• The Indian Budget was- introduced on Friday week and
was unexpectedly pleasant. In spite of a famine which hat cost the people R50,000,000 and the Treasury £15,170,000 in three years, the surplus for the past year amounted to 21,670,000. In salt, excise, customs, post-office, and tele- graphs there has been a substantial increase, and in rail- ways a gain of £640,000. The alteration of the currency standard has been a great success, the profit to the Treasury being £3,000,000, which is set apart to form the nucleus of a gold fund, and a reserve in gold has been accumu- lated of nearly £7,000,000. Nor has the result been attained by plunder of the people. Their average income
has risen from 18 rupees to 20, the cultivated area hes increased from 194,000,000 acres to 217,000,000, while she yield of food crops, which in 1880e*a.e.736.1b...per acre, was in 1900 840 lb. In twenty years the railway mileage le advanced from 6,500 to 25X/00, yielding a profit to the State of £600,000 a year, while irrigation, though not so rapidly pushed on, has still advanced. India, in short, as a continent is prosperous, though about 17 per cent. of the People are still excessively poor, as they are here toe Although in the East prosperity and content do not always go together, the people being less desirous of comfort; see the result is thoroughly creditable to the British capacity for administration, and 'British caution•in interfering•with local officials.
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