THE FAMINE IN INDIA.

Southland Times, Issue 2916, 19 October 1877, Page 2

THE FAMINE IN INDIA.

An address on India waa delivered in the Exchange Hall, on the evening ot the 17th instant, by Henry Young, Esq., who. in compliance with the request of his Worship the Mayor and other gentlemen, kindly consented by such means to inaugurate a movement having for its object the collection of money towards the Indian famine relief fund. The audience was by no means numerous, but the lecture was listened to with marked attention, and frequently elicited applause. The Mayor in introducing the lecturer said that when he received the telegram from the Mayor of Wellington, founded upon a similar communication from the Lord Mayor of London, he thought it would be a great disgrace if Invercargill allowed itself to remain out in the cold, by not assisting in so great a cause. It would be a feather in our cap to send as much as possible. He had succeeded in inducing Mr Young to lecture, and had made the fact known as widely as possible. He presumed the inclemency of the weather had a good deal to do with the smallness of the audience. He read a letter trom the Rev. Father Higgins expressing great sympathy with the movement, and regret at unavoidable absence, enclosing a cheque for L 3 towards the fuads. He introduced Mr Young, who, in addressing the audience as ' My friends,' said that a formal mod,e of address was more usual, bqt he considered his own more congenial. Friendliness had brought them together, as they had sad news.— news that millions ware perishing, and that cry m^de all the world akin, and ao why aais them ? What was rsmofca to the eye was too often remote to our sympathy, and it had beea well said by the great William Wilberforce, the friend of Pitt and the emancipator of the slave, in vjsw of a great catastrophe in <phiaa— ' What would be tbe feeling ia Europe?, Sympathetic) remarks would be made, b^t no rrian would feel it one half as much, as if he had himself £o logs, his. little, finger.' Wh,ea the. Mayor had %at sought him, he ha,d rather f 6 ft disposed to decline, but he remembered that every pound §ent to Jjjndia wou.ld sustain aome family for a given time. In India, under ordinary circumstances, a man could clothe and feed himself for four shillings a month, thoagh it would probably cost four or five times that amount now. His objection, therefore, gsve way $o a S,enße of duty, aa.d, aq e^ly hut week he had received the congratulation! of his family upon attaining his 74th year, he trusted that they would respond to the prayer, and

Ec to his faults a little blind, And to his virtues very kind.

He (the lecturer) h.a4 heen about twelve ypars in |nd.ia, in various civil appointments. He had been unable to obtain an enlarged map, an,d for that n&w exhibted to them he was indobjte4 to the kindness of JVJ[r Sponee, and his draughtsman Mr D,everell. India was not alone in its peculiarity of formation, they would perceive tkat the configuraMoa of South Africa, and South America were of the same long, comical shape. This simi-. lar^ty mu,st have arisen from some natural causes, though b,e had n,©ver a eeil aa

