HC Deb 27 March 1884 vol 286 cc889-90
MR. O'DONNELL

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, with regard to Lord Kimberley's statement to a deputation of English manufacturers and capitalists on Friday, that— There has been a surprising increase of the wheat trade, which was open to still further development; if he can give the grounds for expecting this further development; and, if he can show to the House that this development is not taking place, at the expense of the food supplies of the population?

MR. J. K. CROSS

Tim production of wheat in the Central Provinces and the Punjab will naturally develop as a greater population devotes itself to the cultivation of the waste lands, and in the Punjab as the irrigation works in progress, and lately opened, exercise their natural influence. That the development is not taking place at the expense of the food supplies of the people is shown by the fact that, whereas in 1879, when the export of wheat was only 1,056,720 cwt., the price of millets averaged 5s. 7½d. per cwt.; in 1882, when the export of wheat was 19,910,005 cwt., the price of millets was 3s. 4½d showing that, along with an enormous increase in the export of wheat, there had been a fall in the value of ordinary grain foods of 40 per cent.

MR. O'DONNELL

asked whether it was not the case that Dr. Hunter, in his work on India, had admitted that if all the poorer classes of India had two full meals a-day the surplus of wheat for export had been less than it was at present; whether the Famine Commissioners reported that the famines of 1866 and 1877 were partly due to the reduction of the wheat stocks owing to excessive exportation; and, whether 500,000 people did not perish in the latter year in the North-West Provinces, although two lines of railway were exporting corn to Southern India and to Europe?

MR. JAMES HOWARD

asked whether it was not the fact that the total exports of wheat from India to England only amounted to the difference between a good crop and a bad crop; and, whether it was not in consequence of the unusually good crop that there had been larger exports?

MR. SPEAKER

I am bound to say that those two last Questions partake of the nature of debate.