THE FAMINE IN INDIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume LX, Issue 2337, 6 March 1897, Page 4

THE FAMINE IN INDIA.

The special correspondent of the Thnes qf India m the Jhansi district, writing on December 22nd, saya :— " The case of the children excites, my compassion the more I see of them. They are everywhere the pictures of hopelessness and theinnocent victims of neglect, of selfishness, or of cruelty. They do nothing but look wistful by the hour, and die without complaining. I saw a small boy standing alone among a crowd of grown-up paupers. He was asked where his mother was, and he pointed her out. " Where was his father ?", "Oh ! He has taken another wife. "That is a common case. A man who m ordinary times would take a second wife and keep his first now turns off the first and her children. A woman deserted by her husband takes up with another man; but he makes it a condition that she must not bring her children ; he cannot afford to feed so many. So the children are turned loose. Then there are numbers of children who were orphaned before the famine, and have been taken care of by relatives. These are now told that the times are too hard and that they may no longer share the food of the children of the house. Thousands of homes were broken up before the relief works began. I write of the country at large, not of this place. The father went one way and the mother another, m search of work, m many cases never to meet again, and the children were left m the deserted hut. Home mothers are kind to their children, and think of them before they think of themselves. Other mothers are 'simply depraved. They daily starve their children that their famished appearance may induce corapassionatep«ople to give them money. " Another special correspondent of the Times of India, writing from Bina, Central Provinces, on December 21st says: — 14 The story of distress m Sangor appears to be the same as m Damoh, except that the district, being a rich one, and having a railway though it, the mortality has i not been on such an appalling scale. Villages were almost emptied of their inhabitants,the towns and roads swarmed with famished people begging piteously for food, and dead bodies- were found m nil sorts of places." This correspondent made a point of noting the desolation of villages-? He reports m different cases, " eight inhabited huts out of 60 or 70 " ; "m twenty huts only one family remaining " ; m a large village " half the houses deserted " ; " only one house m five occupied " ; m a large village, " almost a little town, nine out Qi ten noueea were untenantedV 1

The vital statistics of Western Australia show that at the end of December the population of that province was approximately 138.000, of whom 96,000 were males and 42,000 females. Here is the place for a matrimonial -agency, with supplies arranged for m other colonies, of all grades of quality and style of finish. The following is the scheme of the new Treaty of Peace between Great Britain and America as the result of diplomatic overtures upon the Venezuela case,: " (1) Claims under £100,000 to be settled finally by a majority decision of the first Court, appeal. (2) Claims above £100,000 and other disputes; except territorial, are to be Settled finally by First Court, that is, ■ if unanimous ; otherwise to be settled ; finally on appeal by a majority decision of the Second Court. (3) Territorial claims to be settled finally by arbitration, only if the Third Court isunanir [nous or decides by SJo 1 ; otherwise to pc referred to a mediator before hostile measures are taken/ The newspapers bn both sides of the Atlantic are jubilant over this conclusion of peace between John and Jonathan. / !- The seeming indifference of the Russian people regarding the Siberian Railt way is really remarkable. If any Fnglißh- • speaking race were m the position of s jßussiaat the present time, it is inconceiv- ■ jable thatone would notnieefcwithahostof ! individuals of all sorts and conditions hashing out to take possession of this land of promise — clerks; tradesmen, speculators, prospective hotel ; proprie-saloon-keepers, bankrupts, members iof the Salvation Army— and what does One find m Siberia ? Not a single Rus- • sian travelling to spy out the land from mere love of it, and few anxious so ! much as to visit this land of the future. i ; In a recent communication to the i Soctele' d'Ethnographie m Paris, M. ' Verrier treated of vegetarianism from i the point of view of its moral and m - tellectual effect upon the nations who, • either from choice or necessity, are to be ; classed as abstainers from animal food. ' While fully recognising the dangers of a r (too abundant meat diet, as well as the i advantages of purely vegetable nourißhl ment, the speaker nevertheless feltcon- : strained to come to the conclusion that ; jNature^ intended man to be carnivorous. • jThe physical constitution of the human • is so ordered that to ensure the de- • Jvelopmentof their higher qualities its ; members are of necessity compelled ,'■ ;to become to a certain extent meat- , eaters, j 'The attributes that make - ;for dominion and progress are but , imperfectly present among the esJchewera of animal food, and hence » vegetarianism causes tlie downfall of ■ Idynasties arid leads to the enslavement ; ;of peoples. If, continued M. Verrier, : =the Hindus, instead of following an ab- . -solutely vegetable regimen, had made j iuseof meat m a rational manner, per- • ihaps the British might not have found • jtheir subjugation' such an easy matter. I :His argument waß equally applicable to ■ jthe Irish, who lived exclusively upon • As for the Japanese, with - iwhom rice was formerly the staple food, i ;the energetic nature of this people could t ;nqt; be cited m subversion of the rule ; jlaid down m his thesis. The reawakening of the conquerors at Port Arthur and /the Yalu River was coincident with the of a trade m butcher's meat throughout their archipelago.— Lancet.