The Indian Famine. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2253, 6 May 1897, Page 9

The Indian Famine. TO THE EDITOR.

Sib, — Our people have not yet realised, I (hick, the magnitude and mournfulness of the famine which now afflicts their fellow subjects in India. If you can liud space for the enclosed extract from the March "Missionary Herald," recently to hand, it may serve to elicit renewed and enlarged liberality towards the famine fund. The distress will become more and more ; acute until September, when the new crop of j grain is due. Meanwhile millions are almost j sure to die of huDger. Trusting you will report i the facts and emphasise the appeal. — I am, ] fee.,' j H. H. Dhiveb, Hon. Bee. N.Z.B M.S. j The Famine in India.— An Appeal to Sate Life. There is now, unhappily no doubt that the j present famine in India surpasses, both in ates, < and severity, the terrible visitation of 1876. I For none of the rice-growing districts in the I famine area is tbere any chance cf a fresh food j supply until next September, aud the entire j population therefore must bo supplied and j Eaved from starvation and death for at least • six months, aud a large proportion for eight months, either by Government or outside help, I and owing to the sad and weakening effects of three pravious years of scarcity the people are j far less able to endure further suffering, and mutt succumb much more quickly to the effects of the present terrible visitation. The Governor - general informs U3 that 37,000.000 are in ♦• famine-stricken " districts j where the food is cot sufficient to sustain life, | and 44,000,000 more in "scarcity" districts j where the food is quite insufficient to maintain health. An eye-witness, writing from Allahabad, says :—": — " The horrors of fatnioe are indescribable. In one place I found 137 little children, mostly under 12 years of age, many not more than four or five, whose parents had died or had deserted them. These children were in the streets and baztars picking up grain which bad fallen on the ground and eating it raw. In another village I found 100 more jacking up one, grain at a time in the market-place. We called them to the rest house where we were staying, and fed them with parched grain, which they ate with gceat voracity. With the children came a number of men and women, who were living skeletons. It was awful to look into the faces of these starving people, and to know that every day their sufferings must increase until death ends their misery. . . . As our train stopped at station after station, It was terrible to hear the hungry people crying in the darkness for food. In .one place it is estimated that 12,000 people die every month from the effects of the famine. It is utterly impossible for the Government to provide relief for all the people when the famine is so widespread." A traveller in the North- West writes :—": — " The sights are sad indeed. People starving and crying for food ; dropping dead by the roadBides, in the jangles, in their homes ; dying by hundreds and by thousands. Poor creatures ! only bones, with a little dried flesh clinging to them." In the words of the Hon. Mr Nath B&nerjee, of Bengal : — " Unlike the famine of 1866, which was confined to Orissa ; unlike the famine of 1873-4, which was confined to Berar ; unlike the famine of 1877-8, which was confined to Madras, the terrible famine now upon us is universal, all-progreesing, and holding in its death-grip the va%t Indian continent, with its multitudinous population. Then, too, it should sot be forgotten that, according to high official Government authority, there are always in India, under ordinary conditions, mere than 40 millions of people who only drag out a miserable existence on the very verge of starvation, even in normal years of average prosperity." — • • Missionary Herald."

The Timaru Harbonr Board resolved lagb w eek fco give both the resident; engineer and foreman man of works one month's net'ee, partly on the ground of economy and partly because they differ from the consulting engineer, Mr J. P. Maxwell ; also (subject to the approval of Mr Maxwell) to lay up the pump dredge. A rate levj was struck over the harbour die&ict to provide £6000.