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No. 463, JpEBmxABY 5, 1859:1 T H E E EA ...
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INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS,
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COLONISATION IN MADRAS. WmiiB some at ho...
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THE ISTHMUS OP KRAW ¦
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NOTES ON INDIAN PROGRESS. Sir John Lawre...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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No. 463, Jpebmxaby 5, 1859:1 T H E E Ea ...
No . 463 , JpEBmxABY 5 , 1859 : 1 T H E E EA _ _ B . _____ 185
India And Indian Progress,
INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS ,
Colonisation In Madras. Wmiib Some At Ho...
COLONISATION IN MADRAS . WmiiB some at home have been , hesitating about ilic practicability of colonisation , many in India have strenuously exerted themselves for its advancement . Among these advocates is Major G . T . Haly , of the Madras army , who has been a long resident in India , and for some time a supporter of polonisation . Of two-and-thirty years passed in
India , the last twelve were spent amongst the wild and uncivilised people of the hill tracts of Orissa , and of later time with the fanatic Moplahs or the Nairs . Major Haly raised and commanded the Malabar Police Corps , in which he had recruits of all classes , and he kept up in it at his own expense a school , which was attended by Christians , Namburries , Moplahs , T ^ airs , Tiers , Hindoos , and Mussulmans , and persons of all castes .
The Major bears unequivocal testimony in favour of English settlement in the mountain regions of Southern India . The climate of many of these districts is well adapted to the constitution of Europeans . The land on the hills being very rich , coffee , tea , European grain , potatoes , European vegetables and fruit , and the mulberry , can be grown , and the climate is suitable to the silk-worm . He attests to the important advantages which would
accrue to English rule in India by the introduction and permanent establishment of a population . on whose attached loyalty dependence can be placed , and he calls on the Indian Council to inaugurate their Government by paying sonic attention to this hitherto neglected question . . " ¦ The simple question , says Major Haly , is . as to the best and most economical mode of keeping up in India a sufficient number of whites , as well bv
largest English station of the Madras Presidency , and known as one of tlie healthiest garr isons out of England . He recommends that emigrants should arrive at their destinations early in November , at the beginning of the cold season , and should be encouraged by free passages , grants of land , and other inducements , and lie feels assured that any well-deserving man will do well in the cultivation of the products already referred to , besides other pursuits in connexion with the European community ;
Major Haly recommends , as steps towards a beginning , the concession of grants of land to officers , pensioners , and invalid soldiers willing to settle . The young and weak recruits , of whom a third drop off yearly , he would form into a militia in the hills , and so make them available : He says it is a lamentable fact that no attempt lias been made by the Government to develop the manifold resources of our Indian' empire , but , on the contrary , a mistaken and- blind policy has existed of discouraging English , settlers . He regrets , too , that these mountain ranges are so little known and appreciated as stations for troops ; but this he is willing to attribute to the deadening effect 6 f mamool— custom—the millstone of Indian 1
improvement ^ equally crushing with " caste . "" Thus , English recruits are taken to India , employed in the plains , fall sick , are kept in the hospital to the last moment , shipped off to England at an enormous expense to the state , and thrown on their families or parishes , with broken constitutions , to become a burden , while , . with timely change to the hills , and care on arrival there , they might have recovered , and returned to their duty as able-bodied , acclimatised soldiers , or remained in the hills as useful and comfortable settlers . ¦ ' . . ' . '¦ ¦ ' . ¦ . We hope Major Haly will be found recorded as a witness before Mr . Ewart ' s committee in the session about to open .
example to create the spirit of improvement as to check the inherent rebellious spirit of the natives of India , He affirms , as a functionary of police , that not a year passes without numerous commotions of more or less magnitude occurring throughout the length and breadth of the land . He points to the disorganised state of the native army as one great cause of this evil . Through the small number of English officials the work of government has been carried out by native functionaries , many of them bigoted Brahmins , among whom the mamool , or custom , prevails of imposition , extortion , and torture ; lie therefore calls for more English functionaries . We find in
the memorandum of Major Haly a very apt saying . ; it is , that the English soldier , besides being the most expensive , is also the most unprofitable means of keeping up the required material , while , on the contrary > colonisation by emigration will , at the same time that it secures the rcquirocl bulwark , introduce a practical , scientific , and superior working class , and in no country in the world is this so much required as in India , which , ' having been subjected to the competition of civilisation , is at this moment retrograding from the destruction of home-made processes .
