DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24890#0167
( 152 )
the extension of railways. If relief is not found in emigra-
tion of this sort it is difficult to see from what direction relief
is to come. Por industrial enterprises are of slow growth,
while the waste tracts within the Provinces suitable for culti-
vation are no longer considerable, and further extensions of
canal irrigation are limited by the appropriation of all the
chief sources of water-supply.
CONCLUSION.
The story of the famine has now been told. The
foregoing narrative has explained how the disasters of four
successive years so reduced the resources of the people that in
the worst afflicted tracts famine asserted itself in the summer
of 1896: it describes how the failure of the rains in 1896
intensified that famine, and extended it over large tracts that
had so far struggled against the adversities of the seasons : it
sketches the organization created to bring relief in suitable
shape to all classes of the famine-stricken population : it tells
how the famine grew in extent and acuteness through the
winter months of 1896-97, and how the relief was developed
to meet the increasing distress: liow~ the spring harvest of
1897 lightened the pressure in all but the worst districts, and
how the advent of the rains brought about new conditions
favourable to the people, but necessitating new dispositions to
meet them : it shows how the pressure slowly relaxed as the
field of agricultural labour reopened with the progress of the
rains, and how it disappeared as a bountiful autumn harvest
replenished the food stores of the Provinces and rendered it
possible to wind up by cautious steps the various relief
measures which had for many weary months been the sole
resource of hundreds of thousands of destitute people. The
operations of the Department of Public Works have been
described with the necessary technical detail, and the other
agencies which co-operated in the work of relief have been
portrayed and their results exhibited. The question of prices
and food supply has been examined; the movement of crime
has been measured, and the law-abiding character of the great
mass of the people has been acknowledged; the possible
extensions of the Pailway and irrigation system have been
glanced at, and the need of preparation and foresight in
connection with seasonal changes and agricultural gain and
loss has been adverted to.
Some effort has been made to illustrate the social and
economical condition of the people, their resources and their
power of resistance to natural calamities, by comparison with
previous famines and their consequences to the community; and,
finally, the state of public health during the famine period has
been stated and cited as the test and crown of the great and
complex organization whose object was to preserve human life.
the extension of railways. If relief is not found in emigra-
tion of this sort it is difficult to see from what direction relief
is to come. Por industrial enterprises are of slow growth,
while the waste tracts within the Provinces suitable for culti-
vation are no longer considerable, and further extensions of
canal irrigation are limited by the appropriation of all the
chief sources of water-supply.
CONCLUSION.
The story of the famine has now been told. The
foregoing narrative has explained how the disasters of four
successive years so reduced the resources of the people that in
the worst afflicted tracts famine asserted itself in the summer
of 1896: it describes how the failure of the rains in 1896
intensified that famine, and extended it over large tracts that
had so far struggled against the adversities of the seasons : it
sketches the organization created to bring relief in suitable
shape to all classes of the famine-stricken population : it tells
how the famine grew in extent and acuteness through the
winter months of 1896-97, and how the relief was developed
to meet the increasing distress: liow~ the spring harvest of
1897 lightened the pressure in all but the worst districts, and
how the advent of the rains brought about new conditions
favourable to the people, but necessitating new dispositions to
meet them : it shows how the pressure slowly relaxed as the
field of agricultural labour reopened with the progress of the
rains, and how it disappeared as a bountiful autumn harvest
replenished the food stores of the Provinces and rendered it
possible to wind up by cautious steps the various relief
measures which had for many weary months been the sole
resource of hundreds of thousands of destitute people. The
operations of the Department of Public Works have been
described with the necessary technical detail, and the other
agencies which co-operated in the work of relief have been
portrayed and their results exhibited. The question of prices
and food supply has been examined; the movement of crime
has been measured, and the law-abiding character of the great
mass of the people has been acknowledged; the possible
extensions of the Pailway and irrigation system have been
glanced at, and the need of preparation and foresight in
connection with seasonal changes and agricultural gain and
loss has been adverted to.
Some effort has been made to illustrate the social and
economical condition of the people, their resources and their
power of resistance to natural calamities, by comparison with
previous famines and their consequences to the community; and,
finally, the state of public health during the famine period has
been stated and cited as the test and crown of the great and
complex organization whose object was to preserve human life.