Page:Arthur Cotton - The Madras Famine - 1898.djvu/22

 Mauritius, France, &c., for the value of water is now at last beginning to be in some measure understood in many parts of the world. There is indeed some notice of Irrigation in the general Blue Book of the India Office, but only in a cursory way, and while some of the results in the least successful works are given, the magnificent results in Madras are carefully omitted. Nobody could suppose that there were works of Irrigation, not only returning 50 per cent. to the Treasury, but one or two hundred per cent. to the country. What is said therefore in that book, is only just sufficient to convey a false impression of the case. I cannot but hope that one of the results of this great calamity will be to cause a real and thorough examination of this, the fundamental point in our administration of India, and which most certainly is the sole foundation, on which we can possibly base a successful administration of that part of the British Empire, which contains six-sevenths of our population. I must not go into farther details here. I have surely said enough to satisfy the country on these points, viz:—

First. That an independent Commission should be appointed, composed of such men as will satisfy the Public that there will be a real, not a sham, investigation of the question of Public Works in India with reference to their bearing upon the Famines, the health, the finances, the opium and salt taxes and the general well being of India.

Second. That there should be formed a permanent Committee of the most complete kind to manage the Finances of that Department, keeping them quite distinct from the general Finances, so that we may see clearly the actual results, not only the Treasury, but also upon the Country generally. If such a Committee were appointed, who were free from all other duties, so that they could give undivided attention to that particular work, and have before them all the different kinds of Works, so that they could compare the results of each, there would be some possibility of a fair examination of the subject, and not as now, the most desperate efforts to bolster up a false