer. 
 
 5 
 
18 
 
 147. Turning now to Local Fund Boards, nearly all parts of the Presidency- 
 are, under the new Act and its corollary rules, arranged as follows : — 
 
 (1) Each district has a district Board, with a President and twenty-four or 
 
 more members. 
 
 (2) The district is divided into taluks or counties, the local affairs of which 
 
 are managed by taluk Boards, each of which consists of a President 
 and twelve or more members in subordination to the district Board. 
 
 (3) The taluks are subdivided into small local areas, embracing one or more 
 
 villages, and styled Unions. These last are managed by committees 
 of five or more members called punchayats, who act as the agents of 
 the taluk Board in sanitation and such matters. 
 
 148. This organisation is, of course, still incomplete, though large numbers of 
 members have already entered on their duties, but it is steadily extending, and 
 will, no doubt, be extended as circumstances permit over the whole country, 
 though in the most backward tracts it can only be extended very gradually. 
 
 149. It is all too early yet to say whether the new system will work well or 
 not ; but we have been anxious by not attempting to force it where it was unaccept- 
 able, or obviously premature, to avoid provoking re-action, and so courting 
 disappointment. 
 
 150. All the members of the Local Board organisation are, at this moment 
 either ex-offi,cio^ members, or appointed by Grovernment ; but the Act provides that 
 members of district Boards may be elected by the taluk Boards out of their own 
 number ; and again that members of taluk Boards may be elected by the punchayats, 
 tax-payers and inhabitants of the taluks, whOe the members of the punchayats 
 themselves may be elected by the tax-payers and inhabitants of the Union. 
 
 151. It is intended that as soon as the net- work of taluk Boards is complete 
 they shall be allowed to begin to elect one or more representatives to the district 
 Boards. 
 
 152. The Collector is ex-officio President of the district Board and the Divisional 
 Officer of the taluk Board, but the Act allows of Presidents being elected, and 
 elected in time they doubtless will be. 
 
 153. Under the old system half the members of a district Board might be 
 officials. Now only one-fourth may have that character. 
 
 154. Under the old system, as will have been seen above, Local Boards adminis- 
 tered the funds levied on their account by the Government. Now they are allowed 
 to levy any of the taxes which are permitted under the Act by which they are 
 constituted. 
 
 155. Formerly, the Local Boards were supervised by the Board of Revenue 
 Now they are supervised directly by Grovernment, the intention being that they 
 should be relieved of a great deal of unnecessary control, and be allowed to swim 
 without corks, although not permitted absolutely to drown themselves. 
 
 156. Under the old arrangements their accounts were audited by the Account- 
 ant-General at Madras. Now skilled persons travel about and audit them upon the 
 spot, thus enabling their members to watch the finance, each of his own Board 
 much more closely than heretofore. * 
 
 157. There is probably nothing in the Acts or in the rules made under them 
 which would not have been mtroduced mto our arrangements bit by bit even if the 
 resolution of the late Viceroy in Council about local self-government had never 
 appeared. One force which was constantly acting in that direction was as I have 
 observed, the ever-increasing pressure on the time of the European officials and 
 their principal native subordinates. Every year the desire of the peonle for 
 careful and rapid administration gets more pronounced. We are expeofed +n 
 provide a first-rate European system in return for an Asiatic revenue The ^ilZ 
 cannot be done. It is then manifestly wise, wherever it is possible 'to enlist f^f 
 assistance of the population m the management of the million dptaik nf f^^!, a 
 viUage-Hfe, highl5:-skilled employes of Ihe Govemment w"hdrawfng^^^e ^nd 
 more into the position of advisers, but holding reserved powers to intervene and 
 prevent intolerable disaster, ^ ^^Ycueanct 
 
19 
 
 158. It is, I fear, a mistake to suppose that the zeal for local self-government 
 is as yet very burning. Some of the people like the sound of the phrase, but when 
 they realise that it means giving a great deal of time to matters which concern 
 them only as members of a community, that it does not mean pay, and that 
 " kinless loons " of Europeans are ready to prevent their playing all too much into 
 the hands of fellow-castemen and relations, zeal is apt to grow a trifle cold. 
 
 159. It is clear, however, from considerations which have nothing to do with 
 the " enthusiasm of humanity," or any large and wide-reaching theories, that more 
 arms must be engaged in dragging forward the lumbering car of local improvement. 
 Several generations of steady work are wanted before India can be brought up in 
 many respects to a civilised level ; and I think no better plan could be devised for 
 giving a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together than that which has now 
 been inaugurated here. 
 
 MEDICAL. 
 
 160. In the Medical Department the only changes which I need mention have 
 been the following : — 
 
 161. The Civil Surgeon in each district has been made a sanitary officer, and 
 has had thrown upon him the duty of advising the Presidents of Municipalities and 
 of Local Fund Boards in all matters affecting medical and sanitary arrangements. 
 
 162. He has further been provided with an assistant who takes off his hands 
 some of his former duties. 
 
 163. Very gradually, as I pointed out in my recent address as Chancellor of the 
 University of Madras, the Brahmins are taking to medicine. It would be a vast 
 boon to the community if that most intelligent class of men were to devote itself 
 more largely to a profession, the improvement and extension of which is perhaps 
 the very greatest want of modern India. 
 
 164. A caste and gosha hospital has, mainly through the exertions of Mrs. 
 Grant Duff, been set on foot for the medical assistance of those ladies who are at once 
 of too high rank to go to ordinary hospitals, and too poor to be treated at their own 
 homes. The Raja of Venkatagiri, the Maharaja of Vizianagram and a number of 
 great personages have come forward in the most liberal manner to help this scheme, 
 which will provide relief for a very numerous and a very suffering class. A site 
 has been assigned for the hospital in the Chepauk Park. 
 
 165. Steps have been taken by Mrs. Grant Duff to promote, as far as is possible, 
 I^ady Dufferin's great scheme for medical assistance to the women of India at large. 
 
 166. A number of reforms, alike in the Civil and in the Military Subordinate 
 Medical Establishments, have given considerable satisfaction to the persons imme- 
 diately concerned, and some of them have been of no small advantage to the public 
 service. 
 
 167. The Acting Surgeon-General with the Government of Madras reports to me 
 as follows : — 
 
 " Whether for the grade of Assistant Surgeon, Warrant Medical Officer, or Civil Apothecary, 
 the Madras Presidency not only incurs no expense on account of preliminary training, but insists 
 on the L.M.S. degree as the lowest professional standard for eligibility. It is not too much to 
 say that this standard of medical qualification demanded from Medical subordinates, whether 
 practising their profession in Military hospitals, or in the remotest Civil hospitals of the country, 
 must have the most beneficial results on medical practice and be a great boon to the people." 
 
 168. It is hardly credible, but too true, that there existed till recently no 
 teacher of Dentistry in the Presidency of Madras, and that there was no specialist 
 in that branch in the service of Government. This great want has been recently 
 supplied, and if the officer appointed does his duty, we should soon have a fair 
 supply of respectable dentists. 
 
 169. There is a marked increase of interest in vital statistics amongst the more 
 intelligent part of the population. In municipalities they begin to see that the 
 registration of births and deaths is not a mere piece of European fussiness. In 
 villages they have hardly yet got so far as that. 
 
20 
 
 170. Street conservancy has made very good progress, as any traveller can 
 see, while the protection of the -water-supply of towns begins to attract serious 
 attention. The Acting Surgeon-Greneral, however, observes with truth : " The 
 good effects of these changes will not become apparent for some time, beca^use 
 registration has been so imperfect in the past and as it improves the mortality, 
 although actually less, will appear greater. Also improvement must extend to the 
 individual dwelling before ameliorations of the kind noticed can make much impres- 
 sion on public health. The population also is too dense in many quarters of towns, 
 and must be spread out." In some districts sanitary associations have been started 
 among the villagers, and nearly all municipalities are now willing to undertake the 
 conservancy of private dwelKngs for a small fee. 
 
 171. We have recently, at the suggestion of Dr. Bidie, who was Sanitary 
 Commissioner before he became Acting Surgeon-General, sanctioned the sanitary 
 inspection of schools, where it was sadly wanted, and should produce very great 
 good. 
 
 172. In July last we passed an order approving the proposal made by Dr. 
 Bidie in the following paragraph : 
 
 " To render the town popiilation healthier, the Sanitary department must for years to come 
 carry on an iinceasing crusade against over-crowding as weU. as other sanitary evUs, and I think 
 that a better imderstanding as to what has been done would he attained if a systematic sanitary 
 survey of all the chief towns were carried out. Instead of a Sanitary Commissioner, as at present, 
 being required to visit and casually inspect a number of places in the course of the year, it would 
 be better for some time to come if he made a thorough survey of a few towns annually, noting in 
 detail all their defects and requirements. This plan was found very effectual in the earlier days 
 of the Sanitary department in the case of military cantonments, and would be equally valuable 
 with respect to towns." 
 
 173. Altogether the retrospect of the five years, so far as medical and sanitary 
 affairs are concerned, is not unsatisfactory ; but I am painfully aware that we are 
 only at the beginniag of a good time in this respect, and that many things are still 
 tolerated, and must be tolerated, on which a more enlightened age will look back, 
 as on practices characteristic of a period of barbarism. 
 
 174. One of the next reforms that will have to be considered is the appointment 
 of a Sanitary Engineer to advise local authorities. 
 
 JUSTICE. 
 
 175. The working of our Criminal procedure has been made better by the issue 
 of orders that when a person accused of murder appears too poor to engage an 
 advocate for his defence, the Court shall appoint one. 
 
 176. The law previoiisly existing as to cruelty to animals was modified and 
 slightly improved by an Act of 1885 ; but the better opinion seems to be that the 
 country is unhappily not yet sufficiently advanced to make it possible to treat 
 this subject in a complete or satisfactory way. 
 
 177. Orders were issued in 1884, with the object of making punishments in 
 certain cases of infanticide less severe. 
 
 178. In 1883, the practice of trial by Jury was considerably extended. 
 
 179. "We complied, of course, with the wishes of the Grovernment of India as 
 announced in 1882, with regard to prison manufactures ; but can hardly boast to 
 have solved better than others the ahnost insoluble problem how to find work for 
 our prisoners without more or less competing with outside industry. The complaints 
 made as to this by the Prison authorities were numerous, and from their point of 
 view very difficult to answer ; but the decision of the Supreme authorities which 
 was commimicated to vis in the month of May, has put an end, by an arrangement 
 which should meet the views of aU reasonable people, to a great deal of adminis- 
 trative perplexity. 
 
 180. Passing to Civil Justice, I may notice several changes of moment viz. 
 the raising in 1884 of the jurisdiction of Village Munsifs ; the authorisation in 
 1882, of new rules for the preservation and destruction of records ; the redistnbu- 
 tion, in 1884, of the Judicial staff with a new grading and scale' of pay for the 
 
21 
 
 Uncovenanted Judicatory, ranging from First-Class Sub-Judges at Rs. 800 per 
 mensem down to Fourth-Class District Munsifs at Rs. 200 per mensem. This was 
 accompanied by the re-organisation upon intelligible principles of all the establish- 
 ments of the Courts. 
 
 181. I may add that proposals tending to diminish the work, and increase the 
 efficiency, of the High Court have been submitted to the Grovernment of India. 
 
 LEGISLATION. 
 
 182. In the Legislative Department there has been a great deal of activity, 
 though no one can be less favourable than I to making legislative changes in India 
 without a proved necessity. 
 
 183. Most of the Acts which have been passed, are noticed under other heads. 
 Here I will only remark that, although the manner in which our Bills are drawn 
 by gentlemen who have had absolutely no special training, fills me with admira- 
 
 . tion, slips do, and must, in the nature of things occur. I should like to see us 
 provided with a well-paid officer trained under some master of the art of drafting, 
 who should be responsible for all our Bills, and further employed in the work of an 
 Under-Secretary. Several of the Secretariats are undoubtedly over- worked. 
 
 EEGISTRATION. 
 
 184. In 1882, the department which deals with the Registration of Assurances 
 was re-organised, more pay was given, smaller commissions allowed, and more rapid 
 promotion secured. Since that time facilities have been given for effecting regis- 
 tration for revenue purposes simultaneously with the registration of assurances. 
 
 185. Under the careful superintendence of Mr. Hamnett, this branch of adminis- 
 tration has prospered exceedingly. The comfort of the people is very greatly 
 increased, a sense of secure possession, which some highly-enlightened countries 
 might well envy, is being engendered, while the income of the community is 
 greatly benefited and is likely to be more and more benefited for years to come. 
 
 THE THEEE AGENCY TRACTS. 
 
 186. There are few parts of the Presidency which would, I think, have interested 
 me more if I had had the requisite leisure, than the three Agency Tracts connected 
 with the Goddvari, the Vizagapatam, and the Granjam districts. Travelling, how- 
 ever, is very slow in these roadless regions, besides being out of the question, 
 except at certain periods of the year; and I had to content myself with seeing many 
 of their inhabitants, Khonds, Savaras and what not, in more or less accessible 
 places. 
 
 187. It was feared at one time that the Kalahandi disturbances (In connection 
 with which Madras officers did such good service) would pass into our territory, but 
 this did not happen, and the wild tribes have givenus extremely little trouble, nor 
 will they, I think, much trouble our successors if care is taken to insist upon 
 intelligent officials using all available opportunities for touring about them, and seeing 
 things with their own eyes. If this had been carefully attended to, our predecessors 
 would not have had to deplore the Rumpa rumpus, which almost assumed the 
 dimensions of a little war. 
 
 188. Before 1882, we had not any one whose duty it was to reside during the 
 greater part of the year in the Rumpa region. The appointment of a Civilian to 
 do this and several changes in the same direction, both in Goddvari and Vizagapa- 
 tam were sanctioned in consequence of a report made to Government just at the 
 time of my arrival by Mr. Carmichael, who was then a Member of Council, and had 
 been sent some months previously \o examine into the causes of the outbreak. 
 
 189. Some recent disturbances in Vizagapatam have emphasised the necessity 
 of more superintendence in its wilder regions, and I hope before I leave India to 
 have an opportunity of consulting with Mr. Turner at Madras about this and 
 other matters. 
 
22 
 
 190. In 1885, we heard that the PArvatipur Jail was over-crowded, and inquired 
 the reason. We found that the authorities did not think themselves justified m 
 sending the hillmen down to the sea-board, which seems to act upon their constitu- 
 tions as deleteriously as do their fastnesses upon the health of the inhabitants of the 
 plains. It became necessary accordingly to enlarge the jail at Pdrvatipur, and Mr. 
 Grimes, who inspected it this spring, has given me a good account of it. 
 
 191. The greatest benefit which we have been able to confer upon the most 
 out-of-the-way part of the Presidency was the opening of the great Potinghi road, — 
 a noble piece of engineering, on which between three and four thousand men were 
 employed when I passed along it early in 1883. 
 
 192. In these wild regions the destruction of tigers is quite an important func- 
 tion of the administration. For years back, a reward of a hundred rupees has been 
 paid for the slaughter of every tiger in Vizagapatam and of every man-eater in 
 Goddvari and Ganjam ; but in 1883-84, these creatures became so very active in the 
 Vizagapatam Agency that we were obliged to double our rewards in that country. 
 
 193. The result has been that, while, in 1884, 114 persons were killed there 
 by tigers, only 56 were killed in 1885. 
 
 194. I may notice in this connection the curious paper which deals annu- 
 ally with the ravages of wild animals in the territories presided over by this 
 Government. 
 
 195. In 1884, two hundred and fifty-five people were killed by tigers and other 
 dangerous quadrupeds in the Madras Presidency, while in 1885 there were only 
 140; but, on the other hand, 119 persons died of snake-bite in the first of these 
 years, and 148 in the second, 
 
 196. A prodigious number of cattle, sheep, goats, and other domesticated 
 animals are destroyed every year, mainly by panthers, at whose door the death of 
 no less than 6,713 head of cattle alone was laid in 1885. There seems much reason 
 to suspect the accuracy of the figures in many districts. It is hardly credible that 
 panthers should have destroyed in the same year 3,177 head of cattle in South 
 Canara, while they were satisfied with 14 in Kistna, 12 in Bellary, 6 ia Trichino- 
 poly, and 5 in Chingleput. 
 
 197. As to Bellary, I well remember being informed at Sandur that a few days 
 before I was there, a panther jumped on the back of a letter-carrier, tore open his 
 bag and disappeared into the jungle, whether with or without the letter which he 
 presumably desired to possess himself of my informant did not say. 
 
 198. So enterprising an animal would himself, one would think, have accounted 
 for more than 12 head of cattle in a year. 
 
 199. Great care should, I think, be taken to let the amount of the rewards 
 ofEered ii; each district be generally known, and they should always be punctually 
 
 200. I found the following characteristic entry in an ofiicial report made to the 
 Collector of Ganjam in April 1884 by an intelligent young officer, Mr. Mounsey :— 
 
 v ."t^* the present moment almost all traffic up the Kalingia ghat is stopped by a man-eating 
 cheetah, which has takeii more than three-quarters of the live-stock of one villaffe and some five 
 or six men Ton have now sanctioned provisionally a special reward of Es. 100 for this animal 
 So I hope it will soon he destroyed The nuinber of wild beast skins brought for reward is 
 now veiy large compared to what it was. Giving the_ full amount sanctioned^ has induced the 
 Khonds to take the nsk (to them) of kiUmg any of their ancestors who may have taken the fo™ 
 of cheetahs, and traps are made for them aU over the Chinna Kimedi and Bodogodo MaliaW 
 this IS quite a pew thing- » ^" ju.aiiaiis , 
 
 LITEEATUEE. 
 
 201. Frequent applications are made to this Government to patronize boot., 
 more or less connected with the Presidency, and a pretty long list of those ihl 
 sale of which we have assisted in the last five years, lies before me 
 
 202. I think, however, that in a paper like this I need only mention n \ +!.«. 
 Konkani Dictionary by the ilev. Father Maffei, S,J.,-, ^ll^tZ.^11^^1 
 
23 
 
 philologist belonging to the Catholic Mission at Mangalore, who had previously 
 published a grammar of the same language of which good authorities think very 
 highly. 
 
