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exports by rail, boat, and road amounted to 18,877,715 bags The exports by sea numbered 104,341,762 bags, of which 45,018,189 represented coasting, and 59,323,573 foreign exports.

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 exports of of jute manufactures (bags and cloth) in 1872-73 was jute. valued at £188,859. By 1878-79, the value had risen to Growth of £1,098,434, and by 1882-83 to £1,487,831, or an increase the trade. of £389,397 in four years. These figures seem 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 principal countries which take Indian gunny-bags are:-Australia, £714,747 in 1882-83; Straits Settlements, £189,869; United States (California), £164,405; China, £173,295.

Brewing.

Brewing has been established on a large scale at the hill stations for several years. There were in 1882-83, 22 breweries Statistics in India; 12 in the Punjab and the North-Western Provinces, of Indian at Mari (Murree), Simla, Solon, Kasauli, Dalhousie, Masuri brewing, 1877-83. (Mussoorie), Náini Tál, Chakráta, and Ráníkhet; 2 in Bombay, at Moody Bay and at Bandorá; 3 in Madras, at Utakamand and Coonoor; 4 at Bangalore in Mysore; and I at Rangoon. The total quantity of beer brewed was returned at 2,162,888 gallons in 1877, and 2,597,298 gallons in 1882-83. The quantity imported into India in 1878-79 was 2 million gallons by Government, and 1 million gallons on private account. In 1882-83, the Government imports were just under million gallons, and the private imports a little over I million gallons, total 2,656,788 gallons; so that the Indian breweries now satisfy one-half of the entire demand. Indian brewed beer is rising in public favour, and is rapidly superseding imported beer for commissariat purposes. In 1875, 349,095 gallons of Indian beer were purchased by the Bengal Commissariat Department; in 1883, the quantity thus

PAPER-MAKING: LEATHER FACTORIES. 617

purchased was 1,936,221 gallons, as against 1,486,234 gallons imported by Government.

prices.

At Simla, imported beer sells at over 18s. per dozen quarts, Beer while that from the local breweries can be obtained for 10s. per dozen. The hops are entirely imported. An experimental hop plantation of 100 acres established by the Mahárájá of Kashmir has not yet proved a practical success; but efforts are still being made, both in Kashmir and in India, to successfully introduce the hop plant into the country. The imports of hops show an increase from 1529 cwts. in 1875-76, to Hop 1807 cwts. in 1876-77, and 2135 cwts. in 1877-78. 1882-83, however, the import of hops had fallen to 1940 cwts. valued at £42,983.

In imports.

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.

The Government possesses a large leather factory at Cawn- Leather. pur, which turns out accoutrements, saddlery, etc., of excellent quality. Two large European firms have also established leather factories at Cawnpur. Indeed, leather hand-manufactures have long been an important local industry in Oudh and the North-Western Provinces. They are worked so cheaply as to discourage importation from England, except in the case of articles de luxe, and saddlery or harness for the richest classes.

Rice-husking by steam machinery is largely carried on at the Riceperts of British Burma.

husking.

CHAPTER XX I.

MINES AND MINERALS.

Mines and THE Indian peninsula, with its wide area and diversified minerals. features, supplies a great store of mineral wealth. In utilizing

Indian iron.

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.

In purity of ore, and in antiquity of working, the iron deposits of India rank among the 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 methods. 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;

1880.

The most promising early 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. But when this essential condition of cheap production gradually ceased, the enterprise becaine 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

IRON-WORKS: COAL-MINING.

619

methods, in the neighbourhood of Ráníganj and in Bírbhúm and Mánbhúm. 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.

Govern

ment.

In 1882-83, the Bengal Government took over the works Efforts by of the suspended Barákhar Iron Company at Khenduá in Mánbhum District, and cast and pig iron is now manufactured on the spot. The iron-works are doing a considerable amount of good, as not only do they encourage the private coal companies in the neighbourhood, but they also give employment to a large number of skilled workmen. They also promise to be remunerative; and the question of the expansion of the works is (1884) under the consideration of Government. With the exception of these works, iron in India 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 Difficulties of 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.

The first coal.
There are

coal

Coal has been known to exist in India since 1774, and is Indian said to have been worked as far back as 1775. English coal-mine was opened at Ráníganj in 1820. now (1885) 65 working 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 is, on the whole, a record of continual progress. The first Bengal mine, as already mentioned, dates from 1820; and it has been mining, worked regularly up to the present time. In 1878, its out- 1820; put was 50,000 tons. Until about 1840 no other mine was opened; but the commencement of the East Indian Railway in 1854 gave a fresh impetus to the industry, and since that 1854; 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 1883, there were in all 62 working collieries in Bengal, 1883. besides 15 others, principally in the Santál Parganas, which were either closed, or were not working during the year. The

Ráníganj Sub-division, with its 50 working collieries, had an output of 603,591 tons in 1883, as compared with an average output of 547,930 tons in the previous three years. Four new mines were opened during the year. Hazáríbagh and Mánbhúm Districts contain 6 collieries, which yielded an out-turn of 559,849 tons in 1883, against an annual average for the three previous years of 502,860 tons. The East Indian Railway Company's valuable mines at Karharbárí and Srírámpur are situated within Hazaribagh District. In 1883, these two mines yielded a total output of 308,000 tons, against an average of 274,087 in the three previous years. The total out-turn from all the working mines in Bengal in 1883 was 1,200,957 tons, against an average of 1,058,084 tons for the three previous years. Imported 1882-83, the imports of coal into Calcutta by sea were only 74,610 tons, so that Bengal now uses locally about 94 per cent. of Indian to about 6 per cent. of foreign coal. Bombay and Madras are entirely supplied with coal from England.

coal.

Coalmining in Central

The collieries in the Central Provinces, the only other Indian ones worked on a large scale, are limited to the supply Provinces; of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. They consist of— (1) the Warorá colliery in Chándá District, under the management of the Public Works Department; and (2) the Mohpání colliery, which has been leased to the Narbadá Coal Company. (1) Warorá In 1878-79, the Warorá colliery put out 43,000 tons, of colliery; which 11,000 tons consisted of slack. The gross receipts were £18,686, and the net receipts £5873, being about 8:3 per cent. on the estimated capital expenditure of £70,000. In 1883, the Government mine at Warorá yielded an out-turn of 95,738 tons, and averaged 51,376 tons in the previous three years. The profits are estimated at 4 to 6 per cent. But it is difficult to fix the sum, as the accounts are mixed up with those of the Wardhá State Railway, a branch from the Nagpur line of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. Cost of raising coal in the Central Provinces, Rs. 2. 10. (5s. 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.

(2) Mohpání colliery.

The Mohpání colliery had an output in 1878-79 of 8900 tons, valued at £8000. In 1883, the total output from Mohpání mine was 19,281 tons, as against an average of 13,714 tons in the previous three years. Almost the whole of this was taken by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. Extensive coal-fields have recently been discovered at Umária, within the Native State of Rewá, only 34 miles beyond the

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