The climates suitable in Madras include the districts of Mysore , the . Shevaroy , Pulley , and Noilgherry hilfs . The latter is the seat of a wellknown sanitarium only eighty miles from the western coast / and to which a railway is in progress . On it arc the military establishment of Jackattalla and the civil one of Ootakamund . Ho refers to the coffee cultivation now extending in the neighbourhood , and appeals to the evidence of that eminent administrator , Captain Ochtcrlony , who has exerted himself so mugli for tho advancement ; of tho Noilghorry colony , as to which ho was a witness before Mr . Ewart ' s committee last vear .
Tho adjoining range of tho Koondahs Major Haly reconjmonus , and speaks well of the Shcyaroys , but the Pulncys still remain wasto . Thcso districts are near , could support each othor , and lie close to the southern branoh of tho Madras Railway . Tho Major makes some useful remarks on Wynund . This country is only 2800 foot high , and -whon first occupied became noted for its deadly junglo fevor , but having been cleared is now covered with oofl ' co plantations ,. and' ifc tho residence of tho ooil ' oo Planters with their fumilios , enjoying oxoollonl ; health . . Mysore and Cobrg ho names for thou- houLlhinoss , » a productive for ooiToo and sugar , and . suited for ¦ kJighsh occupation . Bangalore , in Mysoro , is tho
The Isthmus Op Kraw ¦
and the movements of the French fleet in Cochin China , and the Spanish steam squadron in the Manillas , which some day will be put at thie service of the French admiral by a French faction or tool in power at Madrid . , For the great commerce we carry on with China whether direct from England or from Bombay , Madras , Calcutta , or Moulmein , the superiority of the proposed route is decisive . It likewise gives the same facilities for the correspondence with Japan , which is justly looked to as a new arena for commercial activity .
Kraw is at the present time , on its western side , in English territory , and with its eastern under the government of Siam , the king of which country is favourable to the undertaking , by which it is proposed , if found practicable , to carry out a ship canal . The prospect of effecting this at present depends partly on statements of Mr . Thpmas Forrest , master of a merchantman , who . Was informed by the Siamese Governor of Kraw that on the western side , or the side on the Bay of Bengal , there is a navigable river from six hours twelve
which there is a portage of only , or miles to another river , which without falls or rapids runs through a well-inhabited ' country , abounding in rice and cattle , into the Bay of Siam on the eastern side . Sir John Bowring , however , during his missipn to Siam ,-with his accustomed activity , turned his attention to this subject , and wrote that he was informed the direct passage across the isthmus is about fifty miles , and , if the information he received were correct , a few miles of canal were alone required to unite the navigable river communications , Which now
. :. ; .. -. Sir John Bowring has , consequently , strongly recommended in his work on Siam attention to the passage of this isthmus as a means of saving time , which iii Sailing vessels may often be estimated not by days but by weeks . -r . - These recommendations of Sir John Bowring attracted the notice of Mr , Henry Wise , who has taken up the project . Mr . Wise is acquainted with the eastern seas , having been in the East India Company ' s service as chief officer in one of their been tJohn
merchant ships , and engaged by Mr . Melville in the publication of a work on the application of auxiliary steam power for shortening the voyage to India . On Sir James Brooke engaging in that noble enterprise for the colonisation of Borneo , he employed Mr . Wise in the Eastern Archipelago Company , and it was while connected with this undertaking that Mr . Wise became acquainted with Mr . Forrest . Mr . Wise has now taken up the proposition of Sir John Bowring , and . has published some correspondence on the subject . -
Through Sir John Bowring ' s influence the favourable opinion of the King of Siam has been obtained , and the English Government haye given directions for a survey to be made of the isthmus , which has , however , been delayed by the illness of Sir Robert Schomburgk , the well-known traveller , who is now consul in Siam . This survey is of great importance , 'because it will inform us whether practicable harbours can be obtained on either side , of the geoisthmusnd
graphical conditions of the , amore particularly of its climate . It is by no means certain that a canal can be carried through , but so far as steam navigation is concerned , great advantages will be obtained if a railway route can be established like that across the Isthmus of Panama . Mr . Wise estimates that the saving to the Peninsula and Oriental Steam Company will be aTjovo forty thousand miles a year , which , at 17 . per mile , would speedily pay for a railway and yield a largo return .