 203. Konkani, which is a dialect of Mahratti, is the mother-tongue of the 
 Catholic Christian population of South Canara, and of many Brahmins there. We 
 thought ourselves justified accordingly in bearing half the expense of the first 
 edition, the Bombay Government agreeing to pay the other half, as Konkani is 
 largely spoken in what was alas ! our, and is their, district of North Canara. 
 
 204. Shortly afterwards the Protestant Mission in the same district asked us to 
 give similar assistance to them in publishing a Tulu Dictionary by Mr. A. Manner. 
 Tulu being the language of about 425,000 people in South Canara, we had no 
 difficulty in complying with their request. 
 
24 
 
 REVENUE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 AGEICULTUEE. 
 
 About 75 per cent, of the population of this Presidency depends directly or 
 indirectly upon agriculture for its livelihood. 
 
 2. This population rapidly increases, and vast quantities of land have been 
 taken into cultivation in the last generation to meet the increasing demand for 
 food. It stands to reason, however, that the best land should be occupied first, and 
 there is very little really good land remaining to be added to the arable soil, 
 although there are vast regions that may be made indirectly useful to the peasant 
 of the future, for timber, pasture, and many other things. 
 
 3. If, then, our cultivation cannot become much more extensive, it should 
 become more intensive. Primitive husbandry will no longer avail. It did well 
 enough in England in the days of Queen Anne, when an acre produced, it is 
 aflSrmed, our present Indian average, say, eleven bushels of grain. Now the aver- 
 age yield in England is said to be about twenty-eight, while the very highest 
 farming has produced thirty-nine. 
 
 4. Having these or like facts in their minds, and being disposed to give the 
 peasant credit for doing the best he can with the means at his disposal, successive 
 Grovernments of Madras have, for the last twenty years, been giving much attention 
 to the introduction of a more scientific system of agriculture, not for a moment 
 believing that methods good for the Lothians or the vale of Aylesbury would be 
 efficacious here, but persuaded nevertheless that something was to be learned from 
 the best European authorities. Acting upon this idea, they created, amongst other 
 things, some time ago, a Government Farm and School of Agriculture at Saidapet 
 on the banks of the Adydr. 
 
 5. When I arrived, I found the Saidapet Farm under the care of Mr. Robertson, 
 the author of an excellent little Manual of Indian Agriculture, which is well, and 
 should be better, known. Mr. Robertson, however, had to serve two masters, for 
 he was also head of the Agricultural College, and in 1884, he was transferred to 
 the Education Department. 
 
 6. In 1885, it was considered that the Saidapet Farm had done its work, and, 
 as a piece of ground where the soil was little better than pure sand could never 
 be a commercial success, it was thought well to cease to cultivate the greater part 
 of it, but to keep a small portion as an appendage to the college, to be used 
 for making the students practically as well as theoretically acquainted with their 
 subject. 
 
 7. Mr. Robertson reports favourably of the young men now attending his 
 classes, and many of his pupils have got employment in various parts of India. I 
 have employed one of them myself at Gruindy, and have every reason to be 
 satisfied with him. 
 
 8. In 1882, we were enabled to extend our field of action, for the Govern- 
 ment of India determined to constitute a Department of Agriculture, and invited our 
 co-operation. They further sent down Mr. Buck to confer with us. He came to 
 stay with me at Ootacamund, and as this Government was delighted to meet him 
 more than half way, preliminaries were very soon settled. Ere long we recalled 
 into existence the office of Director of Revenue Settlement, which had been most 
 reluctantly abolished owing to the financial pressure of 1879, and combined with it 
 the duties of Director of Agriculture. The chief of these arc 
 
 (IJ analysis of districts with reference to famine protection • 
 
 (2) agricultural experiments, including farms and the introduction of affricul- 
 
 tural improvements ; ° 
 
 (3) collection of agricultural statistics. 
 
25 
 
 9. All these have been carefully attended to, but of course the department 
 has had to suffer as all Indian departments have, from frequent changes which 
 the privileges of our officials as to pay, promotion, and leave make inevitable, 
 while the still-unsettled arrangements for the improved conduct of business by the 
 Board of Revenue have been another disturbing element, 
 
 _ 10. The first of these, the importance of which was brought into relief by the 
 terrible events of the last decade, was commenced with Kurnool. An analysis of 
 its agricultural situation has been prepared, and the Assistant Director of Agricul- 
 ture has been for some time travelling in the district, for the purpose of checking 
 the information already before Government, and extending it. 
 
 11. Preparation has been made for beginning a thorough examination of the 
 agricultural position of Bellary and Anantapur ; but in this work as in many others 
 the misfortunes of Imperial finance have kept us back. 
 
 12. As to the second, much has already been done at Saidapet, and very slowly 
 and gradually the work there commenced is bearing fruit. 
 
 13. Already in various parts of the country improved implements seem to be 
 finding favour, and I had occasion lately in visiting Shiydli to speak with approval 
 of the work done there by a gentleman of the locality, Mr. Krishnasawmy Muda- 
 liyar. I wish we had two or three such centres of agricultural intelligence in every 
 district of the Presidency. 
 
 A young man connected with the Tinnevelly district, Mr. Swami Aiyengar, 
 has been doing useful work by demonstrating the merits of improved ploughs. 
 
 We are about to commence experiments in the GodAvari and Kistna districts 
 for the purpose of ascertaining whether lands which have been bearing rice too long 
 cannot be made to give, under moderate irrigation, excellent crops of other cereals, 
 
 14. The collection of commercial statistics will, like the supervision of village 
 records, probably fall under the Director of Revenue Settlement ; but a good deal 
 of that work is done for the present by the Board of Revenue. He has, however, 
 recently arranged for the publication in the course of each year of certain agricul- 
 tural statistics, viz., four forecasts and four condition, and outturn, reports, with 
 regard to the leading food-grains of the Presidency, so that we shall know the area 
 sown each year as compared with the average of the previous five years ; then later, 
 how the crops are going on, and still later, what has been the actual result of the 
 year's agricultural operations, so far as these are concerned, 
 
 A steady pressure will have to be kept up until district officers thoroughly 
 appreciate the importance of punctuality and accuracy in these returns. 
 
 15. No one can move much about Southern India without seeing that cattle 
 are of the most enormous importance to the population. In some exceptional tracts, 
 he may be gratified by the appearance of the animals, but in most they are under^ 
 sized, weakly, and have to fight during a considerable portion of the year, a very 
 hard battle to live at all. 
 
 16. It would be infinitely desirable to get the peasantry to grow more fodder= 
 crops. It would be no less desirable to get them to prevent the indiscriminate 
 herding together of all animals, young and old, to the great deterioration of the 
 breed. 
 
 17. No heroic remedies can, however, stop the existing evils, which can only 
 be dealt with by the filtering down of sane ideas. A generation hence, many parts 
 of the country where the presence of cattle now is a real evil, will, when the 
 operatiqns of the Conservator have advanced and the woodland has got ahead, form 
 admirable grazing grounds. And if it turns out that silos can be profitably worked 
 in many districts, as they certainly can in some, the problem of keeping the cattle 
 well-fed and healthy through the terribly trying hot months, will have been solved, 
 
 18. Mr. Lawson reports that in the Nflgiris the troublesome weed Bidens glabra 
 is, after being treated in a silo, devoured by his cattle, and His Excellency the 
 present Commander-in-Chief, who has given very great attention to silos, is of 
 opinion that even the prickly-pe^r Qmx, by the same treatmejit, be jnade most 
 acceptable to animals. 
 
 7 
 
26 
 
 19. An intelligent Civilian once observed to me, speaking of this plant : '' On 
 the plains it is our only forester ; " and I have learnt to appreciate the truth ot hi8 
 observation over a large portion of the Presidency. Nevertheless, there are vast 
 quantities of it which are simply mischievous. 
 
 20. Our attention was called in 1882 to the great amount of cattle-disease that 
 prevailed. We appointed accordingly Mr. Mills to be our Veterinary Inspector, 
 and inaugurated a scheme for the training of a class of persons to travel about and 
 give their services to sick cattle up and down the land. Each of our districts, say^ 
 Madras, will be provided with such an officer in the course of the present financial 
 year. Nearly at the same time the Veterinary Hospital was declared to be an 
 Infirmary for the treatment of animals which had been ill-used. 
 
 21. We were not allowed to make Mr. Mills' appointment permanent, but it 
 has recently been renewed for two years, and he has published a valuable treatise 
 upon Cattle-diseases, which is being translated into the chief vernaculars. 
 
 22. Early in 1883, an Agricultural Exhibition was held at Madras. I was 
 travelling at the time in the Northern Circars, and did not attend it ; but the results 
 were encouraging, and it has been proposed to hold another Exhibition for the 
 Presidency in 1888, as well as to have local exhibitions in various parts of the 
 country from time to time. 
 
 23. The traveller in these regions, when he sees small unhappy-looking cattle 
 picking up a scanty livelihood amongst the rocky wastes, which nature evidently 
 meant to be covered with trees, will often be inclined to think that our cattle are 
 too numerous, but that is far, indeed, from being the case. Mr. Robertson points 
 out that Belgium possesses 569 head per square mile, and calculates ours at 104 per 
 square mile. 
 
 24. Hides form a large article in our exports ; but why can we not work up 
 oar own hides? The admirable Cawnpore leather shows what might be done. I 
 have been told that the market value of those we send away is diminished by the 
 absurd custom of scoring their unfortunate wearers with frightful patterns, whether 
 for health, luck, or beauty. 
 
 25. In the spring of this year, having been consulted by the Grovemment of 
 India about the destruction of certain birds, we took an opportunity of strongly 
 supporting the views laid before us by Dr. Bidie and Mr. Davison, as to the 
 deplorable slaughter of many, which, by destroying insects, are of paramount 
 importance to the agriculturist. Not a few of these have very attractive plumage, 
 and are amongst the most persecuted creatures in the Peninsula. 
 
 26. This Presidency should do far more than it does in the production of 
 sugar. Mr. Minchin's great works at Aska are most creditable to him, and I think 
 he would say that the Government has, since I had the pleasure of visiting him in 
 1883, done what it could to assist his honorable efforts. When I landed at Gopaul- 
 pore, I found that he had carefully thought over and noted down all he had to put 
 before me with regard to his own affairs and those of the Ganjam district. Nothing 
 was left to the chance of conversation wandering in this direction or that, but all 
 stated clearly and briefly. That is the way I like to have business done. 
 
 27. In some parts of the country the people are taking kindly to the Beheea 
 sugar-mills, which are cheap and easily mended, but it is still the day of small things. 
 
 28. I would fain be more hopeful about the future of Madras silk properly so 
 called * than I am ; but the attempts I have seen at its successful manufacture have 
 not been very exhilarating. A group of French gentlemen in Madras are trying 
 to make something of our wild Tusser silk f. 
 
 29. Tobacco is largely cultivated, and the outcome ought to be highly satisfac- 
 tory ; but in no part of the country do the people seem to understand the most 
 approved methods of curing. We are sending out a man to learn these in Java, 
 and propose to employ him both in the Goddvari district and in the South. "i 
 
 ' The produce of Bombyx Mori. f The produce of a variety of species. 
 
27 
 
 30. Throughout the land I should like to see a greater variety of crops. 
 We have in all our low grounds too much rice. One of these days some mysterious 
 disease will attack that staple, and there will be a horrible disaster. 
 
 31. I have often in my mind a passage which I once quoted in a speech soon 
 after my arrival in this country from a report of the American Department of 
 Agriculture for 1878 : 
 
 " A contrast of the condition of our people with a portion of the inhabitants of the great 
 Chinese Empire, where hundreds of thousands have perished miserahly, hecause of the failure in 
 certain sections of the rice-crop on which alone they depended for suhsistence, enforces most 
 emphatically the wisdom of insisting upon a diversity of agricultural products. The Department 
 of Agriculture has for one of its leading objects the introduction of all the productions of the 
 earth that can he grown in any part of our country, and to encourage by every means that 
 diversity of production which is at once the safety and the wealth of the nation." 
 
 32. To extend the growth of wheat or maize, to advocate the South Indian 
 three Fs, i.e., fuel-trees, fruit-trees and fodder-crops, however, would be stigmatised, 
 I suppose, as a waste of time by some of our advanced reformers, who care for 
 nothing but barren or mischievous changes in political machinery. 
 
 33. Alas ! alas ! the day when India can afford amusements of that kind is 
 far off. The urgent question is how to provide a comfortable existence for her 
 millions, and that can only be done by anxious attention to a thousand details 
 each of little enough account, if it stood alone : 
 
 " The world is wide ; these things are small ; 
 They may be nothing ; but they are All ! " 
 
 Planting. 
 
 34. Indian Governments have been sometimes blamed for not welcoming 
 with enthusiasm the English capitalist. Madras is not open to that reproach. 
 
 35. Every encouragement is given to the English capitalist to settle and to 
 cultivate in those districts of the Presidency where the climate makes this possible. 
 The planters on the Nflgiris and elsewhere have in the last five years met with 
 special consideration ; but the mischief is that the English capitalist won't come. 
 
 36. There never was a truer maxim than that " the first duty of a landlord 
 is to be rich." If he has not other means, it is idle to attempt to cultivate land in 
 India or in any country I have heard tell of, with a reasonable hope of success. 
 
 37. No good-natured " concessions " on the part of Government can do any- 
 thing more than stave ofE the inevitable. They are too often only a cruel kindness. 
 
 38. I once said to a friend "How do the s get on with their estate ? " 
 
 ** Excellently," was the reply, " their father gives them the money to 
 work it." 
 
 *' And what return does he get," I rejoined. 
 
 ** Oh, the return he gets is that one of them periodically returns to him." 
 
 C'est magnifique mais ce n'est pas le commerce ! 
 
 39. What we above all things want in the Nilgiris and [similarly-situated 
 tracts is the English capitalist, who will buy his estate without needing to mort- 
 gage any part of it, retaining enough money to live upon, and to work it to the 
 very best advantage, without ever having recourse to the money-lender, while he 
 gives as much of his personal attention to planting as he would give, if he meant 
 to succeed in any other profession. Such men will be able to tide over bad years, 
 and sooner or later may do fairly well, while those who count upon a succession 
 of good years will certainly be disappointed, however much Government may do 
 for them. 
 
 Wells. 
 
 40. Sir James Caird remarks : " that next to judicious railway extension, the 
 safest outlay of public money in India would probably be found in the increase of 
 wells for irrigation." I agree with this view, and am not sure whether I would 
 not in some districts put the wells before the railways. 
 
28 
 
 41. More than thirty years ago, the principle long recognised in this Presi- 
 dency that no' improvement caused by digging a -well should be taken account 
 of with a view to enhance the assessment when the time for re-assessment came 
 round, was solemnly re-affirmed. No question then could arise as to a well sunk 
 in dry ground by private persons causing any increase of assessment ; but there 
 were from time to time questions as to the status of wells. In 1883, we decided 
 a whole mass of these in favour of the peasantry. There were also numerous 
 cases of wells being dug imder Grovernment irrigation works and apparently draw- 
 ing their supplies from the percolation of water from those works. Five years 
 ago it was the practice to assess wells, which were quite close to tanks, under the 
 impression that they took away water from those tanks. This subject was brought 
 before us also in 1883, and we came to the conclusion that the percolation of the 
 water had less influence on the tanks than had been supposed, and that the. peasant 
 was entitled to make what use he could of it just as if his well had been sunk in 
 dry ground. 
 
 42. Lest, however, our view should turn out to be erroneous, it was eventu- 
 ally determined that the rule of exemption from extra charge should be made 
 experijnentally for three years, and should be restricted to cases where the usual 
 supply of water from the tank failed while the crop was on the ground. 
 
 43. It is unlikely that wells will be dug under tanks, except in cases where 
 the supply frequently fails, for tank irrigation is far less burdensome to the peasant 
 than well irrigation, which involves heavy labour. 
 
 44. It is, however, in those parts of the country where tanks are not available 
 that I most desire to see well irrigation extended, but the practice spreads slowly. 
 Our people do not take as kindly to wells as is the case in the North, probably 
 from the cause alluded to in the last paragraph. 
 
 45. We now give every possible facility to the impecunious peasant to dig a 
 well. In districts peculiarly liable to drought (Bellary, Cuddapah, Anantapur and 
 Kumool), loans for this purpose are granted up to a maximum of Rs. 750 at 3 per 
 cent, interest, and repayment may extend over thirty -five years. Half the loan is 
 given before the work is commenced, and the balance when it is finished. The 
 land irrigated by the well and the well itself are hypothecated to the State ; and 
 the annual charge on account of the loan is paid with the land-revenue, and cannot 
 exceed 5 Rs. per acre, — a sum far below what was the usual assessment of well lands 
 in by-gone days. In all districts loans for the construction of wells may be 
 obtained under the ordinary Land Improvement Loan Rules, under which the rate 
 of interest is 6j per cent., subject to reduction by Government in special cases. In 
 these rules exceptional concessions are however made in the case of loans for well- 
 sinking ; the minimum limit (Rs. 100) of the amount of loan ordinarily allowable, 
 not applying and the time for repayment being specially extended. 
 
 46. It remains to be seen whether the very liberal rules that have recently 
 been brought into force will have the desired effect. Last year, before the new 
 rules appeared, we sent skilled persons into the Anantapur district to assist such 
 peasants as desired to dig wells, but without much acceptance. This is unfor- 
 tunate, for a single failure to find water often discourages a whole neighbourhood, 
 and skilled assistance is just what is wanted. 
 
 47. With respect to ordinary Land Improvement Loans, as well as with regard 
 to wells, we have simplified, as far as possible, the conditions and the preliminary 
 inquiries, having regard to those changes in the old and far too rigid system which 
 were proposed by the Famine Commission. 
 
 48. We have also framed rules under Act XII of 1884 regulating loans for 
 agricultural purposes other than land improvement, and for relief of small land 
 owners suffering from distress due to special causes. No interest is charged in the 
 latter case; in the former the rate is 6| per cent., but the interest may be reduced 
 or remitted for sufficient reasons. The loans in these two cases may amount to 
 Bs. 1,000 and Rs. 200 respectively. 
 
