Sir John Gorst, in his speech of Friday on the
Indian Budget, showed that Burmah had cost in 1886.87 two millions sterling in excess of the revenue received. This, however, was due exclusively to the heavy military expenditure, rendered necessary by semi-political brigandage, an army of 53,000 men having at last been employed. The work, however, is nearly complete ; the civil officers have got their twenty districts in hand, the Shan States have accepted the partial independence offered them, and it is believed that in future the military police will secure complete order. Trade is improving rapidly, and the people are themselves fighting dacoits, while cheap railways are under construction in two directions. The great railway, however, upon which the future of Burmah will depend, connecting Mandelay with Bengal Proper, has not been begun. Till it is finished, the overspill of Bengal will not begin to pour in and supply the great want of the new Province, which is an industrial population. The peasants will not go by sea; but with the railway once open, and the land settlement complete, the immigration ought to reach 100,000 a year. The Bengalees make the best of citizens, they understand all the agriculture suited to Barmah, and in Borne districts they are as pressed as Chinese for room. We do not want swarms of Chinese coming through the passes, as they will if we do not succeed in filling up the land.
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