People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1895 — THE GREATNESS OF INDIA. [ARTICLE]

THE GREATNESS OF INDIA.

FvuMlhlnn of Its Population, Religion, Crops and Beasts. There at e some big figures in a recent blue book upon Indian affairs that has just been published 5n England, Bays the New York Evening Post, The grand torfal of the ]opulati*>n, including British India aud native states, according to the censtc of 1891. was 287,223,431, as compared with 253*783.514 at the eensus of 1881, the males numbering 146.727.29 t; aud the females numbering 146,496,135. Taking the distribution of population according to religion, there was In 1891 207,731,727 Hindoos, 57,321,164 Mohammedans. 9,811.467 alwriginals, 7,131,361 Buddhists, 2,236,380 Christians, 1,907,833 Sikits, 1,416,638 Jains, 89,904 Parsees, 17,194 Jews and 12,763 of other religions. Of the Christian population, 1,315,263 were certified to be Roman Catholics and 295,016 Chui-ch of England. The total number of >w>Hce offenses reported during 1892 was .-35,639, as against 124,550 in 1891 and 115,723 in 189'1, the police being composed of '50,516 officers and men. The opium revenue in 1892-3 was Rx. 7,fhK','lßO and the expenditure Rx. 1,602,49 J, giving as the net receipts on opium Rx. 6,390,384. In the last ten years the net receipts on opium have been Rx. 6..',X .',987, while the a/erage annual num*-er of cb<sts of Beigal opium sold for export during the 'nt ton years has 1-cen 53,994. The actunJ area on which crops of various kinds were grown in India in 1892-3 was 196.897,389 acres, of which 65.7W.812 were devoted to rice, 21,484,889 to wheat and 92,927,655 to other food grains, including pulse. The area devoted to cotton was 8,940,248 acres, to jute 2.181,334, to oil seeds 13,545,025, to tobacco 1,149,548, to sugar cane 2,798,637, to tea 36V,463 and to coffee 122,788. The length of railway lines open to traffic in 1893 was 18.459 miles, the number of passengers conveyed was 134,700,469, the goods and minerals carried represented 28,727,386 ton.--, the gross receipts were Rx. 23,955,753 and the net earnings Rx. 12,679,200. In 1892 21.988 human beings and 81,668 head of cattle were killed by snakes and wild beasts, the chief human mortalfry (19,0251 having been due to snake bite. Tigers claimed 947 human victims, leopards 260, wolves 182, bears 145 and elephants 72. On the other hand', whereas oiuy cattle were killed by snake bdte, no fewer than 29,969 were devoured by tigers, 30,013 by leopards and 6,758 by wolves.