owing to
rain having fallen just in time, they had had from famine. But our able
Dewan--Sir K. Sheshadri Iyer, K.C.I.E.--has taken measures which must
ultimately place the Province in a safe position, or at least in as safe a
position as it can be placed. He has seen, and it has been amply proved by
our experience in the Madras Presidency during the famine of 1876-77, that
the only irrigation work that can withstand a serious drought is a deep
well, and he has brought out a most admirable measure for encouraging the
making of them by the ryots. The principal features of this are that
money, to be repaid gradually over a long series of years, is to be
advanced by the State on the most easy terms, and that, in the event of a
ryot taking a loan, and water not being found, or found in inadequate
quantity, the Government takes upon itself the entire loss. But the
results from this highly liberal and valuable measure cannot be adequately
arrived at for many years to come, and in the meanwhile the risks from
famine go on, and as the Dewan has seen that these can only be immediately
grappled with by an extension of the railway system, he has always been,
anxious to make a line to the western frontier of Mysore, if the Madras
Government would agree to carry it on to Mangalore on the western coast.
But the Madras Government felt itself unable to find funds to carry out
the project, and hence Mysore, all along its western frontier, was, from a
railway point of view, completely imprisoned, and there seemed to be no
prospect of anything being done to connect the Province with the western
seaboard for many years to come. However, a Mysore planter last year
sought a personal interview with Viscount Cross, the Secretary of State
for India, who has always taken a great interest in railway extensions,
and the result of this was that Lord Cross initiated action which resulted
in prompt steps being taken. Early this year a preliminary survey of the
route from a point on the line in the interior of Mysore, _via_ the
Manjarabad Ghaut, to Mangalore was made, and I am in a position to state
that the completion of this much and long-wanted line may be regarded as a
thing of the near future. After this line has been made a line will be
constructed from Hassan to Mysore, _via_ Holi Nursipur, and Yedatora, and
from Mysore a line will be run, _via_ Nunjengode[2] to Erode, the junction
of the Madras and South Indian Railways. I may mention here that Si