THE INDIAN FAMINE.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10636, 21 April 1900, Page 3

THE INDIAN FAMINE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —Will you kindly permit mc to S3y another word "touching the famine in India? Your admirable article on this subject pub-fis-hed last week, placed the terrible facts withgreat force before us, but the result has been disappointing. Probably we have not yet realised the urgency of _*c appeal. During the last Indian famine, which appalled us by its magnitude in 1897, some 3,000,000, I 'believe, were employed on Government, relief works; to-day the area affected is so much greater that, although we are assured that no one is employed iwho Is rjDt absolutely destitute, about 5,000,000 are engaged in such labours! Of course these are chiefly men, and men with families. Beyond" this at least 85,000.000 are affected by the famine, perhaps only a shade removed from actual starvation, and continually recruiting the vast multitude of those "who are dying. Our missionaries in the north-west provinces write: "The condition of things here is most distressing—starvation and sickness on all hands. The people say they have never before seen such a terrible state of things as the country now presents." In India, it must be remembered, great numbers live "from hand to mouth," even their —irvest in prospect is very commonly mortgaged to meet the demands of their landlords, or the taxes of the Government, hence the failure of the crop means to such a disaster■ with which they have no power to cope.

The British Government is acting in this emergency in a manner worthy of its best traditions, the generosity of the English people, too, has been great, in spite of the unique claims which patriotism has imposed, while the native prince* have wonderfully emulated the bright example of our throne. But the need is so vast that even now, as Lord Curzon and our missionaries affirm, the destitution is simply appalling, parents in many cases offering their little children for sale to avoid the inevitable starvation that - stares them in the face! Ail this has been steadily increasing for months, and the pressing need will last until July at> least. "Help afforded now," says" tlie "Indian Witness" in a strongly worded appeal, "will bs much more beneficial than at a later stage when -wrought proves irreparable." Now, sir, we are accounted a generous people, and we have for our awn needs enough and to spare ; the harvest here has been bountiful. Surely our lethargy in this instance can only be attributed to the overmastering and absorbing interest of the war, or a failure to notice the progress of this scourge. Believe mc, it is as much for the welfare of our vast Empire that we lilnd the" hearts of our Indian fellow-sub-jects to our throne as that we fight for the national cause elsewhere. lam glad to note that a fund has bsen opened by the Mayor. May I suggest that action be at once taken, similar to that of Dunedin, where 15,000 circulars stating the need and appealing for help have been distributed, and £500 has been already raised.

The fund opened in connection with Oxford Terrace Baptist Church is to be sent to the Baptist missionaries in the affected districts, and will be disbursed by them to the most needy, heathen and Christian alike. We send it to them because they are in close and sympathetic touch with the common people, and in order that it may convey with it the imprint of the love of Christ. Let mc earnestly entreat that the proverbial generosity of Christchurch be shown in this matter at <mcc. —Yours, etc., JOSEPH* J. DOKE. East belt north.