 49. I confess I do not see how, with any sort of justice to the community at 
 Jarge, things could be made easier for the peasant, 
 
29 
 
 50. Our rules, under the Imperial Land Improvement Loans Act XIX of 1883 
 and under the Imperial Agriculturalists Loans Act, seem to cover every kind of 
 advance that can reasonably be made to the cultivator, not only for permanent 
 improvements, but for the purchase of seed-grain, for ploughing stock, for the 
 rebuilding of houses or huts destroyed by fire or flood. 
 
 MINOE lEEIGATION WOEKS. 
 
 51. Great as is the need for the extension of well-irrigation, it is not, and 
 probably never will be, the usual kind of irrigation in the Madras Presidency. 
 
 52. For ages our people have been accustomed to depend mainly upon tank- 
 irrigation, tanks being artificial lakes or ponds, sometimes small and shallow, 
 sometimes of immense size and depth. About the larger tanks I shall have 
 occasion to speak lower down. In the present connection, I shall refer only to 
 what are known as the minor irrigation works, i.e., to tanks which, with rare 
 exceptions, irrigate less than 200 acres, and which are under the charge of the 
 Revenue, not of the Public Works, Department. Comparatively small as these 
 are, their number makes them of vast importance. 
 
 53. I was not then surprised to find during my earlier tours that the state of 
 the Minor Irrigation works was much in the mind of the people. 
 
 54. Many of them were originally planned with little consideration. Scattered 
 over an immense extent of country, they could not be easily looked after by a Gov- 
 ernment department, while, at the same time, the old customary village labour or 
 kudimaramut had fallen into desuetude. This state of affairs led to great incon- 
 venience to the peasants and entailed a grievous loss to the community at large, 
 enormous sums having constantly to be remitted by, the Revenue authorities on 
 account of failure of irrigation. 
 
 55. Some little improvement might, we thought, be effected by handing over 
 the very smallest of these works to the peasantry, and, as an experiment, tanks 
 irrigating ten acres and under in the district of Cuddapah, known as the sub- 
 division, the region, viz., of which Madanapalle is the capital, were actually handed 
 over. 
 
 56. Evidently, however, such a course could not be taken with the thousand 
 and thousand tanks scattered over the country, until they had been put by a body 
 of thoroughly-skilled engineers into perfect order and properly connected with 
 each other. 
 
 57. This was the object of the Tank Maintenance Scheme, which was care- 
 fully framed in 1882, discussed with Sir E. Baring in the November of that year, 
 and accepted by the Government of India. 
 
 58. If it is not interfered with, we shall eventually have one complete divi- 
 sion in each of the circles into which the Presidency is divided for Public Works 
 purposes. The expenditure on this will rise by yearly increments till it reaches 
 ten lakhs per annum, and very well invested money it will be. 
 
 59. AU those portions of the Province which have to be dealt with fall into 
 103 river-basins, and the work was begun in the basin of the Vaigay which lies in 
 the district of Madura, where there are more tanks than in any part of the Presi- 
 dency. In 1884, a second tank division began operations in Chingleput, and in 
 1885 a third got to work in Kumool. 
 
 60. The oflficers of the Tank Divisions will merely examine the tanks, state 
 what ought to be done with them, and map those of every river-basin. The exe- 
 cutive officers of the ordinary Public Works divisions will carry their plans into 
 effect. 
 
 61. It is obvious that a scheme like this will require a good many years for its 
 completion, but when it is completed we shall have not only an accurate record of 
 the catchment areas and capacity for irrigation of every one of our river-basins, 
 together with plans and estimates for bringing all the Minor Irrigation Works 
 therein up to the highest state of efficiency ; but we shall have most of them actually 
 
 8 
 
30 
 
 in that condition. Twenty years should see the work done, and it is thought that 
 it need not cost more than 185 lakhs. 
 
 62. As, however, it is out of the question that the better should be allowed 
 to kill the good, or even the pretty good, we have given to all Collectors small 
 establishments, in order that they may be able to do such ordinary repairs to the 
 Minor Irrigation "Works as do not require professional supervision. 
 
 63. Already the effect of our having done so is apparent in a smaller loss 
 to the general community upon remissions, while there can be no doubt that the 
 peasantry have also largely gained. 
 
 64. It was proposed at one time to revive by law the kudimaramut system, 
 and a Bill for this purpose had advanced to the stage of Select Committee. It was, 
 however, withdrawn in the spring of 1884 after communication with^ the Grovem- 
 ment of India, certain financial concfessions having been made to this Presidency 
 by that Grovernment, on the understanding that this course would be followed. 
 
 SURVEY AND SETTLEMENT. 
 
 65. I have sometimes met amongst English people with a strange idea that 
 the Director of Settlement is a kind of ogre, who is always enhancing the demands 
 upon the peasantry ; and the wildest possible statements are made, alike in good 
 and in bad faith, as to what our settlements really are. I have seen it stated in 
 an official document, not, I need hardly say, drawn up in Madras, that our settle- 
 ments are made by the Revenue Inspectors ! and a man of the highest eminence 
 informed the Secretary of State in 1879 that " in Madras there may be a fresh 
 assessment every year " ! ! ! 
 
 66. Whole oceans of ink have been expended, and will continue to be 
 expended, for the next few thousand years, by persons who have persuaded them- 
 selves that that or this system of land-holding is universally the best. Into none 
 of these questions is it my business to enter. The system which has long preva.iled 
 in the most important parts of the Madras Presidency is the system by which the 
 Government is in direct relations with the peasant,* and by which certain of its 
 officers receive from him the Government assessment on his land, just as a Scotch 
 factor or agent receives the landlord's rent. 
 
 67. It is, therefore, infinitely desirable that every man should know exactly 
 what amount of land he is cultivating, what kind of land he is cxiltivating, and 
 what he has got to pay to the Government. 
 
 68. The first of these questions necessitates an accurate survey, and that is 
 carried into effect by the Survey Department. This is a very slow process. It has 
 been going on since 1858, and will go on for some years more, although it will be 
 quickened by the contemplated handing over of the topographical survey to the 
 Imperial Government, our department only retaining the Revenue Survey. It is 
 the second of these with which the peasant is concerned, the first being applicable 
 to zemindari estates and other tracts of country, not to the peasant's fields. 
 
 69. The questions relating to Survey, which have come before Government 
 smce the end of 1881, have been mainly as to whether certain districts which are 
 peculiarly circumstanced should be surveyed. These are Tanjore, Malabar and 
 Canara. We came to the conclusion (1) that in none of these were there sufficient 
 reasons agamst their being settled like the other nineteen districts • (2) that very 
 great inequahties prevailed in their present assessment ; (3) that in order to be 
 satisfactorily settled, they must be surveyed. Accordingly two of them CTaniore 
 and Malabar) are now under survey. ^ "" 
 
 70 In 1882 our attention was called to the disappearance of boundary marks 
 and orders were given to have them periodically inspected. It was then discovered 
 that there was no machinery for levying the cost of repairing boundary marks, and 
 this want was supplied m 1884 by legislation. J "i "■""• 
 
 • It IS not generally knowD how large a part of this Preeidenoy is held hv ZemiiiHar» T a ^ 
 
 people outside its limits are aware that one of these, the Maharaia of Jainur has a^^t V Z°'^^'' ^°'^ ™^"y 
 square miles, is therefore larger than the island of Sicily, and much lareer than »11 fL il? ^^^\ '^"^"^ 11'526 
 This nohlewan pays to a cruel and exacting Government ahout £1,500 a-yl^' cultivate4 land in Egypt. 
 
31 
 
 71. A variety of causes having led to the Survey Department not being as 
 strong as we could wish, a plan for its re-organisation was adopted by this Gov- 
 ernment, and IS now before the higher authorities. 
 
 72. The staff, which acts under the general supervision of the Director of 
 Settlement, gives the greatest possible attention to finding out the real agricultural 
 value of each field. 
 
 _ " As the term of re-assessment approaches," observes Sir James Caird, " great 
 anxiety is felt by the cultivators, and many expedients are resorted to with the view 
 of preventing a rise." 
 
 Of course! The South Indian peasant, like most other people, likes to get his 
 own at least. 
 
 His object is to represent his field to be as inferior as possible, and to try to 
 have his assessment fixed as low as he can. When, however, it is once fixed, no 
 change takes place in the assessment of each field for thirty years ; but the peasant 
 is absolutely free to keep the land he had at the beginning of the settlement, or to 
 add to that land, or to diminish it, provided always he pays the exact amount, 
 supposed to be half the value of the net produce, which has to be paid on the 
 land he actually holds. What that land is, is ascertained and recorded every year 
 by the Collector on tour. The Collector has also power, subject to certain rules 
 and checks, to remit the assessment due for lands in cases of agricultural misfortune ; 
 but he has no power whatever to raise the assessment, and subject to the payment 
 of his assessment, the peasant is absolute proprietor. He is not a tenant of the 
 Grovernment in any sense, and may sell or mortgage his land to any one, if only 
 the assessment be paid. 
 
 73. I may here permit myself a digression to explain the phrase " half the net 
 produce.'''' 
 
 This is the Grovernment or general community share in theory. 
 The Government or general community share in practice is something quite 
 different. 
 
 74. In order to arrive at it, the gross estimated yield of the land is converted 
 into money at a fixed rate. 
 
 75. The non-Indian reader would probably imagine that this rate is that at 
 which the peasant will presumably sell his produce. Not at all ! It was till last 
 year the rate at which he would presumably have sold his produce between 1845 
 and 1864, long, that is, before the gre_at rise took place, which has so mate- 
 rially affected the purses of all people in India, who live on fixed incomes, and so 
 immensely benefited the cultivator. 
 
 76. In the case of all new settlements, the gross produce is now to be valued 
 with reference to the average amount which the peasant would have sold it for, 
 during the twenty years previous to the settlement which is being made, excluding 
 famine years ; because if they were included, the calculation would of course be less 
 favourable to the peasant. 
 
 77. At this moment, however, more than haU the districts of the Presidency 
 remain, and will for many years remain, under the old system, which, as I have 
 pointed out, is quite extravagantly favourable to the peasantry. 
 
 78. The first process which follows the conversion of the gross estimated yield 
 into money is to deduct from the amount thus arrived at ten per cent., being the 
 expense the peasant is supposed to be at in bringing his produce to market. The 
 result is called the commutation rate. 
 
 79. This rate is then applied to the peasant's land, and the value of his gross 
 produce is estimated at, say, Rs. 1,000. 
 
 80. The next process is that from the said Rs. 1,000 is deducted on an average 
 twenty per cent, for vicissitudes of season and unprofitable areas, such as paths, 
 &c., in spite of which deduction, it must be remembered that whenever a really bad 
 season comes, remissions of assessment are made right and left. 
 
 81. From the gross value of the produce, presumably Rs. 1,000, thus reduced 
 by 20 per cent, and made Rs. 800, is then deducted a very liberal allowance, 
 too variable to be expressed by a percentage, for the expenses of cultivation, 
 
33 
 
 The amount remaining is called the " net produce." 
 
 82. As a matter of fact, the Government share, " half the net produce," is a 
 time-honoured conventional form of expression for something between a fourth 
 and a fifth at the utmost of the real net produce of 1886. 
 
 83. But to return. I said that the peasant might sell or mortgage his land to 
 any one if only the assessment be paid. No less an authority than Sir James Caird 
 would abolish all his rights and make him a mere tenant of the Government, 
 because he uses his present liberty to get into debt ; but surely that would be a very 
 harsh proceeding. 
 
 84. Only eight districts were entirely settled when I arrived, and even in the 
 earliest settled of these a revision of the settlement could not take place till 1892. 
 No question then as to what should be done in such a case has come before the 
 Government in my time ; but had it done so, our bias would certainly have been 
 in favor of making as little change as could be made in the demand on the peasant, 
 without doing injustice to the community as a whole. The notion of taxing the 
 improvements made by private expenditure would have been scouted, but the 
 general community should certainly receive some return for the value added to the 
 peasant's field by the improved administration, irrigation, and railways for which 
 it has paid, while the steady increase in the money value of what the peasant 
 produces should also be considered. 
 
 85. Foiir districts have been settled during my tenure of office, and three 
 more are in the course of settlement ; but few changes worth recording in a brief 
 document like this, have been made since we again called into existence the 
 Director of Settlement. The machine has worked as we expected it to work, with 
 little friction. 
 
 86. Some attempts which we made to shorten the process of settlement have 
 not turned out altogether satisfactory ; but other efforts are being made for the 
 attainment of the same object. 
 
 THE INAM COMMISSION. 
 
 87. The Director of Revenue Settlement and Agriculture is also Inam Commis- 
 sioner, but that office, once very heavy and important, now gives comparatively 
 little work, and we have made no changes with respect to it. In its day the Inam 
 Commission has dealt with some 6,750,000 acres which were held on defective or 
 doubtful titles, with the result of a gain to the Revenue of more than eighteen lakhs 
 per annum and great comfort to the persons concerned, who amount to between 
 two and three million. 
 
 88. It is worth observing dt, propos of the wild proposals that are sometimes 
 made for turning all the land in the Presidency into freehold, that, although the 
 holders of Inams were permitted, in a vast number of cases, to do this by redeeming 
 the quit-rent at twenty years' purchase, hardly any of them have taken advan- 
 tage of the permission. Why should they be content with five per cent, when, as 
 Dr. Macleane aptly points out, they can get twelve per cent, on perfectly good 
 security ? The enormous return which a native of this country, who knows what 
 he is about, can obtain for his money, is one of those things which should be 
 constantly kept in view_ by Englishmen who think or write about India. It is a 
 governing fact, influencing our affairs in a thousand ways. 
 
 LAND-EEVENUE. 
 
 89. If agriculture were not, for numerous other reasons, many of which have 
 been made apparent in the preceding paragraphs, the most important of all our 
 interests, it would be so from the fact that out of it arises far the largest portion of 
 our revenue. 
 
 90. The average current demand on account of land-revenue for the four years 
 which ended on the 30th June 1885, is put by the Accountant-General at a little 
 under four hundred and fifty lakhs and-a-half ; but the last of the four years was a 
 very bad one, and our land-revenue on an average of years may be taken at a 
 little higher than this figure. 
 
33 
 
 91. Of this sum the lion's share goes of course to the Imperial Government. 
 Thus out of our 474 lakhs in 1883-84, we received for our own provincial purposes, 
 including various adjustments, 138 lakhs ; out of 437^ in 1884-85 we received 
 131i lakhs ; while in 1885-86, we should, out of nearly 479 lakhs, receive 141 
 lakhs or thereabouts. These sums, which come to us under our five years' contract, 
 as modified after Major Baring's visit in 1881, represent more than half of the 
 whole of our income, which the exigencies of the Empire allow to be spent for our 
 provincial services. 
 
 92. It follows, then, that it is of vital importance to us that the branches of 
 the administration which have to do with the land-revenue should be in a very 
 high state of efficiency. 
 
 93. Various methods by which they might be improved have been forced on 
 my attention by the experience which I have obtained as Governor ; but this is 
 not the place to discuss such of these as belong to the sphere of the higher 
 authorities at the India Office and elsewhere. I will speak merely of the 
 changes, small for the most part but, as I hope, not injudicious which, being within 
 the power of this Government to make or to recommend, have been made or recom- 
 mended since November 1881. 
 
 Board of Revenue. 
 
 94. In this Presidency the work of the Collectors and of the Revenue officers 
 who are subordinate to them has been for many years superintended, as every- 
 body knows, by the Board of Revenue. Strong representations 'were made to me 
 before I left England, that it would be desirable to supersede this body by Com- 
 missioners such as those who discharge similar duties in Bombay. I came to 
 the conclusion, however, that there was no case for such a revolutionary change. 
 The Board of Revenue dates from a period when communication was slow, 
 and the amount of work done by our civil officers incomparably smaller and 
 simpler than is now the case. All that was wa,nted appeared to me to be to sub- 
 stitute a procedure suited to modern exigencies for an antiquated and easy- 
 going one. Necessity had, indeed, compelled the alteration of many old practices 
 connected with the Board by its own authority; but it was high time that things 
 should be put upon a more stable footing, and to that end, an Act was passed 
 which came into force on the 1st of June 1883. The reform thus inaugurated 
 will be carried further, when certain proposals which we have made to the 
 Supreme authorities have been accepted. 
 
 The Covenanted and Statutory Civil Service. 
 
 95. Immediately under the Board of Revenue come the Collectors and other 
 members of the Covenanted Civil Service. 
 
 96. We have introduced no changes worth mentioning here into the 
 arrangements which I found in force connected with the members of the Cove- 
 nanted Civil Service, except in so far as they have been affected by our adding 
 one more district to the twenty-one which existed five years ago. Bellary, which 
 was about exactly the size of Belgium, has been divided into two, and Ananta- 
 pur has become the twenty-second of our districts. 
 
 97. Other considerable changes in existing arrangements, such as the grad- 
 ing of Collectors and a further increase in the number of districts have been 
 long discussed, but as they have not yet passed into the region of accomplished 
 facts, I say nothing about them. 
 
 98. We have made certain changes as to our Statutory Civilians. The old 
 plan of nominating them which I inherited was wholly unsuited to the circum- 
 stances of this Presidency, and when we were left free to apply other methods, 
 we, on one occasion, selected a young man to be recommended to the Government 
 of India, by a combination of competition and nomination ; while, on another^ 
 
34 
 
 we selected an older candidate who had already distinguished himself in the 
 Uncovenanted service. This gentleman we put at once into the grade of Acting 
 Head Assistant Collector. 
 
 99. My personal view is that both of these methods are good, and that both 
 might be used from time to time, though, on the whole, I prefer the second. To 
 the system of selecting Statutory Civilians, by purely open competition, or to the 
 idea of giving their nomination to any authority other than Grovemment, I am 
 strongly opposed. 
 
