Ravages of Great Famines.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3, 20 January 1906, Page 54

Ravages of Great Famines.

It has been calculated that more than 2000 persons starved to death in Spain last summer. ' The famine was due to the drought. Horrifying as arc these figures the Spanish mortality occupies an unimportant place in the record of the world’s great famines. In the great famine in India in 1769-70 300,000,000 people are supposed to have perished, and 1,500,000 died in the famine of 1866. In 1873 the rice erop in the district of Behar, in north-western Bengal, yielded only a quarter of the average harvest, and as 15,000,000 people were dependent on this erop for sustenance the Government was obliged to make purchases of rice, chiefly in farther India, and provide means of conveying it to the distressed districts, including the building of a railway fortyfive miles long. For a long time 3.000,000 persons received daily support, either in alms, in work, or in loans. This relief was continued from October, 1873, till December, 1874. In this wav the Government expended 32,000,000 dollars. Donations, also, amounting to over a million dollars, were contributed by private subscription. In this way the death rate was kept down to" only twenty- five persons. In 1876 both of the monsoons failed to bring their due supply of rain, and the season of 1877 was little "better. The consequences of this prolonged drought which extended from the Deccan to Cape Comurin, and subsequently invaded Northern India, were more disastrous than any similar calamity up to that time since the introduction of British rule. Notwithstanding unparalleled importations of grain by sea and rail, and despite the most strenuous exertions of the Government, which expended about 55,000,000 dollars for the purpose, the loss of life from actual starvation and its attendant train of diseases was great. The total number of deaths from disease and want in the distressed tracts, in excess of the normal mortality, for two years, 1876-78, is estimated to have raised the death rate by 40 per cent., or 5,250.000. Great famines have occurred in Persia in recent years, and Russia has had many during the past century, but the most terrible famine in recent times was the Irish famine of 1845-47. It was

caused by the loss of the potato cropu Ireland had at that time a population of about eight and a half millions, and it was largely dependent upon the potato crop.

The crop of 1845 was a partial failure, and the peasantry, who had no surplus food of former harvests to fall back upon, were compelled to take clothing and household furniture to the pawnshops to purchase food and seed for the next harvest. Unfortunately the crop of 1846 was a total failure, and absolute ruin and starvation threatened the whole population. The Government was slow in taking adequate relief measures, and great numbers died for want of food, and from disease caused by lack of proper sustenance. Several million dollars were raised by private subscription. and the Government contracted a loan of £ 8,600,000 to supply the wants of the suffering people. \Vhen the full extent of the calamity was realised the British Government and people did everything possible, and large sums of money- and shiploads of provisions were sent from America. At one time three million Irish people were receiving rations. A million and a half people died of starvation or disease. The Indian famine of 1896-97 was the most severe ever known in that famine afflicted country. The great famine of IS,, a fleeted-257.000 square miles and 58.000.000 persons. That of 1897 affected 322,000 square miles and 68.000,000 persons. The highest number receiving relief in 1877 was 3.178.000, while in 1897 more than 4,500.000 were being aided during the month of June. °