500,000 DEATHS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11538, 24 November 1900, Page 6 (Supplement)

500,000 DEATHS.

■■ i .» ,-: — SLORD CURZON ON INDIA'S TERRIBLE • ;•■_ r .. FAMINE. - .' £50,000,000 OF CROPS LOST, AND • RELIEF COSTS £7,000,000. Simla, October 19.—Lord Curzon, speaking in the Vice-regal Council to-day, made a .very lengthy speech on the famine. " We cannot," Lord Curzon said, " be accused of having failed to anticipate or provide for the great drought. "The famine has affected a quarter o* the entire population of India, and the estimated loss to the crops is £50,000,000, in addition to the loss of some millions of cattle. , •■■ , "*he scale of alms-giving has been unprecedented, and is likely to embarrass future famine administration. Up to the end ot August the cost had been .lakhs of «£ pees, and I expect a further cost of 150 lakhs up to the end of march. _ ' •' Two hundred and thirty-eight lakhs of rupees have been advanced to cultivators, and many lakhs of land revenue have been remitted. Three and a-half crores of rupees have been lent to the native States. While we have set our faces against indiscriminate and pauperising charity, we have been prepared to accept any expenditure really required to save life or mitigate genuine distress." ~..'. Alluding to the shocking mortality in native States. Lord Curzon pointed out that, broadly speaking, no relief system in the world could counteract the effects of areduced food supply, cessation of wages, high prices, and the breaking up of homes among millions of people, or prevent pestilence following famine. . He believed that half a million deaths in British India might be fairly attributed to famine conditions, but he could fearlessly claim that no famine had ever occurred in which the general mortality had been less or the distress more quickly relieved, or in which the officers had worked harder to save life. -..'■'' c After alluding to the numerous cases of native chivalry, and of devotion on the part of Englishmen dying at their posts without a murmur, the Viceroy made special mention of the noble efforts of the missionary on the question of the future, Lord Curzon said that the outlook was everywhere promising. Prices were steadily falling, and there was a good cotton crop, probably worth £13,000,000. , . Our first object now was to start the sutfercrs again in the world, and next comes the duty of profiting by the lessons which the famine has taught. "The recent famine," said Lord Curzpn in conclusion, " cannot be met with a sigh or dismissed with a shudder. It is a terrible incident, an abiding landmark in the history of the Indian peoples."