 100. I have carefully watched the working of Competitive Examination ever 
 since it was introduced as a means of recruiting the services in India and in 
 England. The result of my observation is, that while it is far the least bad method 
 of recruiting those inferior branches of the public service, over the nominations to 
 which it is simply impossible for the head of a department to exercise personal 
 control, it is not an ideal or heaven-descended method for any purpose, and a very 
 indifferent one for the selection of persons who are to occupy offices so responsible 
 that the Secretary of State or other high officer should not fill them up without 
 having a personal opinion as to the qualifications of the candidates. I should like to 
 see every high appointment which is now made the subject of competitive examin- 
 ation, left the subject of it, and would even add some to which it is not now applied 
 until after nomination ; but in examining for all the highest appointments, the duty 
 of the examiners should^ I think, cease with the announcement of a class list according to 
 the practice familiar at Oxford. From this class list of men intellectually nearly on a 
 level, the appointing officer should have a right to select whom he pleased, having 
 regard to character, birth, manner, appearance, health, public services of relatives 
 and indeed anything he thought fit. Where a very large number of candidates 
 have to be selected, as in the examinations at home for the Covenanted Civil 
 Service, there might be great practical difficulties in the way of doing this, but it 
 would be the best method of getting Attaches, Clerks in the Colonial Office, the 
 Foreign Office and in the Treasury, where only one or two vacancies have to be 
 filled up at a time, and where the head of the department may, and ought to, give 
 his most careful attention to getting the best men possible. 
 
 101. This view found favour with the Madras Government when it had, in 1885, 
 to select a Statutory Civilian who had not been tried in the public service. Out 
 of the candidates who came forward, the Examiners selected a small class list, 
 and from it the Government, for reasons which seemed to them good, made their 
 choice. 
 
 Deputy Collectoss, Tahsildaks, Suboedinate Revenue Establishments. 
 
 102. Passing below the Civil Service, commonly so called, we arrive at the 
 very important class of Deputy Collectors. In 1883, we raised their number and 
 increased their pay. 
 
 103. Below them come the TahsUdars. Their position also seemed to us to 
 require improvement, and we laid our views before the Viceroy in Council, but they 
 were not thought to be correct. 
 
 104. Much attention has been paid to improving the quality of our Uncove- 
 nanted Revenue officers. Considerable advantages have been given to graduates 
 and even to men who have passed the First in Arts Examination, with a view to 
 enrolling them in the Revenue Service, and more care has been taken than formerly 
 that Revenue officers should be better acquainted with the special subjects, accounts,, 
 elementary surveying, and so forth, with which, in their respective positions, they 
 are called upon to deal. 
 
 105. The state of the Subordinate Revenue Establishments, no less than that of 
 the Tahsildars, attracted our attention, and Mr. Garstin was deputed to submit a 
 scheme for their revision. His scheme was submitted to this Government and 
 generally approved, but it involved a large increase of expenditure, and up to this 
 time, although the Government of India has accepted our views in principle, the 
 state of the general finances has not allowed it to permit us to carry our wishes into 
 effect. 
 
35 
 
 Miscellaneous Changes connected with Land-eevenue. 
 
 106. In a Presidency which extends over so many degrees of latitude and 
 longitude, where climates, crops and seasons are so various, it is almost impossi- 
 ble to devise a system for the payment of the revenue which will suit every case. 
 We have done our best to meet various complaints by a new set of rules, the prin- 
 ciple of which is that the peasant should be called upon to pay his land assessment 
 only after, but not too long after, he has reaped his crop. It is believed by those 
 most conversant with this extremely intricate subject, that the plan now proposed 
 will suit the convenience of the great majority ; but the question is not finally 
 settled, 
 
 107. Intimately connected with this matter is that of the payment of interest 
 on the arrears of land-revenue. We have altered the old practice with regard to 
 this, which was thought to worry the people without bringing in any great amount 
 of 'money. It is now settled that, except in certain carefully-defined cases, interest 
 in arrear shall not begin to be charged until the end of the revenue year. 
 
 108. It was found again that the Rent Recovery Act of 1864 led to some results 
 inconvenient to the agricultural population, in that it made the sale of land for 
 arrears, which was necessarily conducted by subordinate Revenue ofiicers, final. 
 By an Act, passed in the year 1884, we provided that no such sale should be final 
 until it was confirmed by the Collector. 
 
 109. The village establishment in the Nflgiris was till lately altogether inade- 
 quate. The whole position, indeed, of that district was anomalous. Now it has 
 been turned into an ordinary coUectorate, and by Act I of 1883 the provisions of 
 Act IV of 1864 have been extended to it, under which a cess may be levied for the 
 remtmeration of the village servants and officers. 
 
 110. The first requisite for the due realisation of the State demand and for the 
 systematic collection of agricultural statistics is well-kept vUlage accounts. The 
 revision of the existing system of account, initiated thirty years ago, is a work that 
 has long engaged the attention of the authorities and has now at last been brought 
 to a conclusion by a special committee appointed in 1884. The new forms of 
 account wiU be brought into use in 1886-87. 
 
 Wynaad Escheats. 
 
 111. In the year 1787, there ruled in the Wynaad a small potentate, known as 
 the Pychee Raja. His dominions excited the envy of his neighbour Tippoo Sultan, 
 who conquered them. When Tippoo, in his turn, was conquered by the British, 
 and his territories were divided, the Wynaad fell to us, but the Pychee Raja did 
 not approve of this arrangement, and fought for his own hand. He was overcome 
 in 1806, and his possessions declared to be forfeited. The forfeiture, however, was 
 only very partially carried into effect ; certain cultivated lands were seized, but a 
 great number of forests and wild tracts were left for many years as a sort of no-man's 
 land. In these all kinds of claims to rights grew up, and neither the Grovernment 
 nor anybody else knew exactly how they stood. In 1859, a number of these claims 
 were recognised as valid by prescription,but a great many were still involved in 
 uncertainty. In 1882 we came to the conclusion that this state of things had lasted 
 long enough, and determined that there should be a complete survey with an arrange- 
 ment of titles, based on a fair recognition of anything that could be considered a 
 reasonable claim. 
 
 112. For this purpose a special officer of ability was appointed, Mr. Castlestuart 
 Stuart ; and he has also been charged with the Revenue Settlement of the Wynaad, — 
 a duty very germane to his investigations into the "Wynaad escheats," The 
 escheat settlement will be finished this year. 
 
 FOEESTS. 
 
 113. One of the first matters to which the India Office called my attention, 
 after I had been appointed Governor of Madras in the summer of 1881, was the 
 
3a 
 
 state of the Forests in South India, and the Revenue Department there placed 
 before me the correspondence with regard to them which had then recently taken 
 place. I soon saw that the tangle into which things had got could only be 
 unwound, not by further writing, but by personal communication, and, before I 
 left England, I learned that Lord Ripon shared my opinion. 
 
 114. Arrangements were accordingly made for Dr. Brandis, whose acquaint- 
 ance I had formed in Germany in 1865, to meet me at Madras, and he was one of 
 those who welcomed me when I alighted from the train on November 5th, 
 
 115. We very soon got to business. Dr. Brandis was indefatigable in his 
 journeyings, giving his whole mind and his vast store of experience to our affairs. 
 The land-revenue experts, and others, who were appointed to confer with him, lent 
 their aid with a will, and the result was that, before he left us early in 1883, a 
 substantial agreement had been arrived at between all interests concerned, and the 
 legislation as well as the administration of the Madras Forests had been placed upon 
 an entirely new footing. 
 
 116. The leading ideas which guided our action were these — 
 
 I. Madras has no coal. She must then look forward, even when the Singareni 
 field is opened up, to using a prodigious aipount of wood for fuel. 
 JI. Madras, the land of artificial irrigation, is exceptionally dependent upon a 
 good distribution of her rainfall. Whether, or not, trees have the power 
 of attracting rain, I have myself no doubt that they have an immense deal 
 to do with its distribution, and there are wide regions of the Presidency 
 now denuded, which cannot be left so without imminent danger of agricul- 
 tural disaster. 
 III. But, in regulating the proper proportion of trees, care must be taken neither 
 to sacrifice the present to the future, nor the future to the present. If we 
 have too many trees, we sacrifice the cultivator and grazier of the XlXth 
 century to those of the XXth. If we have too few, the cultivator and 
 grazier of the XXth century will be, in many districts, simply non- 
 existent. 
 
 117. We believe that, under the system which we have adopted, the golden 
 mean is likely to be attained, but no system can be properly worked without good 
 sense and a conciliatory spirit on the part of those who work it. 
 
 118. The anxious desire of the Government in, and since, the great changes 
 of 1882-83, has been to make it as easy as possible for Collectors and Forest Officers to 
 unite their ef'orts for the general good of the country, discouraging any tendency to empha- 
 size unduly the interests, either of to-day, or of to-morrow. 
 
 The Forest Department is really a portion of the Revenue Department in 
 its wider sense, but although it is very desirable that it should show, as it does, a 
 good balance at the end of the year, that is not the first consideration. The first 
 consideration is the health, wealth, and comfort of the people. 
 
 119. Of the subjects dealt with in the new Forest Act, that is by legislation, 
 the most important were the arrangements made for the selection of Reserved 
 Forests and for the management of the far less important Reserved Lands. 
 
 120. Reserved Forests are those which, it is intended, so far as we can foresee 
 at present, should be always kept as the permanent forests of the State, reserved, 
 that is, to be («) a storehouse of the Timber and Forest produce required by the 
 country at large for the benefit of the whole people, not merely of those who 
 dwell close to them ; and (b) as guardians of the heads of streams and protection* 
 against the worst evils of drought. 
 
 For a considerable time all pasturing must be prevented in many parts of 
 these forests, save under most exceptional circumstances, otherwise the young 
 shoots and seedlings, which are to be the trees of the future, will never grow up 
 at all ; but, so far from pasturing being forbidden to all time, these Reserved Forests 
 will, when once the young growth hais got above the reach of mischief from animals, 
 and reproduction is not actually in progress, be very largely used for pasture. 
 
 Of course, in constituting them, the greatest respect has been, and will be, 
 shown to all proved rights, for the ascertaining of which an elaborate machinery 
 
37 
 
 has been provided. At the same time, great care is taken, when long-continued 
 customary privileges as distinguished from rights have been exercised, to deal as 
 tenderly with them as we can. 
 
 121. Reserved Lands are lands belonging to Grovemment, whose constitution as 
 permanent Forests of the State is not proposed, but whose temporary management 
 as woodland has been recommended by the Collector and the Conservator of Forests. 
 They are areas which it is not thought desirable, anyhow for the present, to devote 
 to cultivation, except under yearly leases, and, on them, pasture and other privileges, 
 even the cutting of trees, are allowed at present to a great extent, but certain valu- 
 able trees, which would otherwise be recklessly destroyed (I have heard, for instance, 
 of Satin-wood, Chloroxylon Swietenia^ being used for Railway Fuel !) may not be cut 
 without special permission.* 
 
 122. Out of these Reserved Lands, the Collectors have been ordered to set 
 apart, wherever necessary, what may be called Village Forests, while Fuel and 
 Fodder Reserves as well as areas for Stock breeding will gradually be formed. 
 Unreserved lands, that is, woodland belonging to Government, which is not either 
 Reserved Forests or Reserved Lands, will also be largely employed in the formation 
 of Village Forests. 
 
 In the Village Forests, the peasantry will be allowed, except as regards the 
 very valuable trees just alluded to, to work their will, but it will be steadily kept 
 before them that, if they choose to destroy these sources of timber and other good 
 things without taking any care for the morrow, they cannot be allowed to fall 
 back upon the general forest property of the community without payment. Every 
 encouragement will be given to them to take care of their Village Forests in the 
 hope that these may eventually be converted into something akin to the Forests 
 which have proved so valuable to the Communes of France. 
 
 The merest common sense requires the restrictions which we maintain. We 
 did not step in to conserve the Indian Forests an hour too soon ; and large parts of 
 the coimtry would, if we had not done so, have soon become uninhabitable deserts. 
 
 123. Taking thought for the morrow is not a characteristic of the people with 
 whom we have to deal, and it is but too possible that the day may arrive when the 
 Village Forests having disappeared and the Reserved Lands having been much 
 denuded, the Reserved Forests will be the mainstay of the country and about the 
 most popular institution in it. 
 
 124. In rearranging the administration, the points most attended to were — 
 
 (1) The simplification of the system, which had hitherto prevailed. 
 
 (2) The bringing, as already mentioned, of Collectors and Forest Officers 
 
 into closer, better defined, and more harmonious relations. 
 
 (3) The strengthening the personnel of the service, by importing good recruits 
 
 from outside. 
 
 (4) The increasing its numbers, — a process which can, I am sure, be carried 
 
 further with much advantage, aHke to the revenue and to general 
 efficiency. 
 
 (5) The encouraging higher scientific attainments amongst the general body 
 
 of our Forest Officers. 
 
 (6) The division of the Presidency, for Forest purposes, into two great 
 
 charges, arduous, no doubt, but not wholly unmanageable. 
 
 125. Leaving on one side the question as to how far the Forest Department 
 should communicate directly with Grovernment, or should communicate with it 
 through the Board of Revenue, — a question which will be better approached after a 
 longer experience of the present, no doubt, rather cumbrous arrangement, — what 
 seems now most desirable is to move steadily along the lines already traced, making 
 as few changes as possible and encouraging our Forest Officers of all degrees to 
 get thoroughly acquainted, each with his own charge. Instances are, I am afraid, 
 far from uncommon of men who do not know their way, without a guide, through 
 the forests they are supposed personally to supervise. All that must be put an end 
 to, and we should also in time be able to dispense with the services of the sort of 
 
 * Special permisBion is required for the felling of " reserved " trees even oa "unreserved" lands. 
 
 10 
 
38 
 
 Forester who, asked in the middle of a piece of woodland, " what is that . 
 replies by informing the querist that " it is a tree " or *' a shrub." 
 
 126. The Forest is clearly one of those departments in which it would be 
 infinitely desirable to employ as many natives as possible, from the lowest to the 
 highest grades. _ 
 
 As yet, however, it is by no means a favourite department with them. This 
 is no doubt partly owing to the Revenue line being much better paid, and I should 
 like to see this inequality speedily removed. The chief reason, however, is, one 
 which it will take a longer time to get over, the disinclination, viz., of such of the 
 natives as have book-learning to engage in out-of-door pursuits, and the fact that 
 very few of them take to those studies which lead up to forestry. 
 
 I trust that the efforts recently made by this Grovemment, and which will, 
 I hope, be continued for long years, to give a more scientific and practical direc- 
 tion to our Higher Education, may gradually cure this evil. Meantime, it would 
 be well if we could be supplied with a better European agency. I cannot learn 
 that the majority of the young men, who have been recently sent out to us from 
 England, have that enthusiasm for their profession which is absolutely necessary 
 to success in it. Whether it would be well to raise the limit of age, or to make 
 other, and what, changes in the course of training now in vogue, are questions 
 which must be discussed and settled, not in this country, but at home. 
 
 127. I should very much like, if it had been possible, to have obtained for this 
 Presidency the honor of having, once for all, set at rest the question as to the 
 precise effect of forests on the distribution of the rainfall. I have no sort of doubt 
 about their great usefulness in that behalf, 'but what is wanted is the kind of 
 experiment which will carry conviction even to the most sceptical. Such an 
 experiment Dr. Brandis urged me to institute, and the res dura, the want of funds, 
 combined with the regni novitas, the want of a sufficiently complete administration, 
 have alone prevented Grovernment complying with his wish. We had gone so far 
 at one time as even to have selected in our own minds a young Engineer * officer 
 for this work ; but he, alas, was fated to die far away from Madras in a combat 
 with barbarians. I trust the idea may yet be carried into effect. Each Province 
 in India, or any other country ruled by a civilised power, has its duties to science. 
 
 128. One question of considerable interest to scientific Foresters was, I am 
 glad to say, worked out in 1882-83 by Mr. Hutchins, whose services were lent to 
 us by the Mysore Grovernment, — ^tlie rate of growth and timber production of 
 Eucalyptus gloiulus, which is so conspicuous a feature on the Nflgiri plateau, and 
 of Casuarina equisetifolia, which clothes so many of the once barren sand dunes 
 along our coast. I have just received from Mr. Hooper, one of our own Forest 
 Officers, a most interesting account of the journeys which he has made during his 
 furlough, with a view to gain experience in the Forests of many lands, 
 
 CaiNOHONA, HOETICULTXJEE, BOTANT, ECONOMIC PLANTS, &c. 
 
 129. It well may be that in some far off future the English may have the 
 fate of the Portuguese, and that their most enduring monuments, in many parts of 
 the Peninsula, may be the plants which they brought to India from other climes. 
 
 130. Not the least important of these will be the various species of the genus 
 Cinchona, although these have not, like the "Promotion nut" (Anacardium occidentalej 
 of their predecessors, shown any capacity in India for fighting, unaided by man, 
 the battle of life. 
 
 131. The story of the introduction of these precious trees by Mr. C!lementE| 
 Markham and others is well known. The Nllgiri plantations remained for many 
 years under the charge of an intelligent gardener. After his death they were 
 placed for a time under the Forest Department, but that arrangement was not one 
 that could last; and in 1883, Mr, Lawson, formerly Professor of Botany at Oxford, 
 and in charge of the exquisite garden which stretches along the bank of the 
 Cherwell close to the bridge which Macaulay has described in a famous passage, 
 
 t Captain Itpmi}ly, killed in the Soudan- 
 
39 
 
 came out to take charge of our Cinchona, as well as of all the Government gardens 
 on the Nflgiris. 
 
 132. The time had arrived when a great number of important questions were 
 ripe for examination by a trained botanist and a trained quinologist. Ere long 
 accordingly we added to our establishment Mr. Hooper, who had worked under 
 Dr. Koppeschaar at the Hague, and came out possessed of all the latest learning 
 on his subject. 
 
 133. Mr. Lawson soon saw that considerable changes in management were 
 wanted on all the estates, and set himself to make them. 
 
