INDIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 489, 13 April 1861, Page 10

INDIA.

HORRIBLE FAMINE IN THE NORTHWEST PROVINCES. (Fr6m the Melbourne Age, March 22.)

Our dates from Bombay are to the 16th of February. The principal items of intelligence relate to the distressing famine that at the present time is felt throughout the Northwestern Provinces. Below we give brief accounts from Bombay and Calcutta papers of " this deplorable calamity. It is pleasing toobserve that the European inhabitants of India are coming forward ncrbly with their subscriptions to relieve the distress which prevails. With a few exceptions, however, the wealthy natives seem entirely unconcerned in the mat- : ter.

The Botiihay -Gazette of 12tK Feb. says :—: — " The famine is great in the land. Horrible accounts reach us from the North-west Provinces of human beings dying at. the rate of 400 to 500 a-day; while the desolation is not even limited to the vast expanse of country from Lucknow to Lahore," for tales .are now told equally appalling of the extremities to which the population of the native State of Travancore, in the south of India, are reduced by the drought, which has caused to wither all the fruits of the earth. According to a Cochin newspaper, mothers in Travancore are selling, their children as slaves for sixpence each, that they may have wherewith to purchase bread, if only for a single day. While so many millions of the people of India are thus afflicted, it is at least a consolation to know that both the Government and the public have exerted themselves with liberality and promptness -to lessen the weight of this terrible calamity. In Bombay alone, from 70,000 to 80,000' rupees have already been collected ; and Calcutta and other great cities have also responded nobly' ta the appeal of the Famine Relief Committee. In the north-west, the showers of rain that have lately refreshed the earth have, it is/ hoped, saved the spring crop ; and, bad as our situation is, the worst, we believe, is already known.

The great subject which has been occupying - men's thoughts during the past ten days is thefamine,, which is now a stern fact. Every day. brings us accounts of still greater miseries inthe North-MC&t and the Punjaub. Hundreds are dying for want of food, Avhile thousands are, as we are told by official authority, migrating from onr misgoverned districts into, the dominions of native princes. A great meeting of all classes was held at the Chamber of Commerce, to take steps to relieve, as far as possible, the miseries in the North-west, and a v cry handsome subscription was immediately commenced. Upwards of £7000 has been &U ready subscribed in Calcutta alone, and £5500> forwarded to the Lieutenant-Governors of the-North-west and the Punjaub. It is a melancholy fact that but a very insignificant partiof"! ' this sum has been contributed by natives, though it is their fellow-countrymen'who^Mfc-suffering. We think that this cirouinstatfßfc - alone should be a sufficient answer to those who talk of the European and the native.beipg - on an equality in India. In the nititinfes, all the assistance the Baboos of Calcutta^who owe; all to us and our Government, and, hadjjwet. , v lost the day, who woald have suffered with us, gave to the state, was to remain ;j*ay?v: -r sive, while every Englishman in ths .coaqtig^. was active in the assistance he gave to th 6 \ > Government. Now, when thousands of their • own countrymen ore perishing frttnv fa*nine« they will not unlock their hoards to jsre on§ . penny to their relief, Those among-thein trho, have subscribed are the few whose l*tiStfcc»§ ; ; brings them so closely in contact Europeans that they can scarcely avo^^pifig; ,. , as they do. The Njiwab Nazim qf Bengal ha* subscribed £500. — Bengal Burkarv* .