Page:Arthur Cotton - The Madras Famine - 1898.djvu/35



I propose only to sketch out here the works that I consider of paramount importance. These are effective communications, that is, works that can carry any quantity at a nominal cost. The railways cannot do these two things. They are doing certainly great service, but they fail in these two essential points. But of course the lines that should first be made of water communication, are those on which there are not even railways. I am glad to hear that one of the most important lines that could be formed is actually in hand, if it is not as I hope from what I hear, in operation. This is the connection of the Northern Madras Canal, which extends already 110 miles to. Nelloor, with the system of Navigation of the Godavery and Kistnah Rivers. When last I heard there were 50,000 people at work on this. This work would put Madras itself in direct communication with the grand grain districts watered by those rivers. The line of a few miles through Madras to connect the North and South Coast Canals, is in hand; this will carry the Northern grain to the Pallaur, 40 miles S. of Madras. The next most important line I consider to be the connection of the Northern Canal with the Toombudra Canals by a line from Nelloor to Cuddapah, 80 miles. This would give complete effect to the main Canal there of 190 miles, to above Kurnool, making a line of 380 miles from Madras, in a N.W. direction into the very heart of tha Peninsula. The whole surplus of Godavery and Kistnah, would thus be placed entirely at the disposal of Government for one of the worst tracts. This work has been thoroughly projected and estimated, and there is nothing to prevent its being instantly commenced. With the multitudes now at the disposal of Government, it might be completed in a few months.

But the most important work, ultimately, I consider, is the Canal through the S.W. of the Presidency, from Madras to Ponany on the W. Coast, about 400 miles. This would lay open a vast tract of fertile country, and in connection with the N. and N.W. lines, place a large portion of the Presidency in communication with a point the best situated for communication with Europe by the Red Sea. This Canal would of course Irrigate the whole way, placing the floods of the Cauvery and other Rivers of which an immense portion at present. runs to waste in the sea, at the disposal of Government. The value of this work could not be over estimated. It would entirely revolutionize four districts. It would give a new value to everything they produce, and turn into gold, or rather food, the millions of tons of water which are now so criminally allowed to run to waste from the Southern Rivers. This is one of the grand main lines that India requires.

I will only give one more case of a work that ought to be now undertaken. There is on the river Toombudra, some hundred miles