 134. First, with the assistance of Dr. Trimen of Ceylon, the plantations were 
 carefully inspected, and some alarming doubts, which had been raised by Mr. Cross 
 about the value of many of our trees, set finally at rest. 
 
 135. Thereafter, a great number of trees which had done their work were 
 cut down, and fine healthy shoots are now springing from them. 
 
 136. Then, a considerable acreage in and near Naduvatam, which had gone 
 or was going to ruin, was taken in hand, and is being replanted, 
 
 137. Further, the Cuprsea bark from New Granada, a species of Rimijia, a 
 genus nearly allied to Cinchona, was sown, and will, it is hoped, give fair results, 
 while the same is hoped of the Cinchona Santa Fe and Carthagena. 
 
 138. The growth of the various species of Cinchona at different elevations, 
 and the amount of their respective yield are also being carefully watched ; while 
 the diminution in the cost incurred in looking after our Cinchona estates, since 
 Mr. Lawson took charge of them, is as remarkable as the increased efficiency which 
 has characterised his management. 
 
 139. One of the objects to which Mr. Hooper has turned his attention since 
 his arrival has been the production of a preparation of Cinchona alkaloids, closely 
 resembling that known as De Vrij's liquid extract. This he has succeeded in 
 producing to the satisfaction of the Medical Department at an astonishingly low 
 price, * and the problem now is to try to get it spread amongst the people, Time 
 and patience will be required for this, though there are some very encouraging 
 symptoms ; but fever is in South India so terrible a scourge that ignorance and 
 prejudice will eventually be sapped by interest. Mighty in deed must be the 
 political reform which would be worthy to be named with this in the promotion of 
 true well-being. 
 
 140. As I have elsewhere f pointed out, we want a class of practitioners 
 intermediate between the really skilled persons turned out by our medical schools 
 and the Vythians who have stUl such a hold upon the people. This want was 
 much in the mind of the late highly-intelligent Maharaja of Travajicore, and I 
 have read an excellent private letter of his upon the subject. 
 
 141. We still hear at intervals the wish expressed that Government would 
 divest itself of its Cinchona plantations in the supposed interest of private trade, 
 To do this prematurely would be to take a very f3.1se step ; but a very large part 
 of the Government Cinchona plantations will, it is to be hoped, soon be devoted 
 to preparing the cheap febrifuge to which I have just alluded. I need hardly say 
 that the amount of the Cinchona even now put on the market by this Government, 
 is as compared with what is produced by private growers in India, Ceyloji and 
 elsewhere altogether insignificant. 
 
 142. Mr. Lawson also, soon after his arrival, began greatly to improve the 
 Government Gardens at Ootacamund, and to give them a more markedly botanical 
 character by carefully naming the very numerous and valuable collection of plants, 
 which are scattered about over the large area of bep,utifully broken ground which 
 they cover. He gave no less care to the gardens at Coo:pQor a^ well as p,t Burliar, 
 and laid, by endless plant-hunting in every interval o| leisure, the fpundation of a 
 very fine herbarium at Ootacamund. J 
 
 * We expect to te aWe to sell a bottle containing eight doses of five grains each, for one anna, inrhich repreBente4 
 I may mention for the English reader, three halfpence, when the rupee was at par. 
 
 t Address to the University of Madras, 1886. 
 
 + His own already very considerable collection has been supplemented by many of Wight's plants sent from Kew, 
 and I was happy, before leaving the HiUs, to see them all comfortably lodged. 
 
40 
 
 143. At length the moment came for the establishment of a botanical depart- 
 ment. Sir Joseph Hooker and Mr. Thiselton Dyer lent their invaluable assistance, 
 the Secretary of State agreed to our proposals, Mr. Lawson was satisfied to under- 
 take new duties for a very slightly-increased remuneration, and the reproach was 
 taken away from this Government that it did nothing systematic for the encourage- 
 ment of either scientific or economic botany, for which Ceylon, Jamaica, and so 
 many other less important British dependencies do so much. 
 
 144. When the arrangements now in progress are entirely completed, Ootaca- 
 mund, which is a particularly good climate for preserving dried plants, will contain 
 the principal herbarium of the Presidency, but a typical collection will be left in 
 Madras, and other collections will, doubtless, as civilisation extends, be formed in 
 other important centres. 
 
 145. In time, too, new botanical gardens will be created, with a view to making 
 experiments to which the climatic conditions of the existing gardens do not lend 
 themselves. The public spirit and intelligence of the rulers of some of the neigh- 
 bouring States, such as Travancore (exceptionally well situated for botanical 
 experiments) will, I doubt not, one day be enlisted in the same good cause. 
 
 146. We have received from Kew not only a,great deal of guidance during the 
 last five years, but also many seeds, such as the following. I mention only plants 
 of economic value, not those which are merely ornamental, or interesting to the 
 botanist alone : — 
 
 Erythroxylon coca. 
 Ehus vemioifera. 
 „ STiccedanea. 
 Ceratonia siliqua. 
 Quillaja saponaria. 
 Airacacia esoulenta. 
 
 Cinchona Santa Pe. 
 
 „ Carthagena. 
 Eiimijia Purdieana. 
 Ipomoea chiysorhiza. 
 IJlluoiis tuterosus. 
 
 I found Erythroxylon coca established in one or two places ; but the immense 
 medical value of the plant was quite unknown in 1881. It has been very gratify- 
 ing to me to find that it can be so readily multiplied here, and that as Mr. Hooper 
 and Dr. Drake-Brockman have proved, the alkaloid produced from the plant in 
 Madras is as efficacious as that which is produced from it when grown in South 
 America. 
 
 Arracaeia esculenta and Ullucus tuberosus are both food-plants. The former is an 
 important article of diet in the higher reg^ions of Northern South America in spite 
 of its near alliance to our familiar hemlock. The other is related to the Basella or 
 Indian spinach, and comes from the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes. Both seem 
 likely to succeed at Ootacamund. 
 
 Ipomoea chrysorhisa is a New Zealand form of the Polynesian sweet potato, 
 which is well spoken of, and is certainly palatable. 
 
 Rhus vernicifera gives the valuable Japan lacquer ; Rhus succedanea, the Japan 
 wax ; Ceratonia siliqua is the Caruba so important in Sicily ; Quillaja saponaria is a 
 Chilian tree, rich in a vegetable soap. 
 
 The others have been already alluded to. 
 
 147. Another benefactor has been Mr. Thomas Hanbury, whose collections of 
 living plants at La Mortola, not far from Mentone, are amongst the most remark- 
 able in Europe. One cannot now walk through the gardens at Ootacamund without 
 seeing many traces of his friendly co-operation. 
 
 148. I have kept up a very close correspondence with Kew from the time I 
 arrived in this Presidency, and have done what little I could to repay, by sending 
 thither very large quantities of seeds, — ^the debt which every British dependency 
 owes tothat magnificent and supremely Imperial institution.* So slight was the 
 connection between it and Madras before 1881, that I do not think any single 
 
 * Berlin, Cintra, Christiania, TJpsala, Orotava in the Canaries, Cambridge in Massachusetts, the Island of Grenada 
 and Maurititis are a few of the widely-scattered places to which our Madras seeds have found their way within the last 
 five years. 
 
 It often happens that, just from their very commonness, things do not get forwarded to tho great hotanical centres 
 in Europe from the tropical countries. I recently foand that they wanted at Kew the Palmyra ; the Custard apple which 
 appears so often on our breakfast tables ; and last, but not least, the very handsome but ill-used tree which goes through 
 liie under the name of Odina Wodier, that is, if I translate it correctly, the worthless worthless one. 
 
41 
 
 person connected with the Royal Gardens at all knew what was the ordinary vege- 
 tation, cultivated or indigenous, in the neighbourhood of that city. 
 
 149. I have also had very careful lists made by that most devoted botanist, 
 Mr. E. HoUingsworth, of the plants in the Park of Grovernment House, Madras, 
 and at Guindy, while to the collections at both places I have added, — thanks to 
 the kindness of Dr. King of Calcutta, Mr. Gamble and others, — a large number of 
 species. 
 
 150. The Government has not had it in its power, — owing again to the pecu- 
 niary difficulties of the Imperial Treasury, — to do quite as much as it could have 
 wished to help so valuable an institution as the Agri-Horticultural Society of 
 Madras, excellently managed by Mr. Steavenson and others ; but it contrived to 
 enable the Society to lay the foundation of a botanical library, and I have no 
 doubt subsequent and wealthier Governments will be able to do more. 
 
 151. A great deal of miscellaneous, horticultural, agricultural, and vegetable 
 economic information has been circulated in these recent years by the Government, 
 and we have introduced the practice of sending every scrap of intelligence of 
 that kind to Kew, where it is utilised for the general advantage of the whole 
 of Oceana, and of many broad lands which do not belong to our Political System. 
 
 152. Mr. Morris, now of Kew, but recently of Jamaica, lately informed me that 
 the Pepper which was under the intelligent superintendence of Mr. Ross, C.S., 
 transmitted, a year or two ago, through Kew from Tellicherry, to that island, has 
 succeeded perfectly. Considering the immemorial antiquity of the Malabar Pepper 
 trade, it is strange that it remained for our generation to make this gift from the 
 East to the West. 
 
 FAMINE. 
 
 153. But however great may be the attention given by this Government to 
 Agricxdture, to Forestry, and to the other agencies by which the material prosperity 
 of the people can be increased, it must always lay its account with the possibility of 
 famine in those tracts which are most afEected by a failure in the rainfall depend- 
 ing upon causes still most imperfectly understood, and lying far outside the sphere 
 of human effort. 
 
 154. I have happily had no occasion to deal with any great calamity of this 
 kind. Inundations have in these last years given us more trouble than droughts. 
 In 1884, however, the south-west monsoon was very light, and we passed many 
 anxious hours in consequence ; while in 1885, Relief Works had actually to be 
 opened and kept open for some time in Bellary and Anantapur ; but heavy rains 
 fell in the early autumn, and very justifiable alarms were transmuted into gratitude 
 for an unusually abundant harvest. 
 
 155. Warned, nevertheless, by the terrible events of the last decade, we have 
 taken every precaution in our power ; we have put forth a Famine Code prepared 
 by a Committee whose labours our present Chief Secretary did much to put into 
 its present shape, and which has been taken as a model for other parts of India ; 
 we have been instant in season, and perhaps some critics might say out of season 
 also, in urging on irrigation and railway works. Nay, I think I may say that 
 almost every second section of this paper shows that the recommendations of the 
 Famine Commission have been carefully pondered and acted upon in the higher 
 spheres of our administration. 
 
 156. While we have done what we could to put our successors in a position to 
 commence the next battle with famine under far more favourable conditions than 
 those under which our predecessors had to fight, we have not forgotten the interests 
 of those who suffered in the great calamity of the years 1876, 1877, and 1878. 
 Enormous sums due by the peasantry to the Government, as trustee for the people 
 of India at large, have been written off— more than twenty-nine lakhs smce 1881, 
 but, at the same time, the demand for years of fair prosperity after the famme has 
 been enforced, 
 
 157 In addition to this, we have allowed persons who, under the stress of the 
 famine had relinquished their lands, or had lost them by not paying their assess- 
 ' 11 
 
42 
 
 ment, to recover them upon easy terms. About 70,000 acres have been thus given 
 back, 
 
 158. It is a gratifying circumstance, and one which has not attracted sufficient 
 attention, that no sooner was the famine over than the cultivated area passed by 
 50,000 acres the limits it had had before the famine, and the land-revenue sprang 
 up to 8 lakhs over the average at which it stood before that sad event. 
 
 VAEIETY OF INDUSTEIES. 
 
 159. Agreeing entirely with the wish of the Famine Commissioners to extend 
 and vary the industries of India, we have given much attention to the best way in 
 which this could be done. It is a road on which it is very easy to go wrong, for 
 nothing is more fatal than to bolster up industries which can be better carried on 
 elsewhere. The principle of the division of labour requires that Manchester should 
 do for India what she can do for India better and cheaper than India can do it for 
 herself, and that India should do for Manchester a similar good turn. 
 
 160. With a view to aid in finding out what our people can really do to the 
 best advantage in the way of arts and manufactures, this Grovernment has lent all 
 its influence to get the Presidency thoroughly well represented at the various 
 Exhibitions that have taken place during the last five years. 
 
 161. Further, it has considered that it ought to give all the assistance it could 
 to filling up the gaps in our knowledge as to what articles of economic value 
 within our borders have not been sufficiently developed, and what arts practised in 
 this place or that, up and down the land, are not adequately known. 
 
 162. Various measures bearing upon this have been, or will be, touched upon 
 under other heads, but I may allude here to the tours which are, under our orders, 
 taken now every year by the head of the School of Art (the last of which resulted 
 in a very interesting report on the Northern Circars) and to the appointment of a 
 Grovernment Mineralogist to follow up with the economic objects the scientific work 
 of the Geological Survey. This gentleman has been engaged for some time in 
 various parts of the country, but has still to win his spurs. 
 
 163. Finding that the Geological Survey of the Presidency, although entrusted 
 to the very able hands of Mr. Bruce Foote, was progressing very slowly, we applied 
 to the Government of India to send us a second Geological explorer. They have, 
 I am happy to say, complied with our request, and we trust he will get to work 
 ere long in Vizagapatam. 
 
 164. I am afraid that the people of South India will never be able to compete 
 with the Japanese in producing articles, at once pretty and inexpensive, for the 
 European market. The moment a demand arises for any of our art manufactures 
 up goes the price, and the industry gets strangled as an industry for the many. 
 
 165. I am of opinion, however, that a good deal of valuable work would be 
 done here, if persons of taste would unite in clubs for the purpose of getting objects 
 of art executed by some of the scattered families, which, provided they receive 
 a good deal of money while " exhausting time and encroaching upon eternity," 
 can still turn out very beautiful things. Such clubs would fulfil, and in a better 
 way, the function that was once fulfilled by native courts in some parts of the 
 country where courts no longer exist, while, if the idea were once taken up by 
 leading people, many of the courts which still exist would redouble, or more than 
 redouble, their efforts in this direction. 
 
 GOLD, DIAMONDS, PEARLS, lEON AND COPPEE. 
 
 166. There prevailed in 1881 a good deal of dissatisfaction with regard to our 
 gold-mining leases. That dissatisfaction appeared to this Government not to be 
 unfounded, and in 1882 we made them, as well as our rules about searching for 
 other metals, much more liberal. The first tour I made after my arrival was in 
 the Wyndd, and I retain the opinion which I formed then, viz., that there is a 
 good deal of gold there. All that has happened is merely an illustration of the 
 German proverb " One may buy gold too dear." 
 
'43 
 
 167. We adopted also in 1882 the same policy with reference to diamonds which 
 we adopted in the case of metals ; and we hoped by encouraging the careful search 
 that was crowned with such excellent results in South Africa to revive an ancient 
 Madras industry ; but as yet scant success has attended the efforts of the diamond- 
 digger in those districts whence came the Kohinoor and the Regent. I have been 
 assured, however, on good authority, that more diamonds are still found in this 
 jPresidency than are ever heard of by us. This is likely enough, low as are now 
 the rates for mining. It is the old story of the brooms. The victory remained with 
 the enterprising citizen who stole them ready made. 
 
 168. In 1884, Mr. Thomas, Senior Member of the Board of Revenue, and well 
 known as a man of Science, was sent to collect information with regard to the 
 causes of the failure during recent years of our pearl fishery on the coast of Tinne- 
 velly. He applied himself to this congenial task with great energy, and fur- 
 nished us with a very interesting report, which was sent home to the Secretary of 
 State, and commimicated to Dr. Day, who very much agreed with Mr. Thomas's 
 conclusions. 
 
 169. From recent inquiries made by Mr. Thomas, there seems to be good 
 reason to expect that my successor, more fortunate than I, will be able to report a 
 great and successful fishery. I trust within the nest few days to inquire into this 
 matter on the spot. 
 
 170. Speaking at Yercaud in 1883, I pointed out that Salem must be in time 
 the centre of a great iron industry, but that it is idle to force the development of a 
 country. The splendid iron of that neighbourhood will not be profitably worked 
 on an adequate scale,* until the forests have been attended to for a generation, and 
 until the pressure upon them has been taken off to some extent by connecting the 
 Singareni coalfield with Bezwada by rail. 
 
 171. Something is to be hoped, too, from the development of the copper deposits 
 in the Nellore district, which are situated very conveniently with reference to the 
 Buckingham Canal. 
 
 SALT. 
 
 172. The second largest head of revenue raised in this Presidency is that which 
 is derived from salt. From that source alone accrued in the year 1884-85 nearly 
 138 1 lakhs. Of that amount, however, the merest fraction came to the Madras 
 Government ; not a rupee, indeed, from salt proper, but a little from the rent of 
 salt warehouses and other miscellaneous receipts. About 137^ lakhs went straight 
 into the Imperial treasury. 
 
 173. For some time before I came out, the state, alike of our salt administra- 
 tion, and of our salt legislation, had been admittedly far from good. 
 
 174. On my voyage from England I had the advantage of the company of 
 Mr. Bliss, who had been appointed Salt Commissioner in 1878, and had already 
 developed very weU-thought-out plans for an improved law and an improved 
 system of ofiicial management. With these I was made acquainted, and, as soon 
 as Mr. Bliss had returned to work, the new administrative system was inaugu- 
 rated, while an Act, which had been long on the anvil, was considered and passed. 
 
 175. Under the new arrangements the whole force employed in connection 
 with the salt revenue was placed under the undivided control of the Commissioner. 
 Establishments were strengthened, and honesty secured by adequate pay, while 
 a number of persons of ability were induced to join the department. The 
 organisation was completed in 1885. 
 
 176. The Presidency, including Orissa, the supervision of the salt administra- 
 tion of which province has recently been entrusted to the Madras Salt Department, 
 is now divided into three great charges, each under a Deputy Commissioner. 
 
