FAMINE-STRICKEN INDIA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 42, 20 February 1897, Page 3 (Supplement)

FAMINE-STRICKEN INDIA.

FORTY MILLION PEOPLE ACTUALLY STARVING

PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY MISSIONARIES.

QTARVING India's mipery fills the reDorts received by tho Ray. Dr, . , '. ' James U barton, secretary ot tho Boreign Department* of the Amsiican Board of Missions, and the Rev. Dr. Elmathan E. •Stn-rtntr ita editorial eecretirv •""' .. '. . 'From eighty missions in India,' said Dr. Barton, 'we have accounts of sullerin;,' beyond description. Tho severity of the famine does not indicate that there ia no f ,-r, T^riio hni- fh-,t t. Pn ,rpitv i-i nm section has raised price* beyond thoearning nower of the DeoDle Wa^o earnora there Lrn about a Donnv'a da"^ On that they li em ordinary fines' Now with the Lb of food raised-two or "throe fold, they o-innotDoßßib!v live on their wa-^e? ■^ . , i• «t t •Greau masMß of the population orinoia are on the verge oE starvation even in tho best of time*. Millions must die tor wane of the yrain that doalera are holding in granarKsforhiKhpncos. lheUovornuienb will do all uhat ib can. binco tho tamino ot 1877 78 it_ has been orepannj? for a famine by planning reservoirs, roads, ancT other public works, ihesa are to begin ot onco, and will furnish -employment ana wages to many. But India has a population ot i! 87,000.000. auci tho .US,GO(J 000 to be oxpended will bo oub_a more tnUe in alleviating a.l oi the siuterinjj;. • The letters thab have just come bo us,' paid the Uev. Dr. Strong, ' show only too plainly that millions of lives will be loflfc. In the .Mi-sion Board's famine packet from India, the Fiev. James Smith wrote from Ahrnadnagar : i

'Those who constitute the rank and file of our churches ara always in a condition borriorin" upon starvation. There are 4 0 000,06b of feuch poor people in India who never ab mnro than one moal a day. Every night 80,000; 000 lie down on the ground to sleep, hungry. The average income of every man, woman and child.in j nc |j ft - g j oga ttian one cent, a day.' •la thia Ahmodnagar district,' writas the Roy. Dr. R. A. Hums, ' thero haa been no rain sinc&July, and fcho project |b thai- for eiglib montba no inoro ram will fall. Ihe farst crops have nob boon properly ripened and the Becond crops cannoC even bo sowed, Tho water supply in tho wolls ia low. What will it bo in a row months hence! The famine eeoms likely to be gon ? ral for nearly the wholo population with iia 300 000,000 paorjle. Grain riots aro oommoDp Marcfianta will nob cell grain, la |y becauso they know the prico will afcl - il)CrQasOi So the people break odoii craln Rh op 9 and tjranario.H and threaten to b iil tho inoichancs if they intorforo. Thoy . „Wq ehJjU MQn difj withoub yrain . . f J j n t 9r iore with our getting your Rral - n - W e will kill you in the »truggl«, and it will be all tho name." Than thoy say to bhe po | ico . »• Arre«b m for stealing and eU p^ ol , c ug j n j, a0 | # Xti will nave us from dea t h by starvation." A« it U impossible fco ripen any jjrain for over ben months to come, whak foartul suffering Booms to bo in B f.ore ! Parenb3 are deserting their children, Cattle ate beinp eoid for tho vuluo of their hides. Yosborday moroing, near the gata ' of Ahmednngar, a car!; with grain was plundered by hungry mon.' 'During tha past week there have been

800 deaths, or 50 per cent, above the normal for this time of the year,' writes the Roy. Edward Hunio from Bombay. 'This ia due co the famine plague, which the doctors ca.ll " bubonic fevsr." The uymptouis aro swellings on tho neck, in tha armpits and groins, accompanied by fovor and vomiting. Tha pabienba present a Bad and deoionted appearance, In one case death cams after an illness of twenty-two hours. In inoab cases the patients linger on for two or three days. At first tho mortality was very high, fcob more than 60 per ceno. of tho caeca aro ratal. Exports cannot tell whence tho disease came nor its cause. There ia Kro&fe oxcitemont, and the poor, ignorant Hindu, aro resorting to all manner of device-* for averting the calamity. They tn&ke special offerings to their deities aud march in proceieion through the city, thronging their temples. The women are breaking off their banslea and making other sacrifices.' Tha Rev. R, \Vin?or, in Serur Poona, wrobe . 'Wo are in the clutch of a dire famine such as has nob been known in this land for ovor 100 years. Thab of twenty years a»0 was nob co widespread. I have seen several Government officers, bub a!l seem at their wits' end. Tha sights are sad indeed — people craving for food ; a rush by hundreds to the grain shops, with none able to get anything, Thero :? nothing bub tha one cry everywhere, Kai kern ?'—what s&all we do ? The catfclo are being turnod out upon bhe highways and fields to die. Ib is reaching all over India. Suffering we musb ccc for

eight, or twelve months, with vranfc and death.' 'Th9feime3 t\re beginning to look very dark,' wrote <L P. Jones, pecrotary of the Pasumatai, Mad'nra district, in Southern India. 'Tho famine of Northern, Cantral and tha upper parts of Southern India, with the partial fulureof our own rainy season, brings up already tho price of food, with a promise o[ worse things in bhe near future.' Edward Fairbank*. wrote from Sholapur, the Marathi Mission. _ • Theso nays are dark days in India, There has been tammtwn parts of India for a year. Here, at fcholapour, grain haa risen in value 300 to 400 percent. Last Sunday the prico of tua staple grain was 500 per cent, higher than two months ago. henous gram riots'.have taken place. Additional police and uoldier corps have been called in from onbside. Tho cram morchants tseein like pecfech fiends— bent on nothing but tha gratification of their yreed. ln'fcheir cellare liios grain enough for a year. They compel the people to Btarve by the enO rmoua/y oxorbitanb prices thafctheya.sk.The Rev. L. S. Gate-, of the Sholapur Mission, ia now in Washington. Ho.reports that many of tho common village people, who comprise nimvtenbhs of tho population, are in great distress. His first work iv India, twenty yeara ago, wa-i in connection with one of the worse famines thab evar visited the country, Nearly one-tenth as many pttrßons died ot starvation ub are no? living in the United States. Many villages were entirely deBtroyed, and tho dead lefb to bu eaten by hyenas and jackals.