LIFE IN INDIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10231, 14 August 1911, Page 2

LIFE IN INDIA.

PLAGUE AND POPULATION FIGURES.

OPIUM AND THE REVENUE. The most up-todate feature of a volume issued by the India Oiiice on the "floral and Material Progress and Condition of India'' in the year IJUJ--1910 is an appendix giving the provisional result oi tne census °. n March 10 of thp present year, lhis snows that the population on the date named, the actual increase in numbers aud tho increase per cent as compait'd with 1901, work out as under:—

Population Increase Inc.

ini'Jll. ou luJl. P-c. British territory 444.172,371 12,'547,564 5.4 Native Siatos 70,826,723 b,oii£,%<;) J

Total, India 315,001, M 3 20,640,013 7.0

It is officially explained, however, that, allowing for the fact that areas for -the first time included had a population of 1,731,099, the increase of the Indian population during the decade 1901-11 was 6.4 per cent. This grov.tn. however, is very considerable, in view of the official statement that "during tho decade 1891-01, India was afllicceo by two severe famines followed by severe epidemics of lever, cholera and other diseases, which caused great mortality. The decade 1901-11 was fairly prosperous; there were no very widespread famines, and tho birth rate waliigher. Plague, however, extended it* ravages mucti more widely, causing 6,50(1,000 deaths in the decade, while in 1908 malarial fever was accountable for heavy mortality in the United Pro. vinces aud the Punjab Provinces, which have also suffered severely l'rom plague and local famines."

Owing to the plague many people had temporarily left their homes when the census wa3 taken; the effect was so marked that in certain towns a fresh enumeration will be made later on when the plague has disappeared. Thus in Bombay, where the plague was raging, the population in 1911 was 972.930, compared with 776,006 in 1901, an increase of 25.4 per cent. But in 1906, when a special census was taken, tho population had then risen to 959,537, so that the check due to the plague is apparent. The greatest increase in the decade was at Karachi—--116,663 to 159,270, or 36.5 per cent. In Calcutta the increase was 9.9 per cent, and in Madras only 1.6 per cent. A clear comparison with the past- is less easy in India than in the United Kingdom. The partition of Bengal, for instance, led to changes in regard to provinces and native States; the population of Manipur (284,405) included in British territory 111 1901, was in March included under native State 3. Areas in Burma, Baluchistan, and the Northwestern Frontier Province, with an aggregate population of 1,731,099, have been brought within the scope of the enumeration for the first time. Taking the population, however, since 1831, just before the company's rule came to an end, wo have the following figures for British territory:— Year, Population.

It will be seen that the increase has been continuous except for a slight decline between IS6I and 1871. Other facts brought out in tho volume are that the number of prisoners admitted to gaol during 1900 decreased in all the provinces except Jiurma, Eastern Bengal and Assain, and Bombay. But there was an increase in serious offences.

In finance, the deficit of £3,737,710 in British India in 1908-9 was converted into a surplus of £60(3,041 in 19091910.

'J.'he salt tax has remained unchanged for threo years (ono rupee per maund), and last year slightly increased in yield to £3,320.000. Only 267,019 persons were assessed to income tax in 1903-9, and the revenue was only £1,508.904. Consequent on the arrangement made in 1808. following tho Chinese edicts of 190 G. the exnort of opium lias been limited, and in 1910 amounted to only 51,(00 chests. The revenue was £4,424.028, compared with £4,648,700 in 19084). It is stated that, " under a new agreement, signed on May S. 1811. the cessation of the trade will be accelerated if the native - reduction of opium in China is suppressed before the expiry of the ten years period "—from 1906. It is further said that '' in 190S, when tho agreement with China took effect, the Indian Government had a large reserve stock of opium. This has been extensively drawn unon and the manufacture of new opium has been correspondingly curtailed.''

There has boon a marked increase in the output of minerals, chiefly coal and gold, in India {hiring the last, eleven .Tears, though the total value for IfK.Si) (£7,4{iy,o(X)) decreased bv 4.6 per cent compared, with 190'S, the decline being duo mainly to a lessened production /l coal.

As to industries, there were in 1909 in British India and the. native States 208 factories worked by mechanical (including electrical) powers, owned, by companies or private persons, and employing an average of 776,002 persons dai!v.

The calculated birth rate in 1909 was 3o r~j _ nor thousand compared with 3/.78 in 190R, and a quinquennial mean of SS.6I. '.lhe death rate in 1909 was r !0 P 1 ner or 7.3D lower than in 1908. and 4.83 below the quinquennial mean.

1851 , , , , . 173 500 €00 1361 . , » , . i96,a:o.ooo 1371 . 4 . 19'j,S10 000 1S31 , . . . . lTK)/M2/'0 '1S3.1 4 , . . 221,380. (>,::> 1901 . . . . 231,62-1.807 1011 . 2-1-1,172.371