INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

OF PAST FAM/XES.
tion, and of course omitting IV. altogether (the
action taken in regard to this item has already
been commented upon), the result is a little more
satisfactory. But what is to be said of column 71
This direct relief has steadily increased. In No.
III. we have no record; but No. I~. shows
£74,800; No. V., £148,600; and No. X.,
£196,400. No doubt higher aims were in view;
the ambition to save the people increased with
our sad experience of famines, and consequently
the funds required for this end had to be augmented.
Recollecting our first premiss-viz.,
that as preventive works increase, direct relief
should decrease-this result cannot be said to
rest on a scientific basis, unless we assume that
preventive measures have not yet been sufficiently
developed in the North-Western Province.
But with the Ganges and Eastern
J umna Canals as witnesses, I do not think that
we can admit this view. 'Ve must therefore
adopt the second premiss, and attribute
the result, which is nevertheless highly creditable,
to the fact that Government made more
strenuous exertions to save the people, and that
the public aided their effortt'o