jute mills. The largest are the twilled wool packs sent to Australia, which measure 56 inches by 26, and weigh about 10 lbs. each. The smallest are the Hessian wheat sacks for California, measuring 36 inches by 22, and weighing only 12 ounces. The average weight may be taken to be from 2 to 2 lbs. Out-turn of The mills in Calcutta and its neighbourhood are estimated Calcutta to keep about 4000 looms at work; and the total amount of raw jute worked up annually is about 1 million cwts., which yields about 90 million bags. The activity of the trade, and the general direction of the exports, will be seen from the following figures for 1877-78. In that year 3 million bags were also brought into Calcutta from Pabná District, being the product of the Sirajganj mills. The total exports by sea and land of both power-loom and hand-made bags numbered 80 millions, of which not more than 6 millions were hand-made. The East Indian Railway took 20 millions for the grain marts consumpt. of Behar and the North-Western Provinces (chiefly Patná and Cawnpore); and 1 million went as far as Ludhiana in the Punjab. The total exports by sea exceeded 57 millions, of which 32 millions represent interportal, and 25 millions foreign trade. Bombay took as many as 16 millions, and British Burma 12 millions. In fact, Calcutta supplies bagging for the whole of India. Indian jute. the trade. The foreign jute trade may be given in greater detail, for gunny-weaving is perhaps the single Indian manufacture that Sea-borne has secured a great foreign market. The sea-borne export of exports of jute manufactures (bags and cloth) in 1872-73 was valued at £188,859. By 1878-79, the value had risen to £1,098,434 or an increase of fivefold in six years. Within the same period Growth of the exports to the United Kingdom alone increased from 21,200 bags valued at £585, to 7 million bags valued at £184,400. These figures seem almost to justify Mr. O'Conor's statement in his Review of Indian Trade for 1878-79, that 'there is little room to doubt that in course of time India will be able, not only to supplant the manufactures of Dundee in the American and other foreign markets, but to supply England herself with bags more cheaply than they can be made in Dundee.' On the other hand, it must be recollected that large figures, and even growing figures, do not necessarily show that a business is remunerative. Calcutta, like Bombay, sometimes suffers from the mismanagement incidental to joint-stock enterprises. The other countries, besides Great Britain, which take Indian gunny-bags are:-Australia, £298,186; Straits Settlements, £161,772; United States (California), £79,795; Egypt, £76,726; China, £32,121. of Indian Brewing has been established on a large scale at the hill Brewing. stations. There are now about 12 breweries in India; 5 in the Punjab and 5 in the North-Western Provinces, at Mari (Murree), Simla, Kasauli, Masuri (Mussoorie), and Náini Tál; and 2 in the Madras Presidency, at Utakamand and Bellári. The total Statistics quantity of beer brewed was returned at 2,162,888 gallons in brewing, 1877, and 1,522,769 gallons in 1878, the diminution being due 1879. to the termination of a contract between the Commissariat department and one of the Masuri breweries. The total quantity of beer imported in 1878-79 was 2 million gallons by Government, and 1 million gallons on private account; so that the Indian breweries now satisfy just one-third of the entire demand. At Simla, imported beer sells at over 18s. per dozen quarts, while that from the local brewery can be obtained for IIS. per dozen. The hops are entirely imported; for the experimental plantation of 100 acres established by the Rájá of Kashmir has not yet proved a practical success. The imports of hops show a steady increase from 1529 cwts. in 1875-76, to 1807 cwts. in 1876-77, and 2135 cwts. in 1877-78. The steam paper-mills established in the neighbourhood of PaperCalcutta and at Bombay have almost entirely destroyed the making. local manufactures of paper which once existed in many parts of the country. The hand-made article, which was strong though coarse, and formed a Muhammadan speciality, is now no longer used for official purposes. Besides manufacturing munitions of war, the Government possesses a large leather Leather. factory at Cawnpore, which turns out saddlery, etc., of excellent quality. Indeed, leather manufactures are an important local industry in Oudh and the North-Western Provinces. They are conducted on such a scale as to preclude the import from England, except in the case of articles de luxe, and saddlery or harness for the richest classes. CHAPTER XX. MINES AND MINERALS. minerals. Mines and THE Indian peninsula, with its wide area and diversified features, supplies a great store of mineral wealth. In utilizing this wealth, English enterprise has met with many rebuffs. Capital has been expended in many cases with no result except disappointment. But the experience has not been thrown away; and mining industry, now established on a sure basis, is gradually rising into an important position. Indian iron. methods. In purity of ore, and in antiquity of working, the iron deposits of India probably rank first in the world. They are to be found in every part of the country, from the northern mountains of Assam and Kumáun to the extreme south of Madras. Wherever there are hills, iron is found and worked Indigenous to a greater or less extent. The indigenous methods of smelting the ore, handed down unchanged through countless generations, yield a metal of the finest quality in a form well suited to native wants. But they require an extravagant supply of charcoal; and notwithstanding the cheapness of native labour, the product cannot compete in price with imported iron from England. European enterprise, attracted by the richness of the ore and the low rate of wages, has repeatedly tried to establish ironworks on a large scale. But hitherto each of these attempts has ended in failure. Failure of English efforts, 1825; 1870. The most promising efforts were those undertaken in Madras by Mr. Heath of