30 DECEMBER 1922, Page 26

PUNJAB CANAL GAZETTEERS : Vols. I. and II. (Lahore :

Punjab Government Printing Office. 3s. 10d. and 6s.) These excellent Reports, which deal respectively with the Lower Jhelum Canal and the Triple Canals, give a clear and intelligible account of an important section of the irriga- tion work by which the British in India have literally made the desert blossom like a rose. Thus, the Lower Jhelum Canal has fertilized some 900 square miles of waste land, for which there was no previous use " except as a safe place to drive stolen cattle into." This area now carries a prosperous agricultural colony, estimated in 1917 at a quarter of a million people. The Triple Canal system commands an area larger than Yorkshire. These canals are classed as productive works—the sale of water shows a profit after defraying working expenses and paying interest on the capital outlay. In this, as in other respects, the Indian Civil Service is a model to the world.