Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

wEPORT ON THE CPNSVS OF BURMA.
^3
the new land now opening out in Myaungmya and Thongwa." Taken on the
whole of Lower Burma the average of increase is 21 percent. With the exception
of Northern Arakan, where the data are no real gauge of growth, all the
districts of the Arakan division fall below this figure and, in spite of the Pegu
district, the Pegu divisional average .too is smaller. Kyaukpyu, Henzada, and
Akyab show the three smallest increases in Lower Burma ; Prome and Thayetmyo,
as I have already stated, the sole decreases. Mr. Cooke, Deputy Commissioner
of Kyaukpyu, says of his district " : There is no emigration or immigration
to speak of * * * during the time of harvest large numbers of
men go to the" Akyab and Bassein districts, but these also return home as soon
as the crop is cut." According to the vital statistics the population of Kyaukpyu
should have been 5,015 higher in 190 1 than in 1891. The census showed that
the actual increase was exactly 20 less than 3 this estimate. The exodus of
reapers is no doubt more or less responsible for this difference, but Mr. Cooke is
further of opinion that an enormous number of the deaths that took place during,
the cholera epidemic of 1894 never figured in the vital statistic returns. In Prome
the actual falling off in population amounted to 3,1 73, or a decrease of o"86 on the
1 89 1 figures. The greater part of this is accounted for by a diminution of 2,647
in the number of the inhabitants of Prome town, which will be referred to later.
There is no doubt that large numbers of the cultivators from the district have
moved southwards, either permanently or temporarily, to swell the totals of the
delta villages. Similar causes have no doubt operated in Thayetmyo, which shows
a decline of 10,455 m population and a strength cf four per cent, below the total
',.
. for 1891. In Upper Burma one would not ordinarily
Upper Burma districts. , , < l
, , \ , •
, , ,/
be led to look for any such increases as the delta
districts display, and it is therefore with some little surprise that one notes rises of
no less than 157, 95 and 90 per cent, in the populations of the Ruby Mines, Katha,
Examination, however, will show thatthe actual
and Bhamo districts respectively.
growth of population in these districts is not commensurate with these figures.
In 1 891 the inhabitants of Mongmit were not, while in 1901 they were, reckoned
among the population of the Ruby Mines, while portions of the Bhamo district
which at the recent enumeration came within the scope of the operations had.
similarly been omitted ten years earlier. This non-enumeration of the wilder
Kachin tracts, coupled with the disturbances in Katha and the Upper Chindwin,
which coincided with the census and hampered its efficiency, are sufficient to account
for what, in view of the percentages elsewhere, seem somewhat abnormal
increases of 32 per cent, and 39 per cent, in the districts of Myitkyina and the
Upper Chindwin. Exclusive of these five districts, where conditions are abnormal,
the average rate of increase for Upper Burma is 11 '2 per cent. Mandalay
district alone of a'l shows a decrease during the decade. It is, however, one
of two per cent. only. The fa'l in the district figures as a whole is largely accounted
for by a drop in the population of Mandalay city which will be touched upon
hereafter. It is clear, however, that the country as well as the townspeople show
signs of quitting the district. The Deputy Commissioner has assigned no cause for
this rural defection, but there can, I think, be no question that it must be accounted
for by the fact that the presence of the Burmese Court in Mandalay gave an artificial
stimulus to immigration not only into the city kself but also into its environs, and that
since the withdrawal of that radiant centre of interest the cultivators have graduaHy
realized the sentimental nature of their attachment to the soil and have drifted elsewhere
where conditions are intrinsically more favourable. It is possible that the construction
of the Mandalay canal may recall a large proportion of these wanderers to
their ancient seats and tend to re-establish the status quo ante. The inhabitants of
the Myingyan district are only one per cent, more numerous now than they were ten
years ago. In his district report Mr. Parlett adverts to the different causes which
might have been expected to bring about this state of things, which at first sight suggests
stagnation.
" Emigration and immigration in Myingyan " he says " follow the
barometer. It has long been an established custom in this district to migrate
when scarcity threatens, and to return when the rains promise a livelihood." It
is doubtless the threatenings of scarcity in the past that has thus arrested the normal
growth of the people, and it occurs to me as conceivable thatthe reason why