 * NoTB,— I have myself seen iron smelted at Coimbatore by a process -which must go back to the very dawn of tha 
 Iron Age and have had it manufactured at Salem into steel, which is own cousin to the Alhinde of Middle Age Spain, nay 
 even to the steel which the Greeks imported in the days of the Periplus, i.e., in the end of the second or the beginning 
 of the third century A.D. 
 
 f In the year lately closed, it wiU be about 140 lakhs, 
 
44 
 
 Below him, come several Assistant Commissioners, each having power over a 
 definite area, and every one of these areas is, in its turn, divided into circles, 
 with an Inspector over each. 
 
 177. I explained the object of the new legislation by a few words which I 
 used in the end of 1882, and which I here reproduce : — 
 
 ".Its main objects were, ^rs^, to define the word 'salt,' so as to include swamp, or spon- 
 taneous, salt, giving, at the same time, a corresponding extension to the definition of the word 
 ' manufacture ; ' secondly, to improve the salt revenue by giving additional powers for its pro- 
 tection. The necessity for legislation arose partly from the vast saline deposits in the soil 
 of many of our districts, which enabled the population to manufacture large quantities of 
 bad salt, without paying any duty, — an arrangement unfair to other tax-payers, because it 
 exempted a great number of persons from making any contribution at all to the exigencies of 
 the State which protects them, and partly from the utter inadequacy of the means which 
 previously existed for repressing offences in regard to salt. Existing circumstances called a 
 year ago for a distinct and stringent law, but were equally imperative in demanding that 
 that law when obtained should, as Mr. Hudleston expressed it in the Stateinent of Objects and 
 Reasons prefixed to the Bill, be worked 'with lenient regard for the circumstances of the 
 poor, and with a merciful regard to the temptations to which they were exposed. ' " 
 
 178. About the time our Salt Act passed, came into force the new Imperial 
 legislation with regard to the salt duty, which fell in this Presidency from Es. 2^ 
 to Es. 2 per maund, the salt maund being equal to lbs. 82|-. 
 
 179. Meanwhile, a set of causes, into which I need not enter, had tended to 
 make the Home authorities desire to substitute for the old monopoly system (under 
 which the manufacturers handed over to Government all the salt they made at 
 certain prices fixed for each locality, while Government stored and sold the salt) 
 an excise system, under which the manufacturers themselves sell the salt, paying 
 the regular duty and certain other charges to Government, This system is very 
 rapidly extending, and has now covered nearly the whole country, but it has not 
 had the effect, which some persons expected from it, of improving the quality 
 of salt sold, and this is a matter to which the attention of Government should 
 be increasingly directed. 
 
 180. A great deal has been done since 1881 to encourage the fish-curing 
 industry, — a subject which was naturally not without its interest to one who had so 
 long sat for CuUen, Banff, Macduff, and Peterhead. 
 
 181. In 1881-82, 1,719 tons of fish were cured, under the system of issuing 
 salt free of duty to curing yards established along the Coast. In the first ten 
 months of 1885-86, 21,448 tons were cured, and the outturn of the whole year will 
 probably reach 27,000 tons. To those who know what curing (?) with earth-salt 
 meant, this will represent a great boon to the health of the population. 
 
 Our attention has been recently called by Dr. Bidie to the Norwegian method 
 of preserving fresh fish with boracic acid, and we propose to try whether it is 
 suited to this climate. 
 
 182. No one could have held the position of Under-Secretary of State for India 
 without having had the question of the salt-tax frequently brought before him. 
 The first thought of every one, who looks at Indian finance, is that it is a bad tax, 
 and should be got rid of. When, however, he has gone through all the taxes that 
 have been proposed in place of it, he is very apt to come to the conclusion at which 
 I arrived at the India Ofiice, that although some heaven-born financier may one 
 day suggest something better, that wonder-worker has not yet appeared. 
 
 183. As Governor of Madras, it has been no part of my duty to consider whether 
 the salt-tax was good or bad, but only to watch its incidence, and to see that the 
 large contribution raised by means of it in this Presidency for the general purposes 
 of India should be raised with the minimum of inconvenience to the people 
 immediately under my charge. 
 
 184. I trust this is the case. One sometimes hears complaints that the law is 
 occasionally worked with harshness, but no one could be more averse to any 
 unnecessary harshness than is the head of the department, and the magistracy is 
 naturally, and not improperly, jealous of departmental power. I hope and believe 
 that the Government will firmly repress all attempts to evade the law, without 
 using more severity than is absolutely necessary for that purpose. 
 
45 
 
 185. Our population is not rich, but a tax which raises, on an average, 6 annas 
 and 2 pies, say, about a franc, per head per annum, cannot be called excessive ; it 
 is not a high price at which to buy freedom from violence, and the poorest of our 
 people, those who, if not defended by the strong arm of the law, would be for the 
 most part slaves, hardly make any other contribution to their own protection. 
 
 ABKAEI. 
 
 186. I pass now to Abkari (Anglic^ Excise), a head of revenue which is 
 divided between the Imperial Government and that of Madras. 
 
 187. Excise, like customs, duties are of course an evil, but in most communities 
 of the modern world they are a necessary evil, and the problem which we, in 
 common with our neighbours, have got to solve is to make them as little of an evil 
 as circumstances will permit. 
 
 188. The principle which this Government accepted, accordingly, in the recent 
 revision of its excise duties was that it ought to get the maximum of revenue out 
 of the minimum of consumption, or, in other words, that it should force up taxation 
 as high as it would go, without bringing the smuggler or the iUicit distiller on the 
 scene, and further that it should oblige him to disappear from the scene where he 
 was already upon it. 
 
 189. To help us to carry this principle into effect, we were fortunate in having 
 in the Secretariat, Mr. H. E. Stokes, a gentleman who had given a most unusual 
 amount of attention to the difficult subject of our liquor laws, about which few, 
 save specialists, know anything. 
 
 190. TJie intoxicants of home manufacture consumed in this Presidency are of 
 two kinds : the first is the feimented juice of four of our common palms. Phoenix 
 sylvestris, Borassm flabelliformis, Cocos nucifera, and Caryota urens, otherwise known 
 as the wild date, the palmyra, the cocoanut, and the sago-palm.* 
 
 191. In 1881, the monopoly, both of the manufacture and sale of toddy, was, 
 for the most part, farmed out by taluks or counties. 
 
 192. In this arrangement we have made no wide and material change, except 
 by generally reducing the size of the farms, so as to have, at least, two farms in each 
 county, the object being to encourage small capitalists to compete, in order that 
 the Government, as representing the tax-payers at large, may get more, and the 
 trader less, of what the consumer pays. Where possible, we have also raised the 
 minimum price, at which this kind of intoxicant is sold. 
 
 193. By a recent Act, however, we have taken power to supersede the farming 
 system by a tax on each pahn-tree tapped, and by a license-fee upon shops. This 
 system will come into operation in some selected localities in October of this year. 
 
 194. The second kind of intoxicant made here is a spirit which is usually 
 distilled from palm jaggery, that is, coarse palm-sugar, though in some parts of the 
 country the flower of Bassia latifolia, rice, cane-sugar and toddy, are used. 
 
 195. Five years ago, we had two methods of taxation for this kind of spirits, — 
 the farming system, and the excise system. The farming system is still continued 
 in a few backward districts. Under it, manufacture is practically unrestricted, 
 and the combined rights of manufacture and sale are put up to auction for certain 
 defined tracts. Nothing has been done as to this system, except that the tracts in 
 which it prevails have been reduced in area, and that the farming of toddy and of 
 other spirits have been separated in some parts of our West Coast districts. 
 
 196. The second system which I found in force, for the taxation of the kind of 
 intoxicant of which I am now speaking, was known as the excise system ; and 
 with regard to it very considerable changes have been made. Under this system 
 the rights of manufacture and sale were sold together. Manufacture was restricted 
 to a distillery in each district and duty paid on the issues, the monopoly being 
 knocked down to the person who guaranteed the largest minimum revenue. 
 
 * It is not the real Sago -palm of commerce. 
 
46 
 
 197. This plan had the advantage of simplicity, but it had great disadvantages. 
 The wealthy renters confined their attention to populous tracts. At first sight, 
 this might seem likely rather to be agreeable, than otherwise, to a Government 
 which does not desire to encourage intemperance. Unfortunately, it merely meant 
 that the illicit distiller was free to invade the regions which his legitimate rivals 
 neglected. The large size of the farms prevented competition, for only the great 
 capitalist could think of undertaking them, and the Grovernment was accordingly 
 obliged to put up with a very minimum revenue. 
 
 198. In the year 1884, all this was altered. In most parts of the country, the 
 monopoly of manufacture was separated from the monopoly of sale. The farms 
 were made much smaller, so as to bring minor capitalists to the front, and the tax 
 was raised so as to divert as much as possible from the pocket of the lover of 
 alcohol into the pocket of the general tax-payer, or his receiver the Government. 
 
 199. The charge made is divided into two parts, — one payable at so much per 
 gallon, when the liquor leaves its distillery or warehouse, and the latter payable in 
 the shape of a sum, determined by public auction and paid, not for the right of 
 making, but for the right of selling. Each man who bids more than the rest 
 obtains the right to sell in the whole or part of a county. In this tract, he may 
 select his own retail dealers, subject to the pleasure of the Collector, who sees that 
 there are not too many of them, and that they are respectable ; but, in the more 
 important towns, the retail dealer acquires the right of sale direct from the Govern- 
 ment, the middleman being entirely dispensed with. 
 
 200. In some tracts known as monopoly-supply tracts, the vendor is obliged to 
 buy from the persons who have bought the right to distU from the Government ; 
 but in most parts of the country, we have introduced a plan of allowing any 
 respectable person to distil liquor, or to have a store for the same on payment of 
 a moderate license-fee, plus duty on the issues. This licensed personage can only 
 sell to the vendor who has bought the right of sale from Government, but the 
 vendor has no corresponding obligation. He, if outside a monopoly tract, may 
 buy where he pleases. Hence these tracts are known as free-supply tracts^ — a 
 clumsy enough name, for it led lately to an impression in certain quarters that we 
 had some happy regions where a paternal Government supplied liquor free of cost, 
 or nearly so. 
 
 201. Another change has been the introduction of a far more efficient system 
 of prevention. The abkari revenue used to be guarded simply by the police, 
 which had quite enough to do without that additional work. Now we have put it 
 under the Salt Commissioner, and are increasing the force at his command. 
 
 202. Of course, this change costs money, and will soon cost more, but the 
 returns are immensely greater than the expenditure. In the year 1881-82, the 
 abkdri revenue was Es. 60,15,476. In the year 1885-86, it will reach probably 
 Rs. 81,00,000. 
 
 203. In the year 1886-87, it will probably not be quite so high, for there will 
 be a loss of about Rs. 1,75,000 (accompanied, however, by a corresponding 
 decrease of expenditure) caused by the abandonment of the system under which 
 the Government monopolised the wholesale arrack-supply of the Town of Madras. 
 
 204. To recapitulate. "We have tried, and with considerable success, to raise 
 the price of spirits, to suppress illicit practices, and to get rid, as far as circum- 
 stances at present permit, of the middleman. We expected from this policy an 
 increasing revenue, to be expended for the general good of the country, and, as 
 will be seen, our expectations have been already to a very great extent realised. 
 We do not anticipate from it an increase to intemperance. The consumption of 
 spirits has, indeed, recently fallen by 9^ per cent. Certain classes of the people 
 will drink , alcoholic liquor. The only question is whether they are to be supplied 
 under a system which left enormous profits to the trade, or under a system which 
 intercepts the major part of these profits for the common good. 
 
 CUSTOMS. 
 
 205. The amount realised for the Imperial revenue from Customs duties in this 
 Presidency is but small, and this Government has nothing to do with the policy 
 
47 
 
 under which they are raised or lowered ; but we did, as in duty bound, all we could 
 towards the diminution of the expense of Customs establishments, which was made 
 possible by the fiscal legislation of 1882. 
 
 206. Speaking at Salem in the March of that year, I said: "All classes alike 
 will be benefited by the abolition of so many Customs duties by Major Baring's 
 epoch-making budget, — a budget which puts India, in one most important respect, 
 in a more favourable and a more honourable position than any country in the world, 
 not excepting the United Kingdom." 
 
 207. The historians of the twentieth century will, if that policy is not reversed, 
 point to that budget as having conferred one of the greatest boons which has ever 
 been conferred upon the Indian consumer. 
 
 208. Persons interested in making the Indian community at large find them in 
 profits, will, of course, very naturally take a different view ; but even they or their 
 successors will eventually be gainers by having their labour diverted into channels 
 where they can defy competition, instead of remaining in channels, where it could 
 only prosper by the Grovernment arbitrarily forbidding the general community to 
 buy in the cheapest market, and insisting upon its paying what is neither more nor 
 less than a tax for the producer's benefit. 
 
 POTTEEY. 
 
 209. The Famine Commissioners very properly called attention to the manu- 
 facture of glass and pottery, as being highly desirable industries for this country. 
 For glass we have not been able to do anything, but there is a small local industry 
 in Tanjore, which might perhaps be fostered. 
 
 210. Our School of Art already produces very good pottery, more or less like 
 that of Vallauris, and not long ago Mr. Hooper reported to me that he had examined 
 some Kaolin, which had only a small trace, one per cent. I think, of iron in it, and 
 appeared a very promising material for porcelain. There are other Kaolin deposits 
 conveniently situated for industrial purposes in the Mysore territory. 
 
 FIBEES. 
 
 211 . We have given a good deal of attention to the various fibres in which this 
 Presidency is so rich, and which will one day be a great source of wealth to the 
 country. 
 
 212. For the present, however, the cost of carriage, or the want of appropriate 
 machinery for dealing with this or that product, keeps many excellent fibres out of 
 the market. 
 
 213. The time cannot fail to come when such plants as Helicteres Isora, which 
 covers the slopes of so many of our hills, and the ubiquitous Mudar, Calotropis 
 gigantea of the plains will contribute not a little to the prosperity of regions which 
 they already adorn. 
 
 214. I am happy to think that, although the last-named very beautiful plant was 
 grown at Hampton Court as far back as the seventeenth century, it first attained 
 that floral apotheosis,— a place in the Botanical Magazine,— through some seeds pf 
 it having been sent by me to Kew, where they produced flowers in J 885, 
 
 LAND-HOLDING OF MADEAS CIVILIANS, 
 
 215 This subiect would appear not to have attracted the attention of this 
 Government until the time of Mr. Hudleston, and the old rules connected therewith 
 had evidently slipped too much out of sight. 
 
 216 In Jtine 1881 my Acting Predecessor took it up, while I continued &nd 
 emphasized his policy. 
 
48 
 
 217. The following orders, which have been issued since the subject was first 
 brought to my notice by him, by Mr. Webster, and others in the spring of 1882, 
 contain the regulations now in force, which will, I hope, be strictly observed : 
 
 " G.O., Ist December 1882, No. 1357, Eevenue. 
 „ 5th February 1883, „ 16, 
 „ lethJune 1885, „ 1380, PubUc. 
 „ 30th October „ „ 2530, „ " 
 
 218. No doubt a vast amount of spiteful nonsense has been talked and written 
 about the sins, in the matter of land, of that very honorable body of men — the 
 Madras Civil Service ; but I am sure all its members will see that to transgress, 
 ever so little, the rules about land-holding, is a sad mistake, and one which enables 
 its enemies to heap upon it all manner of false accusations. 
 
49 
 
 MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 I pass now to the Military Department in which there have been a variety of 
 changes, the principal, but only the principal of which, I will mention. 
 
 _ 2. Even of these, some require, in a document of this kind, only the barest 
 notice, because they were carried into effect under the direct orders of the Grov- 
 ernment of India, and in no way illustrate the ideas with reference to Military 
 matters which have ruled the spontaneous action of this Grovernment during the 
 last five years. 
 
 3. Foremost in this class was the reduction of the Madras Native Army by 
 eight regiments. The effect of that was that all from the 34th to the 41st inclusive 
 were disbanded ; that the strength of the remaining corps was raised from 600 to 
 720, and an extra officer added to each regiment retained. Then came the 
 amalgamation of our Ordnance Department with the Ordnance Departments of the 
 other two Presidencies under a Director-General, with the centralised control of 
 our Remount Dep6t ; and a similar policy was later followed with reference to the 
 Transport branch of the Commissariat Department. This last we had organised 
 as a local service in 1882, providing for the mobilisation of a force of 5,000 
 fighting men by a single telegram to each station. 
 
 Finally, I may mention under this head the substitution of the station hospital 
 system for the regimental hospital system at such stations of the Madras Army as 
 are garrisoned by British troops. 
 
 4. Passing to matters which were initiated here, I may allude to the changes 
 in the dress of the Native Army which were proposed to this Government by Sir 
 Frederick Roberts, and which have tended not only to increase the soldierlike 
 appearance of the sepoy, but to add to his comfort and efficiency. 
 
 Next may come the improvement that has been effected in the class of servants 
 employed in the hospitals of the Native Army. 
 
 Thirdly, I may mention the fact that it has now been determined to allow the 
 Native soldier to construct and maintain his own " lines," Government giving him 
 sufficient assistance in money to enable him to provide proper accommodation for 
 himself and his family. 
 
 Fourthly, we have transferred the troops, who were at Vizagapatam, to the 
 more healthy station of Vizianagram, and got rid amongst other unsuitable places 
 of the far northern station of Dorunda, which, by a strange anomaly, we used to 
 garrison. 
 
 Fifthly, we have turned two Madras Regiments, the 1st and 4th, into Pioneers 
 with their own good will. 
 
 Sixthly, we have approved and encouraged the employment of pensioned sepoys 
 as peons in the public offices. 
 
 Seventhly, we have increased considerably the Volunteer Force. A company 
 of Mounted Infantry has been added to the Madras Volunteer Guards and a second 
 battery to the "Duke's Own" Volunteer Artillery, while the formation of six 
 new Volunteer Corps has been sanctioned with companies at eight different places 
 up country. Two important Railway Corps have also been embodied with com- 
 panies at the chief stations along the Madras and Southern India lines. 
 
 Eighthly, we have relieved our friends at Bombay, by no means to our own 
 disadvantage, by taking over the Belgaum district. 
 
