The event of the week has been the appearance of the annual budget. We are accustomed to surprises in reference to the fluctuations of Indian Finance, but they are generally of an unpleasant nature and are apt to take the form of deficits, sometimes unpleasantly large. On this occasion, however, the surprise is of a more pleasing kind, and Sir Edward Law, who is apparently quite as much surprised as we are, Smilingly informs us that there is an unexpected surplus of £3,982,000! The actual increase of reve nue amounts to £4,354,800, but after de. ducting an increased expenditure of £372,800, the above is the net result. Now, although this is very satisfactory in one way, so large and unexpected an increase over even the revised estimates shows had finance in the matter of budgetting and framing estimates, but as I think I have remarked before, in Indian economic questions it is always the unexpected that happens, and we have learnt to accustom ourselves to a Micawher state of mind, at one moment in a state of the deepest depression, and at the next. in a stage of exuberant exaltation. Only a fortnight ago T was engaged in studying the Iugubrious utterances of it. Digby, and was wondering whether it could possibly be true, as he announces to the world in sensational headlines and diagrams, that the great mass of people in India are starving on 3 farthings a day, that their income has been steadily decreasing for the last 20 years, and that a few years more of mis-rule must bring about a financial catastrophe without a parahd. And now, like a transform: tion scene in a London pantomime, ever:
ing is bright and gay; the sun is shin-the birds are singing, and everything of the best in the best of all possible worlds! and, seriously, there seems to be good reason for self-congratulation.
Whereas the two previous years of fam-me and pestilence showed a decrease in tit customs receipts, surely the safest test of a country's material progress or increase of £648,000! I will quote the falling off, the past year shows a sudden words of the Finance member under this head. "We have heard a good many arguments about the poverty or prosperity of India; but I have not seen or heard any founded on the growth or falling off of our imports. And yet what greater fest can there be of progress or decay than the consuming and purchasing power of a people? India has this' year shown clearly that its consuming and purchasing power is rapidly increasing, and when we examine the class of articles for which this increasing demand has mainly arisen, and for which this increasing purchasing power has been found, it is evident that it is not the wants, or the contents of the pockets, of the European population that have appreciably affected the result. It must be admitted by the most sceptical that it is the requirements and the purchasing power of the indigent ous population which are practically alone responsible for the satisfactory results attained. We have here, then, a definite fact which cannot be explained away, and which shows that the purchasing and consuming capacity of the peoples of India, the surest sign of their material prosperity, is increasing in a maryellously satisfactory manner." The 3 penny per head income, if it be a fact, must be something like the widow's cruse of oil, or in other words the three farthings pint pot is capable of containing a two-pensy quart measure. The most important item of increase occurs under railways, the net profits from which now amount to nearly 1} millions sterling. But in spite of this satisfactory evidence of the wisdom of the railway policy, there is not absent a note of warning that. we are within measurable distance of the time when the whole of the funds at present available for railways will be required for their upkeep, and that there will be no margin for further extensions. Now that the main arteries have been constructed we shall have to fall back upon foreign capital and upon private enterprises for the construction of feeder Imes, and the development by them of the distant lying and at present uncultivated portions of the country. Here, there can be no doubt, is a vast field open for the employment of capital, but unfortunately the Indian investor is still too fond of placing his money out ab usurious interest, and the time when ho will devote it to the, development of industry al projects, bearing only a small divi dend, seems as remote as ever. Another large item of saving is under the head of military and army service charges, where there is a reduction of over one million sterling. "This is due in part to the continued absence of troops m South Africa and China (where their cost falls upon the Home Government.) Had we been able within the term of the closing financial year to obtain delivery of all the ordnance stores and material required from Europe our expenditure on this head would have been larger." This latter sentence 3s calculated cause some uneasiness, as it seems to point towards a deficiency in the matter of equipment, which might be of serious consequence in the event of a sudden emergency. Apropos of this item of saving under military charges, a very neat point has arisen hero in Hyderabad. One hundred years ago, when, after the fall and death' of Tippoo Sultan, we made a permanent, offensive and defensive alliance with the Nizam, we sold to him in perpetuity the services of a Subsidiary Force which was to consist of 9,000 men, and which ho paid for in advance by ceding to us districts, then worth about £7,800,000, and now bringing in more than double that sum annually. Since then, by mutual arrangement the total number of this force has been reduced, owing to tle substitution for some of the less ox-pensive native regiments of European Infantry and Cavalry, But for the last two andi a half years, one European Regiment: and several batteries of Artillery have been withdrawn and have been cither sent to the front or have been sent to replace other regiments so sent. Nov, all the regiments employed elsewhere are paid for by the Home Government, and hence this great item of saving. The ques-* tion now arises whether this saving, as far as it concerns the Hyderabad regiment, should not be refunded to the Nizam, since he has paid for a full force in advance, and the Government of India cannot well sell the same thing twice over, once to the Nizam, and then again to the Home Government. It is a pretty point in political morality, and T am curious to see how it will be settled, but I very much doubt whether a single rupee will ever he refunded to "Our faithful Ally." Altogether the Budget is a very satisfactory one, and in spite of Mr. Digby's jereminds we may rest satisfied that there are several kicks left in the Indian taxpayer yet.
The Jubilee Statue.
of Queen Victoria has just been unveiled at Calcutta by Lord Curzon, and the ceremony took place amidst: all the pomp and pageantry of which our Viceroy is so thoroughly a master. The statue was entrusted to Mr. Frampton and has cost Rs.
82,000. It is said to be very life-like and full of dignity. Ib was ordered in the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.