explanation attempted. The lecturer then ' entered upon an elaborate description of the formation of the Indian continent, describing it as a high table-land, with raised edges, and an> ' average height of from two to four "thousand ''feet above the sea' level — thY "eastern ghauts being l lower than the western, which latter reach to the height of five or six thousand feet. In some of thehigher regions the climate was most equable, particularly to those who had, lived in the very hot parts. The rivers of India were then described, and their importance dwelt—upon as relating to irrigation for the production of food. The lecturer then described the site of the present famine, as occupying—a large area of the cotton land of ; India, and, en passant, narrated the efforts of Captain Briggs to ascertain what kind of cotton could be cultivated'with the besfc advantage and profit, resulting in the establishment of the fact that the indigenous was the most suitable and successful, and amply sufficient to satisfy the demands of commerce. The lecturer ■, described the natural hilUforts, which. ; exist ob these cotton plains, and bow the traveller may ride for miles and see them looming in the distance, deceiving the eye by their semblance of nearness. Where moisture exists, sugar, wheat j and garden stuffs are raised, and, in the last, large ' bunds are constructed for storing the monsoon water. Bangalore, from its healthiness, was one of the largest military stations, the troops being massed there, but bow, alas ! famine was at their doors, and we had the horrible intelligence that, in two cases, people have been known to eat the flesh of their children. As regards the language of India, the lecturer said, that in the part referred to, as many as five languages were spoken, each related to the other, yet all distinct, and each having to be learned separately. They abounded in liquids and had mostly final vowels, which made these languages very soft and dulcet. The administration was next dwelt upon, the lecturer describing the method of entering the civil service as long ago as 1822, when he first went to India as what was termed a ' Writer.' Before any employ- ■ ment was entered upon, at least one language had to be mastered* i which occupied about six months, and the ' Writer ' was not eligible for the next step, that of * Factor 8 until he had passed in a second language. He then would advance to the superior grades of ' Junior' and ' Senior Merchant,' the top of the tree. 'Honorable titles' quoth the lecturer, had they but been suitable. I as well as others had the name of ' Writer.' There was one 70 years before named Robert Ciive, who also bore that name, and also for some years did the work. We all kaow who he was, and what he became. There was one Warren Hastings who bore the name, later still Charles Metcalfe, still later Sir John Lawrence. I have to own that in that period of my life I did not add much , efficiency to the office I held, and more , employed my available time in learning to swim my horse across tidal creeks and to chase hares and : jackals over the cotton fields, only, with the exception of Eobert Clive» we never did a day's work in a counting house.' While holding the office of writer the lecturer was in fact performing judicial duties as assistant in a court of circuit aHd appeal. Only one incident of his stay at Surat was worth mentioning here. He had kaowa a young man named Alexander Barns, who came to him once to borrow a Persian MS. that he might learn the language, which he succeeded in doing. He was afterwards sent by the Government upon a very arduous and dangerous mission, viz., to present to the monarch of the Punjaub conciliatory presents, after which he was to pass through the Punjaub with caution, and enter Bokhara. All this he accomplished, and brought home an intelligent account. He (the lecturer) had met Burns in London society, when he said his head was nearly turned with what he had undergone through the lionising he had received, and, repairing to Paris, he had found no rest there. He went back to India, and Sir Alexander Burns was one of the first to suffer death at the commencement of that fearful calamity, which the lecturer believed we richly deserved, and had brought upon ourselves. The further history of India was graphically traced, many incidents, of personal adventure and anecdotes ©£' others being interspersed. Th§ f&asful yearly slaughter by tigers wa.s described* and an account of a tig&j attacking a village upon an occasion wfeea the lecture? himself took payt against the foe, was graphically told. The «Eoyal Bengal' was efi Ust despatched but not until one of its. assailants has been killed and four others wounded. Maay of the idolatrous ' customs of the people were explained fey the lecturer, who then described the cirI cumstances of the present famine and the- ! great efforts made by the Gsveynment to meet the difficulty, efforts whiek had necessitated the bajtfowing of money upon a large, scale.. Tbe lecturer was aware fck^l the pressing circumstances fe,ad brought taem together forbad | lengthened remarks upon the character and prospects of the continuance of our powe& and occupation, of the country, h.VLt he would say this : 'We lield India mainly by two leading features of chari acter in our countrymen. One was unealculating daring and firmness, which i would not be daunted, and next, most happily, by the care taken in all our public engagements to fulfil them. This remark might admit cf some flagrant exceptions in the times of Clive and ITaatings, but aa a rule it was and had been 'the character of the public acts of the Indian Government. 'I'he Native princes knew, the Sepoys knew, and the people knew, that though they may not always I get what they want or what they think they are entitled to, the Governments and their officer* adhere to plighted faith.' Meanwhile the Government required money in this fearful calamity, and it should be remembered that the daily requirements of the Madras Government amounted to 4500 tons of provisions. Proper irrigations, i combined with road&and railroads, would ; avert famine in India by distributing the jf-ood grown, but tfee fact was the land ! would produca a vast deal uo?e, as much ; as it eve? had done, if properly and fully cultivated and irrigated. At least one '■ halt of it ia a large proportion of villages |in his time was not under cultivation at all, butlying waste. The lecturer eoneladed ;by a powerful appeal for Christian syra* patby aaisEccGiv

On the motion of the Eev. Mr Stobo, icconded by Mr Bailey, a cordial vote of thanki was accorded to Mr Young for his very interesting and instructive lecture. On the motion of the Eev. Mr Green, seconded by Mr Perkins, the following gentlemen were elected a committee, with power to add to their number, to collect funds and transmit the same to the proper quarter, viz., the Mayor, the Eev. Messrs Stobo, Paterson, Tanner, Higgins, Green, McNichol, and Dean, Messrs Macdonald, T?ade, Elingsland, Hall, Mitchell, and J. T. Martin.