THE ISTHMUS OP KRAW . It is very natural that persons who have considered the Malayan Peninsula should feel a desire that the route round it should he shortened by transit across the isthmus . At an early period the isthmus route by Corinth was a main one with the . Greeks . In later times the Isthmus of Panama was traversed by the Spaniards , as it is now by the new dominators of America , and again traffic to India has been increased by working across the Isthmus of Suez . Thus the long neck of the Isthmus of Kraw , on the Malayan Peninsula has been the end of many a project . Mr . Crauford and others have promoted this subject , but it attracted little attention till renewed by Sir John Bowring .
The Mnlay Peninsula stretches so far south that it is estimated a passage across its neck would abridge the voyage between Calcutta and China by no less than 1175 miles , or between three and four days . The saving upon tho route from England to China is likewise considerable . There is no advantage for the voyage to Batavia , Penang , Singapore , or Labuan , but for other countries of present or growing importance the new communication is most important . The first of these is Siam , a country with which the intercourse from India is now considerable , and will become greater . On the voyage from Calcutta , Madras , Moulmoin , or Rangoon to Siam , the whole Malayan Peninsula intervenes . Although the voyage is but short irt fact , the voyage from either of these ports to the Gulf of Siam is doubled with the difficulty for sailing vessels of a tortuous navigation .
If the proposed communication across the isthmus be established , then Calcutta can communicate by steam with Siam in three or four days , a rapidity of intercourse which must lead to a great development of rosourcos , increasing the trade of Calcutta and our own political and commercial influence in Siam , which is now promised a neighbour—a Fronoh army in Cochin China . To Singapore the isthmus route will bo rather more aoccssible , and Labuan and Sarawak will bo brought nearor to Calcutta . There is a quicker communication o 0 octed with tho Philippines , an < l , what is of more importance , with tho proposed French settlements in Cochip China , wlfich require to be closely watched . Hong-Kong has now become of moro consideration , not only as our reserve in China , but as the station for tho fleet to watch our interests there ,
Notes On Indian Progress. Sir John Lawre...
NOTES ON INDIAN PROGRESS . Sir John Lawrence has been on a visit to tho Jutnmoo Rajah , -we hope to make arrangements with him for the surrender of Kashraeor , giving : him some other district instead , which will suit his purposes ns well , while wo want Kashmeor again for sanitary ana colonising purposes . The conduct of the Jummoo Rajah has beon far from satisfactory . At Jummoo thcrq arc , it seems , two hundred shops for the manufacture of fire-arms , and the two brass guns that flrod a salute were now . Two new regiments of cavalry had been raised , in tho ranks of which many Sepoy adherents were soon , _ _ mructs
As a specimen of the old leaven wmen still some departments , And counteracts the efforts made for the improvement of India , wo refer to n case mentioned by tho Englishman , and which well doservos tho inquiry of Lord Stanley and Sir 1 ' roby Cwtloy , for it is a direct impediment to English oettlement in India . It is that Mr . J . Nnylor , «
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 5, 1859, page 25, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05021859/page/25/
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