 Ninthly, a good deal has been done for the coast defences of Madras by the 
 completion and arming of the new batteries ; but more will, I trust, be accomplished 
 ere long. This important subject has been steadily kept before the higher authori- 
 ties by this Government. 
 
 5. Much more important, however, than any actual changes has been the new 
 spirit which has been infused into the Madras Army by its hp-ving been placed in 
 
 13 
 
50 
 
 1881' under a Commander who had earned a great name in the field, and who had 
 a reputation to keep up and extend. The relations between Sir Frederick Roberts 
 and this Grovernment were from first to last of the most friendly and intimate 
 description, and I know from himself that he felt that we had given him every 
 j)0ssible support. 
 
 6. He greatly favoured the excellent practice of having small and inexpensive 
 Camps of Exercise, and collected at Bangalore, in the beginning of 1884, a large 
 force for the purpose of learning what can only be taught when considerable bodies 
 of men are massed together. 
 
 7. At the Review which closed the proceedings, the Commanders-in-Chief of 
 the Northern, Western and Southern Armies were present together, for the first 
 time, so far as I am aware, in our history. 
 
 8. Sir Frederick Roberts was extremely desirous to use the days of peace to 
 prepare for the sudden exigencies of war. I may quote with reference to that 
 subject two paragraphs from my Christmas Minute of 1882 : 
 
 " Several higMy important circulars tending to the improvement of our military position in 
 any and all eventualities were issued by the Commander-in-Chief with the fullest concurrence of 
 the Grovernment. Their general object was to direct Officers Commanding Divisions and Districts 
 to complete and bring up to the present time aU information of a military nature connected 
 with the country immediately under their charge and the regions closely adjoining thereto ; to 
 encourage all, and more especially the younger members of the service, to take every proper 
 opportunity of moving about during the cool season, making it a practice to note aU topographical 
 details likely to be of use on service ; to study the language and customs of the people as well as 
 to have a personal knowledge of all those who have most influence among them ;* to direct officers 
 in high command to fix upon sites which might, in case of war, be available for the shelter of 
 non-combatants ; in other words, to take, in these times of profound peace, every possible precau- 
 tion lest war, however improbable it may look now, should ever find us napping. 
 
 " The saying, so often and so vilely misused, ' Si vis pacem para helium,' is admirably wise if 
 it be understood in its true sense. That nation understands and follows it which, husbanding 
 its material resources and wasting as few men as it possibly can in the enforced idleness of 
 barracks, or in the creation of unnecessarily huge masses of war maUriel, is boundlessly rich in 
 systematised knowledge with regard to every country in which it may be called to operate, and 
 possesses a cut and dned plan for every eventuality, — a plan which is unceasingly reconsidered 
 and re-adapted to changing exigencies. They are most likely to becalm in danger who, like 
 "William the Silent, have ' trembled in repose.' " 
 
 9. It was doubtless greatly owing to Sir Frederick Roberts' habit of travel- 
 ling perpetually about and seeing things for himself that our troops have borne 
 their arms so well wherever they have been employed in the last five years. 
 During that time, besides doing much garrison work in many foreign places and 
 occasionally supporting the Civil power, they have taken part in the Egyptian 
 campaign, in the fighting before Suakim, in assisting our neighbours of the Central 
 Provinces to repress the Kalahandi disturbances, and have fought with great 
 distinction, as everybody knows, in Burma. Our responsibility for affairs in that 
 country virtually ceased when Sir Harry Pendergast took possession of Mandalay, 
 and the ex-king had been shipped off to Madras. Since those events occurred, 
 every thing of importance in Burma has been directed by the Grovernment of India 
 and its subordinate agents. Quite recently Sir Herbert Macpherson, with a large 
 staff, has been instructed to proceed to Mandalay and to take charge of the extensive 
 operations which it is proposed to undertake for the repression of the brigandage ' 
 which has broken out on so large a scale. The Madras Army will be used to a 
 considerable extent for that purpose ; but this Government will have nothing to do 
 with the conduct of the necessary measures of repression, though of course it will 
 expedite in every possible way the transmission of men and materiel to the scene 
 of action. Dr. Irvine, our Surgeon-Greneral, and Colonel Hawkes, the head of our 
 Commissariat, will, I feel confident, admirably conduct their share of the business, 
 while the presence of our Commander-in-Chief, assisted by so many Madras ofiicers, 
 renders it certain that our Army will have all those opportunities of distinction 
 which should justly fall to its share. 
 
 10. The Conservative Administration was not less kind to Madras than were 
 their predecessors, sending to us another officer, whose name has been much before 
 
 * Attention was recalled to this subject in 1885, and it should never be lost sight of. 
 
51 
 
 the world, who has the keenest possible interest in the welfare of our Army, and 
 who may be depended upon to do all that indefatigable zeal and ability can do for 
 its honour and advantage. 
 
 11. It would be out of place in a paper of this kind to go into any controverted 
 matters ; but it is only right to say that I have formed a very distinct opinion with 
 regard to the efficiency of the Madras Army for all those purposes * which are 
 germane to its history and circumstances, and I have taken good care that my 
 opinion on that subject should be clearly and fully set before those authorities who 
 had a right to ask fOr it. 
 
 * What those purposes are will be clearly seen from an excellent paper drawn up a few weeks ago hy oiir Adjutant- 
 General Brigadier-General Elles. It may he hoped that this document will hecome the Taie Mecum of all our young 
 
 of&cers. 
 
 A useful little sketch of the history of my Bodyguard was recently printed hy its late Acting Commandant, Captain 
 Lawford. I am ashamed to say that I did not know that it had taken part in Fitzgerald's famous charge at Seetahuldee. 
 
52 
 
 PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT.* 
 
 When bringing forward the Indian Financial Statement in 1869, I said : 
 
 " There are two reproaches often brought against Indian administration which effectually 
 neutralise each other. The one is that enough is not done to improve the magnificent estate 
 which we possess in the Bast, and the other is that India lives quite up to her income, and is 
 always borrowing a little. The position, however, of the Indian Grovemment is precisely the 
 position of a country gentleman who, with a moderate immediate income, has a large and very 
 improvable property on which it is distinctly right for him to make improvements of two kinds, — 
 improvements which, I suppose, the country gentleman would class in his accounts as improve- 
 ments not bearing interest, and improvements bearing interest. The first of these are what we 
 call in India " Tublic Works Ordinary," and the second are what we call " Pubhe Works 
 Extraordinary." Under the first of these heads, the country gentleman woiild class cottages, 
 roads and other improvements which he made for the general benefit of his estate, but not as 
 directly and immediately remimerative. And we class under it in India precisely the same kind 
 of things, — as roads, improved barracks for our troops, and, in short, all ameliorations which will 
 improve our general position, but will not give direct, obvious, palpable returns for our money. 
 
 " Tin recently it has not been the custom of financiers in India to draw a sufficiently broad 
 line between these two very different kinds of expenditure, but a peremptory order was sent out 
 by my Eight Honorable friend opposite directing that henceforward only irrigation works. State 
 railways, and what are known as the Special Pund Works of Bombay, shaE. be considered as 
 Extraordinary." 
 
 2. The classification now in vogue is somewhat different. We speak of Ordi- 
 nary, of Productive, and of Protective Works. 
 
 3. The Madras Grovernment has, of course, a great many of each kind to 
 attend to, but perhaps the most convenient division that I can adopt, in a paper 
 like this, is one on somewhat different lines, into namely : 
 
 (a) Buildings, roads, and general improvements, none of which would fall 
 
 under either Productive or Protective ; 
 
 (b) Irrigation, which would be divided under Ordinary, Productive and 
 
 Protective ; 
 
 (c) Railways, which would fall entirely under Productive and Protective. 
 
 4. A great many of the matters which would have to be noticed under 'a,' such 
 as the Madras Harbour, the Cochin Harbour, the Potiughi ghaut road, &c., &c., 
 have found a place in other portions of this Minute, and I need only notice here : 
 
 (1) The opening up of the Wynaad by means of good roads. This was a 
 
 subject to which my attention was called when I visited that part of 
 the country in January 1882, but the at least temporary collapse of 
 the gold and the great depression of the planting industry have made 
 it, if not of less importance, at least of less urgency than was then the 
 case. After much consultation we decided that the first step to be 
 taken was to improve the through line from Vayitri to Calicut. 
 An estimate, amounting to more than three lakhs of rupees, was sanctioned 
 for that purpose, and the work is proceeding satisfactorily, while a 
 further estimate of above four lakhs has been sanctioned for work to 
 be done between Vayitri and Grudalur. 
 
 (2) I may notice the carrying into effect of some works for the protection 
 
 of Masulipatam in ordinary storms. To protect that place against such 
 calamities as occurred in 1864, when the sea rushed for many miles 
 inland and 30,000 persons lost their lives, would be impossible. 
 
 (3) Telephones have been introduced for official purposes, both at Madras 
 
 and at Ootacamund. 
 
 (4) Very considerable additions have been made to the buildings of the 
 
 School of Art, with a view to supplement the educational policy of the 
 Government with reference to arts and Indus triesalready alluded to. 
 
 * With reference to this as well as to the two following heads I would call special attention to my Minute of November 
 6th, 1884, where a vast number of matters connected with Public Works, Irrigation and Railway to which I cannot allude 
 Jn these pages, found an appropriate place. 
 
53 
 
 (5) We have given great attention to the improvement of thB water-supply 
 
 for the Bangalore cantonment, and a most troublesome subject we have 
 found it. A scheme has within the last few weeks been submitted to 
 the Grovernment of India. 
 
 (6) We have greatly beautified Madras by, amongst other things, improving 
 
 the Chepauk Park, laying out in gardens the banks of the Cooum River, 
 throwing a bridge across the Buckingham Canal close to the Senate 
 House, and turning the rather dismal Beach of five years ago into one 
 of the most beautiful promenades in the world. From old Sicilian 
 recollections, I gave in 1884 to our new creation the name of the 
 Marina ; and I was not a little amused when walking there last winter 
 with the Italian General Saletta, he suddenly said to me " On se dirait 
 k Palermo." 
 
 (7) Nor have we neglected our summer capital. The lake which threatened 
 
 to become a real danger to the population has been purified by drawing 
 an intercepting sewer between it and the town ; many objectionable 
 buildings have been removed ; the great line of communication from 
 Mettupdlaiyam to Griidalur has been taken over from the Local Fund 
 Board by the Public Works Department ; a most beautiful new drive 
 has been opened from Fern Hill to Lovedale ; and the roads which, 
 when I first came in 1882, made one sigh for General Wade, have, — 
 thanks to Colonel Sankey, Colonel Shaw-Stewart, Mr. Burrows and 
 their subordinates, — been put into admirable order. 
 I have very much upon my mind the improvement of the water-supply, 
 and it has been taken in hand. 
 
 (8) A good deal of useful work in the way of preservation has been done not 
 
 only at Vijainagar but at the far-famed, ill-named Seven Pagodas, and, 
 since I visited them in 3885, measures have been taken to prevent the 
 quarrying which was exposing to considerable risk that interesting and 
 enigmatic group of buildings. 
 
 (9) During the tenure of the office of Chief Engineer by Colonel Shaw- 
 
 Stewart, very special attention has been given to the improvement and 
 multiplication of civil buildings throughout the Presidency. The 
 British station of Anantapur with offices and residences for a Collector, 
 Forest Officer, Police Officer, and Doctor, although the city boasts its 
 antiquity, is virtually a new creation. 
 When I was there in 1882 there was little of all this, save a very indif- 
 ferent taluk cutcherry and the forlorn bungalow once occupied by Sir 
 Thomas Munro, which will still be utilised for public purposes. 
 Among the more important new buildings I may mention — 
 
 The Law Courts at Calicut, which have cost nearly a lakh of rupees ; 
 A new Ophthalmic Hospital at Madras, which has cost about the same ; 
 Very great improvements to the Public Works offices at Madras also 
 
 accounting for about a lakh ; 
 A High School at Chittore, which cost Rs. 45,000 to say nothing of a 
 
 huge but necessary expenditure upon the improvement of our jails ; 
 The Government offices at Ootacamund, which reached about the same 
 
 figure. 
 
 (10) We were anxious to get rid, if possible, of the Public Works Workshops 
 
 at Madras, both because they cost more than we liked, and because we 
 desired to fall in with the policy of the Government of India and 
 encourage " private enterprise." In vain, however, we invoked that 
 wayward spirit from the vasty deep. "Private enterprise" knew 
 better, or thought it knew better, than to risk itself, and we are falling 
 back perforce upon the old ways. 
 
 (11) There have been a variety of administrative changes, of which it may 
 
 be enough to mention — 
 
 (a) The division of the whole Presidency into six Circles, each under 
 a Superintending Engineer, and the arrangement of the estab- 
 lishment so as to be capable of almost indefinite expansion or 
 contraction, without putting the whole machine out of gear, 
 
 14 
 
54 
 
 (b) The sanction of a great variety of projects for Public Works 
 
 Ordinary, so that they could be set about at any moment, if 
 money were forthcoming. A great source of waste in the 
 event of relief works having to be resorted to in this or that 
 part of the country is thus eliminated. 
 
 (c) The issue of a complete Code of Instructions for the guidance 
 
 of Public Works officers, in case of famine, 
 (rf) The bringing into harmony of our system of accounts with that 
 which is used by the Grovernmeut of India. 
 
55 
 
 IRRIGATION DEPARTMENT. 
 
 I pass now to such portions of the great subject of the utilisation of our water- 
 supply as have not been treated under the head of Revenue. 
 
 2. The conservation and extension of our larger tanks and channels, as well as 
 of those already mentioned, is a constant subject of anxiety to the Madras Grovern- 
 ment. If the rains are at all too heavy, we tremble lest this or that great reservoir 
 may burst, or this or that anient give way;* if they. are at all too light, we begin 
 to look anxiously at the price of grain. Not a Council passes, throughout the 
 year, without the omissions or commissions of the clouds being brought pointedly 
 before us. 
 
 3. I proceed to notice the principal changes in our aquatic affairs, which have 
 taken place since my arrival. 
 
 4. In 1882, the Madras Irrigation Company's Canal passed under the imme- 
 diate care of this Grovernment, and we received orders that it was to be classed as 
 " Productive." I trust that, at some far off period, it may deserve the credit which 
 that epithet conveys to the non-Indian mind. We have been doing our utmost to 
 increase its productiveness, but the Madras Government had nothing to say to its 
 creation ; and it must not for a moment be confounded with those noble and 
 emphatically productive irrigation works of which we are proud-f Since it came 
 into our hands, it has changed its name, and is now called the Kurnool Canal. 
 We have lowered the rates of water-tax upon it, in the hopes that the peasantry 
 wlU convert their land from dry into wet, and we have handed over the navigation 
 to private speculators. 
 
 5. The capital of this undertaking stands in our books at over one hundred 
 and seventy-five lakhs, and the utmost net return that we have yet realised from 
 it has been about Rs. 82,000 to the bad. 
 
 6. A great desideratum for this Presidency would be the construction of irriga- 
 tion works in our Famine Zone, and some large projects of this kind have even 
 been mentioned in Parliament, Nor is there any doubt that such could be con- 
 structed if means were boundless, and if a return for the money of the general 
 Indian conamunity sunk for the Bellary peasant were no object. 
 
 7. It is the impossibility of getting any adequate return that kills such gigantic 
 schemes as that known as the Tungabhadra Irrigation Project. 
 
 8. Our experts consider that, on the larger project which has been proposed, 
 there would have to be an expenditure of from one and-a-quarter to one and-a-half 
 million sterling, and that the return would be like that of the Madras Irrigation 
 Canal of unhappy memory, viz., something to the bad. 
 
 9. Colonel Hasted believes that a smaller project which he has worked out 
 might cost fifty lakhs, irrigate 30,000 acres in Bellary, and return about 3 per cent. 
 The day may come when such expenditure will be possible ; but at present the 
 Government of India cannot even give us money to begin the Periydr Project, 
 which will irrigate some 109,000 acres, and pay about 9 per cent. 
 
 10. In Cuddapah and Anantapur, both within the Famine Zone, some smaller 
 projects are held in readiness to be constructed as famine works, if the sad neces- 
 sity for such things shall arise, and the same is the case in Salem. 
 
 * And no wonder, the Godivari, not an ill-conducted river by any means, came down past Dowlaishwaram the other 
 day, some four miles broad, and some twenty-nine feet deep. Never had it risen so high in human memory. 
 
 ' t It may bo mentioned perhaps that our great productive irrigation works are paying of clear profit after providing 
 interest at 4 per cent. : 
 
 Gods, van above 6^ percent., 
 
 Kistna nearly 7 per cent., 
 
 Cauvery aboveR7 per cent., 
 
 Penn^r nearly 3 per cent., 
 
 Srivaikuntham about 1^ per cent., 
 to aay nothing of the vast indirect benefits which they are bringing to the whole of India. 
 
56 
 
 11. I shall always deeply regret that it was not my lot to see the beginning 
 of the works for the Periydr Project above mentioned. I have taken the keenest 
 interest in this undertaking, have seen all the preliminary difficulties got rid of, 
 and hope my successor will see it far advanced. 
 
 12. In 1882 a new temporary division was formed to push on the project works 
 in the central portion of the Goddvari Delta. Already, by the end of March 1885, 
 more than 93,000 acres were irrigated there, and more than 122,000 will ultimately 
 be reached by the fertilising waters. 
 
 13. Meanwhile, the permanent divisions have gone on extending irrigation in 
 the eastern and western portions of the delta. 
 
 14. The general result of the extension of the works as hitherto reported has 
 been in these last-mentioned localities that out of 490,000 acres, which will even- 
 tually be irrigated, 435,000 acres have been taken up for irrigation, and 426,000 
 acres have been effectively irrigated. 
 
 15. Only second in importance to the works on the Groddvari are those in the 
 Delta of the Kistna. For them, too, a temporary division was constituted in 1882, 
 and the work accomplished up to this time has been thus summarised by the head 
 of the Irrigation Department : 
 
 " The opening out a navigatle canal with the necessary locks and weirs to the Uppateru, 
 which forms a second direct Une of water-communication with the Groddvari Delta ; the commence- 
 ment of another connecting line ; the improvement of the main canal, supplying this portion of 
 the delta ; and the excavation of several new drains. A considerahle extension of irrigation is 
 expected from these works, and has already commenced. 
 
