INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

OF PAST FAMINES. ]07
on the navigable rivers. The great Ganges
Canal was also now in existence; and although
the elab~rate schemes of irrigation dependent
on it were not developed to anything like their
full extent, yet this grand irrigation work contributed
to the general salvation of the country
in 1861. In 1868 all these were still farther
developed.
It is of course impossible at this time to say
what the present famine arrangements will cost
the State, but that it has been met in a spirit
worthy of the age, no one will deny. That
£6,500,000 are available to provide against
want, is sufficient to prove that all which it is
possible to do will be done. £14,000 represents
the ideas of one age, while £6,500,000
represents that of a century later.
But the question, What is to be the fate of
Indian finance should a few more such famines
occur 1 is one which I will leave to some able
financier. We must hope that in the present instance
a considerable portion of the outlay will
be returned to the Exchequer from the sale of
grain. Of the Durbungah Railway we may
justly hope that it will be of permanent use,