Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/362

 354] FOREIGN HISTORY. [1899.

Queen Victoria telegraphed to the Viceroy for details of the disaster, at the same time expressing her profound sym- pathy for the sufferers and the bereaved.

It was proposed, in order to remedy the congestion and insanitation of Calcutta, that during the next five years five crores of rupees should be expended in widening the streets and constructing fifteen miles of new streets in the northern quarter of the city.

North-West Provinces. — Sir Anthony MacDonnell, the Lieu- tenant-Governor, opened on January 25 the Elgin bridge over the Gogra, connecting the narrow gauge railways of the North- West Provinces. The bridge cost 200,000Z, and by it through communication for very long distances was made possible. The Viceroy sanctioned in April the construction of 550 miles of tram-railways, with a gauge of two feet six inches in districts north and south.

The alleged mismanagement of the local finances of the municipality of Agra received the attention of the Lieutenant- Governor, and he appointed an official secretary to carry out necessary reforms. It was affirmed that the octroi levied on the people of Agra was excessive, and that the poorer classes must be freed from the burden of such taxation.

A monument recording the services of the 32nd Foot during the siege of Lucknow was unveiled in April by Lady Inglis, the widow of the commander of the Lucknow garrison.

Madras. — Serious disturbances took place in June in the Tinnevelly and Madura districts, between the Maravas and Shanars. The Maravas burnt the village of Chinnapuram on June 9, and a number of other villages later. The riots spread to the adjoining province of Travancore where the police were forced to retire. In an attack on Sivakasi (June 6) 887 houses were burned, twenty-five persons were killed, and over ninety arrests were made. At Samboovadagarai 450 houses were burned. A large police force with European officers was stationed in July in the disturbed district which extended over an area of 100 miles square. The Shanars in several of the villages were converted to Islam, and turned their temples into mosques. A special commissioner was appointed by the Madras Government to act promptly in settling these disturbances on his own discretion.

Native States. — The effects of famine were more severely felt this year in some of the native States than in other parts of India, but all their rulers were energetically coping with the distress. Native and English officers, versed in famine affairs, were lent to native States, and large sums of money were advanced by the Government Treasury to States unable to provide funds for relief. The Maharajah Scindia, whose terri- tories were not seriously affected, advanced loans with Govern- ment consent to some of the neighbouring States in distress from famine. \jwik.