THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Wednesday, March 17, 1909. THE PROGRESS OF INDIA.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12490, 17 March 1909, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Wednesday, March 17, 1909. THE PROGRESS OF INDIA.

At the height of the. agitation in India, an opportune article appears in a Home paper by Mr Charles McMinn, ' ■\vhorein he describes the benefits that ' have accrued to India through British rule. He says that the evidence j 6i' manj' travellers of .all races ; is to ' the tercet that the people of India ■were always poor, though kings were rich." _ About a century ago the Abbe Dubois said that for about three months, of the year almost three fourths'of' the inhabitants :of the peninsula were on the verge of starvation. Montesquieu said that .in India there are none but the wretches who pillage and the wretches who are: pillaged. That was in 1748, in the days of the Great Mdgul, when an- , other French writer lamented that since the Magul took the country the i Indians have nothing which they can call their own. Now, in four . congested districts, one fourth of the population have not a sufficient supply of food throughout -the year. The ■improvement in the; century is enormous j three fourths were then submerged, now one fourth. Mr McMinn declares that much undue partiality was shown by tariffs to Indian products prior to 1805 and later. The canals and railways made' by the Government or guaranteed Companies have been, all excepting two canals | and one railway, a great commercial success, and a still greater, industrial boon. " Over fifteen million acres there is now the certainty of harvest which never was before'^for they are goods/ railway materials in 1907 was Henry Cotton has said, "weaving and spinning have become extinct" ; yet the exports of jute, cotton and other

fabrics in 1906 were nineteen million pounds, four times as much as they ever were under the Moguls. The tea grown in India by English companies with English capital pay to the half million labourers more than three millions sterling. And "such comfortable, well fed, lightly worked, healthy, merry working people I have not seen anywhere else in the world." The import of bullion, metals, piece goods, railway materiols in 1907 was 9s 9d per head, in 1872 3s lOd per head. The amount of Government paper held by Indians has risen from 72.3 million rupees in 1834 to 548.3 million rupees in 1906. "The wealth of India has enriched many. Two Greeks, an Armenian, and- a Hebrew gentleman" have been recent millionaires from India j but not. an Englishman has amassed even half a million in the century past; about 'Scotchmen, they know best. The millionaire merchants of India, at Calcutta, Bombay, Benares, Jabalpur, Muttra, are nearly all Indiansi May they flourish and multiply"! Under the Moguls the salary of Bengal, apart from perquisites^ was three lacs, about four times the present rate. In silk, cotton, tobacco, indigo, Indian cultivation was a failure seventy years ago, and is now unless propelled by Europeans, with unceasing effdrti The trade of India is increasing with great' rapidity. During the last twentyfive years its progress was 20$ per cent., while that of the United States was only 170. The land revenue is very moderate. .Mr McMinn thinks it is about ten -percent., probably. The rent taken hy former Government^ or their agents varied from "45 to 75 per cent., excepting when the benevolent Akhbar limited it to one-third. The tax on imported spirits was a century ago about 4 annas per gallon. It has been raised to 7 rupees per gallon. The result has been an ' immense, improvement ; in the sobriety of India. . The. writer firmly believes ■that .English^administration has been the .main cause of India having become a sober country. " Great, says Mr McMinn, have been the mutual benefits conferred by England - and India upon each other. Reciprocity made their tariffs tolerant and benignant. One great lesson has been taught by the Hindu to the Christian — toleration. The whole article ! is a careful, exposure of recent mis-state-ments, and certainly; puts the case for England in India in a much better light. - a'-'.-..