the Civil Service, the anticipator of the Bessemer process. In 1825, he founded a company which opened works at Porto Novo on the Coromandel coast, in the hills of Salem District, and at Beypur in Malabar. The iron and steel produced were of first-rate quality; and all went well so long as an unlimited supply of charcoal could be obtained in the neighbourhood of the furnaces. when this essential condition of cheap production gradually ceased, the enterprise became unremunerative, and had to be abandoned. Within the last few years, an attempt has been made to smelt ore by means of coal, according to English methods, in the neighbourhood of Ráníganj and in Bírbhúm. Coal abounds, and also limestone as a flux; but in this case, again, the Company made no profit, and has been compelled to wind up. Similar experiments in the Central Provinces. and in Kumáun have met with similar results. At the present time, iron is manufactured only by peasant families of smelters, each working on a very small scale. iron The initial difficulty in India is to find the three elements of Difficulties iron-working, namely, the ore, the flux, and the fuel, suffi- of Indian ciently near to each other. The second difficulty is the choking works. of the furnaces from the excessive quantity of ash in the coal. Coal has been known to exist in India since 1774, and is Indian said to have been worked as far back as 1775. The first coal. English coal-mine was opened at Ráníganj in 1820; and there are now altogether 58 collieries in the country, with an annual out-turn of about 1 million tons. In India, as elsewhere, coal and railway extension have gone hand in hand. Coal is comparatively worthless unless it can be brought to market by rail; and the price of coal is the chief element in determining the expenses of railway working. The history of coal in India History of has, on the whole, been one of continual progress. The first Bengal mine, as already mentioned, dates from 1820; and has been coalmining, worked regularly up to the present time. In 1878, its output was 50,000 tons. Until about 1840 no other mine was opened; but the commencement of the East India Railway in 1854 gave a fresh impetus to the industry, and since that 1854; 1820; date collieries have been set on foot at the rate of two or three every year. The largest number of additions was seven in 1874. From these are supplied not only the railway itself, but also the jute mills of Calcutta, and the river steamers of Lower Bengal. In 1877-78, the railway used 308,000 tons of coal from its own collieries at Karharbárí and Srírámpur, and sent exactly the same quantity to Calcutta. In the same year, the Imported imports of coal into Calcutta by sea were only 80,000 tons, so coal, in that Calcutta now uses about 80 per cent. of Indian to 20 per and BomCalcutta cent. of foreign coal. Bombay and Madras are entirely supplied bay. with coal from England. Central The collieries in the Central Provinces, the only other Indian Coalones worked on a large scale, are limited to the supply of the mining in Great Indian Peninsula Railway. They consist of-(1) the provinces. Warora colliery, under the management of the Public Works Department; and (2) the Mohpání colliery, which has been leased to the Narbada Coal Company. In 1878-79, the former had a total output of 43,000 tons, of which 11,000 tons consisted of slack. The gross receipts were £18,686, and the net Excessive Indian Ráníganj Distribu tion of beds in receipts £5873, being about 8.3 per cent. on the estimated capital expenditure of £70,000. Cost of raising coal in the Central Provinces, Rs. 2. 10. (55. 3d.) per ton; price paid by the Railway Company for large coal, Rs. 5 (10s.) per ton. In 1877-78, the cotton mills at Nágpur took 4872 tons. The Mohpání colliery had an output in 1878-79 of 8900 tons, valued at £8000. Almost the whole of this was taken by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. The principal drawback of Indian coal is its large proportion of ash; varying from 14 to 20 per cent., as against 3 to 6 per cent. in English coal. This places Indian coal measures at a great disadvantage, alike for iron-smelting and locomotive purposes. But it has been proved that, with efficient fire-grates and proper manipulation, 135 lbs. of Warora coal will do the work of 100 lbs. of English coal. The Ráníganj coal-field has been estimated at 500 square miles. In this 'black country' of India, which is dotted with tall chimney-stalks, 6 European companies are at work, besides many native firms.' At first coal was raised from open workings; but regular mining is now carried on, according to the system known as 'pillar and stall.' The seams are entirely free from gas, so that the precautions usual in England against explosion are found unnecessary. The miners are all drawn from the aboriginal races, chiefly Santáls and Baurís, who are noted for their endurance and docility. Bauris work with the pick, but Santáls will consent to use no other instrument than the crowbar. Wages are high, and the men look well-fed, although they waste their surplus earnings in drink. The coal-fields of India lie almost entirely in the broad centre of the peninsula, between the Ganges and the Godávari. South of the Godávari no carboniferous strata exist; and the whole Presidency of Madras is thus compelled to depend for its supply upon importation. North of the Ganges, the only Outlying extensive fields are to be found in the outlying Province of Assam. There, in the Khásí and Jáintia Hills, mines have been worked on a small scale for many years; but the aggregate of the deposits is insignificant, and the difficulties of carriage almost insurmountable. Still farther away, in the frontier District of Lakhimpur, there is a large coal-field of excellent quality, which it is proposed to open out by a light railway running down to the Brahmaputra. Coal is also found 1 For a full account of the Ráníganj coal-field, see article RANIGANJ, Imperial Gazetteer, vol. viii.; and for its geological aspects, see a subsequent section of the present volume, post, pp. 501, 502. |