 " The works in the Eastern and Western Deltas have, at the same time, been steadily 
 pushed on. 
 
 " The general result of the extension of the works has been that out of 475,000 acres, the 
 ultimate area of irrigation, 311,000 acres have been taken up for irrigation, and 309,000 acres 
 Lave been effectively irrigated." 
 
 16. A similar policy was pursued with regard to the Cauvery and Venn^r 
 Regulators immediately below the Grand Anient. They were begun in Febniary 
 1882, and are now virtually completed. I trust to be able to visit them in a 
 few days from this time. These works, the estimate for which is upwards of 
 seven lakhs, are built near the head of the large rivers, which supply the whole 
 of the irrigation in the Tanjore Delta, upwards of 900,000 acres, and together 
 form the largest supply sluice in the world. They will facilitate the distribution 
 of water, and also control the floods, thereby, it is hoped, preventing much loss of 
 revenue which has hitherto been unavoidable in years of either scanty or excessive 
 rainfall. 
 
 17. The great Sungum Anient above Nellore, begun in October 1881, and 
 involving an expenditure of twenty-nine lakhs, has been all but completed. 
 
 18. Colonel Hasted reports that " the large reservoirs have been nearly 
 finished, and the distributing channels are expected to be finished next year. 
 Extension of irrigation has commenced, and it is anticipated that shortly 94,000 
 acres will be watered by the works." 
 
 19. When I wrote my Minute of November 1884, the Rushikulya Project, an 
 important protective work, which will irrigate 120,000 acres in Ganjam, had been 
 sanctioned by the Secretary of State. 
 
 20„ In spite of great difficulties in getting labour, fair progress is reported. 
 
 21. In November 1884 a cyclone of tremendous violence (for it blew at the 
 rate of forty -nine miles an hour while that which ruined our Harbour blew only at 
 the rate of thirty miles an hour) rushed from the south-west up the whole length 
 of the great artificial lake at the Red Hills, which supplies Madras with water, and 
 dashed its north-eastern barriers into fragments. 
 
 22. The repair of the frightful mischief thus caused has occupied much time, 
 but was satisfactorily completed this spring. 
 
 23. It is thought that by lowering the level three feet, and giving a larger 
 jneans of escape to the water, the occurrence of a like catastrophe will be prevented, 
 
57 
 
 24. We have had working, from time to time, several divisions for the investi- 
 gation of new projects expected to be productive or protective. By these has been 
 carried on the inquiry into the best means of improving the Kalingaroyen Channel, 
 so important to Coimbatore ; into the most eligible plan for constructing a 
 reservoir on the Bhavdni, into the regulating the irrigation from the Lower 
 Coleroon; and into the reduced Tungabhadra Project, of which I have spoken 
 above. 
 
 25. As to a number of smaller irrigation works, it may be enough to refer to 
 my Minute of 1884 already alluded to. 
 
 26. In 1882, a variety of Madras productive irrigation projects were in a sort 
 of Mahomet's coffin condition, — ^the Government of India and the Secretary of 
 State refusing to sanction them till they had more complete information. 
 
 27. Now every one has been sanctioned, viz., the 
 
 Srlvaikuntham, and 
 
 Barur Projects. 
 
 Goddvari, 
 
 Kistna, 
 
 Penndr, 
 
 The first three of these are amongst the greatest irrigation works in the world. 
 
 28. In 1884, we passed the River Conservancy Act for the purpose of prevent- 
 ing the widespread! calamity often caused by the selfish action of individuals in 
 forming and removing constructions in or near river-beds. 
 
 29. It will be first brought into action in the districts where it is most wanted, 
 Goddvari and Kistna, and the necessary surveys are proceeding. 
 
 30. Passing from canals of irrigation to those of navigation, I may mention 
 that I have always felt the keenest interest in the improvement of the salt-water 
 Buckingham Canal, and nothing but the res angusta at Calcutta and Simla prevents 
 our spending more upon it. As a matter of fact, we have been spending upon it 
 about three lakhs a-year, half of that being a grant from the Government of India 
 under Protective, and half being from our own Provincial Funds. We have still 
 an unspent balance, on the estimate, of over twenty lakhs. 
 
 31. Up to 1883, a most inconvenient system prevailed under which separate 
 licenses were issued to navigate the Goddvari system of canals, the Kistna system 
 of canals, and the East Coast or Buckingham Canal. Now, one license entitles a 
 vessel to pass right down the whole of the long water-way from Cocanada to near 
 Cuddalore. This great public convenience has, however, still to justify itself 
 financially. 
 
 32. Another line of communication, which I should like to see much improved, 
 is on the opposite side of the country between Cochin and Hosdroog on the way 
 to Mangalore. With regard to that, we have made a beginning by sending Colonel 
 Ross Thompson to examine and prepare estimates, along the section from Cochin 
 to Calicut. This he has done, and in that part of the West Coast Canal we shall 
 receive a good deal of help from the Cochin Government. 
 
 15 
 
58 
 
 RAILWAY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 A good deal of progress has been made in the last five years towards that 
 extension of our railway system, which, when combined with irrigation, forms the 
 strongest guarantee we can have against the dire effects of agricultural calamity. 
 
 2. The Madras line, drawn in a manner which is explained by the political 
 and military theories of thirty years ago, had, amongst other misfortunes, that of 
 terminating at Beypore, a hopeless spot upon a forlorn road-stead, exposed to the 
 joint caprices of an angry sea and a not less angry river. 
 
 3. Only seven miles off lay the great and historic mart of Calicut. To this 
 point we determined, with the permission of the Secretary of State, to extend the 
 line. The difficulties to be surmounted in the way of bridging between Beypore 
 and Calicut are very considerable, but they should be all overcome before the end 
 of 1887. 
 
 4. A few months ago the Secretary of State also agreed to let the Madras 
 line run a short branch to the important town of Palghit, — a matter to which we 
 attached some importance. 
 
 5. Another and far larger project, which we have had very much at heart, 
 has been the formation of a railway from Bezvdda across the Nellamallai range and 
 through the heart of the Famine Zone to Guntakal, the point whence a branch of 
 the Madras line goes off to Bellary, through which the Mahratta system of lines is 
 reached. The length of this railway will be about two hundred and seventy-nine 
 miles, and as it is already far advanced, it should easily be completed in the days of 
 my successor. That done, the great harvests of the Kistna Delta could be poured, 
 at short notice, into the very centre of that portion of the country which is likely 
 to suffer most from a failure of the rain. 
 
 6. The branch of the Madras line above mentioned will be worked by the 
 Southern Mahratta Company, which will lay down a third rail for metre-gauge 
 traffic, so that there will be no break from sea to sea. 
 
 7. The same good office, which will be effected by the Bellary-Kistna line for 
 the Ceded Districts will be done for a country rather further south, and not less 
 exposed to peril from drought, by the line from Nellore to Tirupati which will tap 
 the delta of the Penndr. This also is far advanced. The protective work, how- 
 ever, of these railways will not be completed until the Bezvdda line is extended 
 to Hindupur, and the Nellore line to Dharmavaram. The working survey and 
 estimate of the Hindupur extension have been submitted. 
 
 8. The preliminary survey for the extension to Dharmavaram, over a distance 
 of one hundred and sixty-six miles, has been made, as have also surveys of lines 
 from Villupuram to Vellore, and Palgh^t to Dindigul, each to be about 110 miles 
 in length. 
 
 9. The first of these will be of very great importance, more especially when 
 the link between it and the other metre-gauge lines is formed across North Arcot 
 to a point near Damalcheruvu. 
 
 10. The line from PalghS,t will open out a country which is at present in a 
 very isolated condition. 
 
 11. Negotiations have been carried on through the whole of my time with 
 persons who have desired to bring a railway up the Nflgiri Hills, and on two 
 occasions it has seemed that they were satisfied with the terms accorded by Govern- 
 ment, but thus far they have always failed in getting together the requisite funds. 
 
 12. A preliminary survey has also been made for a line from Porto-Novo to 
 Salem, and another line is being surveyed from Madura to Paumben. 
 
59 
 
 13. The South Indian Railway has been doing well since it returned to a 
 lower scale of third-class fares, but it is very unfortunate in crossing near the sea 
 the whole drainage of a vast region of hilly country which receives the full force 
 of the North-East Monsoon. The destruction wrought in 1884 was quite terrible, 
 and has led to the adoption of an expedient, justifiable only under such exceptional 
 circumstances — that namely the flood-waters should be allowed to flow over, not 
 under, the line in the worst deluges, communication being, of course, interrupted 
 for a time. 
 
 14. Both the passenger and goods traffic of the Madras Eailway have gone 
 on improving, while greater attention has been paid of late to punctuality, but 
 many a long year will pass before it pays its way, — thanks, as many think, to 
 the original error of alignment, and as far as commercial purposes are concerned, 
 to the fact that we have nothing lilte the wheat trade of the North to pass along it. 
 Still the net revenue has increased in the last five years by 12 lakhs ; the dividend 
 earned has risen from 1*82 to 2*85 per cent. ; the number of passengers has greatly 
 increased, while the tonnage of goods carried is half as much again as it was, 
 
 15. The Volunteer movement has been well and increasingly supported by 
 the employes both on the Madras and the South Indian lines. 
 
 16. The comfort of the third-class passengers is now much more attended to 
 than was formerly the case. Care is taken to prevent the oppression of low caste 
 by high caste, and means are provided for giving education to the children of those 
 who work the Hnes, or seeing that they avaU themselves of schools already existing. 
 
 17. There being good hope that a line would be constructed from Mdyavaram 
 to Mutupet by the District Board of Tan j ore, an Act was passed at our suggestion 
 by the Government of India to facilitate such a transaction, and corollary steps 
 are being taken by our own Legislative Council. 
 
 18. There has been a good deal of communication between the Travancore 
 authorities and ourselves about the extension of the railway from Tinnevelly to 
 Trivandrum. The southern route would be far the least expensive, but there are 
 considerations which commend to the Maharaja's Government the shorter line across 
 the wild mountain regions, in which lies Camp Gorge. 
 
 19. Communications lately received from the Government of India lead us 
 to believe that the line from the Singareni coal-field to Bezvdda will soon be 
 commenced, and we have directed our officers to give every assistance to the 
 engineers who are to make the survey. The completion of this railway ought, 
 I think, to contribute very much to the prosperity of the town of Madras. 
 
 20. An Act to provide for the prevention of injury to Railways from the 
 escape or overflow of water from Irrigation works, situated upon the lands of 
 Zemindars or other landholders, was passed last April. 
 
 16 
 
60 
 
 GENERAL. 
 
 In the autumn of 1885, we sent a circular to all- Collectors, directing them 
 to forward to head-quarters a list of those improvements which they conceived 
 might, given a normal condition of the finances, be carried into effect in their 
 respective districts within six years. 
 
 2. The replies will convey to my successor the views of their authors upon 
 a variety of important points, and give him, in addition, some insight into the 
 character and tendencies of many of his leading officials. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Such then, briefly and generally stated, are the chief administrative changes 
 which have been made during the last five years in Madras. I trust that, to 
 impartial critics who understand the real needs of this country, they may appear 
 to have been in right directions ; while I think that this record of them will give 
 readers in England a better idea of the sort of work which is performed' by the 
 Indian Provincial Governments, in the second last decade of the nineteenth 
 century, than they could elsewhere obtain. 
 
 2. I know that my Minute of November 5th, 1884, has been of some little 
 use in that way, both at home and in foreign countries. 
 
 3. I trust the document which I am now concluding may produce the same 
 kind of effect upon the same kind of reader. 
 
 4. I am not without hope, too, that it may be of service to the collective Gov- 
 ernment. " One event blots out another," and changes of policy sometimes take 
 place quite insensibly merely from things being allowed to slip out of sight. This 
 is peculiarly the case in India, where every five years there is a complete revolu- 
 tion in the personnel hj which, business is carried on. Much of the " jerkiness " 
 that has been observed in our administration comes not from one Governor 
 deliberately electing to move on lines different from those on which his predecessor 
 moved, but simply from his having no means of authentically knowing on what 
 lines his predecessor did move. It is surely much better that he should know 
 this. His knowing it will not prevent him adopting, if he think fit, an entirely 
 different system. 
 
 5. However that may be, certain it is that I could not have drawn up this 
 paper nor taken my share in the changes which it records, without the most cordial 
 and intelligent co-operation from all branches of the Secretariat and from many 
 officers outside it,* a few, but only a few, of whom have been incidentally named in 
 its pages. To each and all of them I return my most sincere thanks. 
 
 6. There are, I believe, some Europeans, even in India, who would fain inflict, 
 upon the people amidst whom they dwell, all the institutions which have been 
 found to be "blessings" in the West, under circumstances wholly unlike those 
 with which we have to deal in this country. They are very welcome to their 
 opinions ; but I do not share them, and I fear that they and their disciples, who, 
 because they knew me to be a Liberal in English politics, jumped to the conclu- 
 sion that they would find me a "viewy" innovator in India, have had some 
 disappointments. They were well warned however. 
 
 7. In my farewell speech to m^ old constituents in September 1881, I 
 was careful to point out what I considered to be the real difficulties of Indian 
 Government. 
 
 * From no one more than Mr. Tremenheere. 
 
61 
 
 8. After some observations upon affairs on the North- West frontier, I said : 
 
 " The real difficulties are how to govern on European principles with an Asiatic revenue ; 
 how to enable a soil which has heen unscientifically managed for ages to support a population 
 which is rapidly growing under the British peace ; how to bring the Natives (to many of whom 
 we are giving a very high education) more into our system of government than has yet been 
 done ; how enormously to extend elementary education ; how to pour the ideas of the West into 
 the East without causing revolutionary ferment, or destroying good which we cannot replace ; 
 how to attract ever more and more capital to a country which sorely needs the expenditure of 
 capital ; how, in short, to make the most (not primarily for our own sake, but for the sake of the 
 people who dwell there) of the noble estate which Providence has placed in our hands in 
 Southern Asia : these are the real difficulties of our task. And they are aggravated by the fact 
 that in the nature of things our knowledge must be imperfect. It is a Imowledge which has 
 always been increasing for more than a hundred years ; but after aU, human faculties are limited, 
 and the vast Continent of India is governed by a mere handful of Europeans. In that portion of 
 India, which is about to pass under my charge, there are a great many districts, presided over 
 each by a single British official. One of these districts is about as big as thirteen of the smaller 
 EngHsh counties. How much can the local British Providence see with his own eyes and hear 
 with his own ears in so vast a field of • action ? The real difficulties are then, as you will readily 
 see, internal difficulties. And there are quite enough of them. 
 
 « ***** 
 
 " For myself, I shall have no temptation to devote any part of my atttention to those Asiatic 
 (as distinguished from Indian) subjects, which have in former days interested me as a matter of 
 poUtical speculation, as much as most men. My work wUl be of a purely administrative kind, 
 and my efforts will mainly be directed to give as great an impulse as I can to all the multifarious 
 good influences at work in a country which has been well called the rtiost Indian part of India, — 
 a country larger than the British Isles, and inhabited by over thirty millions of people. I am 
 sure I shall have your best wishes in so gigantic and so deeply interesting a task." 
 
 9. Nor were these opinions then stated for the first time. As far back as 1869 
 I had occasion to sum up in a single paragraph my ideas as to our chief duties in 
 India. I quoted it when speaking here about the middle of my period of office, 
 and I now quote it once more as briefly indicating the limits within which nearly 
 all my work as Governor has been advisedly confined : 
 
 " What, then," I said, " are our duties there ? They are far too numerous to detail ; but the 
 chief are, I think, these : to keep the peace among two hundred millions of men ; to raise the 
 material prosperity of the regions subject to our rule to a point to which they could not possibly 
 have attained while Split up amongst countless petty rulers, even if all these petty rulers were as 
 virtuous as that princess whom Sir John Malcolm described as goodness personified ; * to pit the 
 intelUgence and science of the West against those terrible natural calamities which are the scourge 
 of that portion of the earth's surface ; to curb rivers ; to cleanse towns ; to lead waters through the 
 desert ; to make famines as rare as they have become in Europe ; to extend geographical and 
 scientific research through every corner of India, and, as occasion serves, through all those countries 
 adjacent t(S India, for the exploration of which its rulers have facilities not shared by other men ; 
 to raise the standard of justice and administration; to impart all Western culture that can be 
 expected to flourish on Indian soil ; to make a royal road for every inquirer who wishes to collect 
 whatever of value to mankind at large has, through countless ages, been carved on stone, or 
 stamped on metal, or recorded in manuscripts, or handed down by tradition throughout Southern 
 Asia; to offer to the youth of Britain their choice of a variety of careers, by all of which m 
 returi for good work done to the Natives of India, which those Natives of India cannot m the 
 present stage of their history do for themselves, an early and honorable independence may be 
 won far more easily than in this country of over-crowded professions and fierce competition ; to 
 increase the riches of the world by developing, to the fullest possible extent, the resources of one 
 of its most favored portions; and to hold in no spirit of narrow monopoly but from the mere 
 necessity of the case, the keys of the gates by which the greater portion of that wealth flows out 
 to bless mankind ; to give all other nations an example how a strong race should rule weaker ones : 
 these are some of the principal objects which are withm our reach, and towards the attamment of 
 which we are steadily advancing." 
 
 10. Other lustra may bring other duties, as they certainly will bring to the 
 helm of affairs in this Presidency many persons, who will fulfil those which 1 have 
 enumerated with an amount of ability to which I can lay no claim ; but 1 am well 
 assured that they wiU never bring to the great office which I am soon to vacate, 
 any one who is more attached to India and its inhabitantSjX^r more anxious to 
 promote their best interests, according to his lights. P^.^U'*^ 
 
 m.'^etoSant duff. 
 
 ' Ahalia Bai of Indore. 
 
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