20,829,335
1901-1902 5,000,000
------------
Total (twenty-one years) $127,730,825
Among the principal items chargeable to famine relief, direct and
indirect, are the wages paid dependent persons employed during
famines in the construction of railways and irrigation works,
which, during the last twenty-one years, have been as follows:
Direct Construction
famine Construction of irrigation
relief. of railways. works.
Five years, '81-'86 $379,760 $9,113,165 $3,739,790
1886-1891 277,030 666,665 1,384,570
1891-1896 411,065 12,056,505 921,675
1896-1897 6,931,750 156,100
1897-1898 17,752,025 125,055
1898-1899 133,515 2,301,175 38,900
1899-1900 10,375,590 119,650
1900-1901 20,626,150 155,570
1901-1902 2,645,905 353,465
----------- ----------- ----------
Total (21 years) $59,531,790 $24,137,610 $6,994,775
The chief remedies which the government has been endeavoring to
apply are:
1. To extend the cultivated area by building irrigation works and
scattering the people over territory that is not now occupied.
2. To construct railways and other transportation facilities
for the distribution of food. This work has been pushed with
great energy, and during the last ten years the railway mileage
has been increased nearly 50 per cent to a total of more than
26,000 miles. About 2,000 miles are now under construction and
approaching completion, and fresh projects will be taken up and
pushed so that food may be distributed throughout the empire as
rapidly as possible in time of emergency. Railway construction
has also been one of the chief methods of relief. During the
recent famine, and that of 1897, millions of coolies, who could
find no other employment, were engaged at living wages upon various
public works. This was considered better than giving them direct
relief, which was avoided as far as possible so that they should
not acquire the habit of depending upon charity. And as a part
of the permanent famine relief system for fu
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