§ MR. C. P. SCOTT (Lancashire, Leigh)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India if he can state what, approximately, are the percentages of deaths among the cattle in the famine districts, and what funds are available for the supply of cattle, fodder, and seed grain to the cultivators in these districts; and what steps are being taken to secure a supply of fodder for the surviving cattle, and what proportion of the cattle recently supplied to make good previous losses have died from want of fodder.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONI have no precise figures about the mortality among cattle. We shall learn some months hence what approximately the losses have been in British districts when the yearly returns are made up of the number of cattle alive. No similar returns are made for native States. The funds at present allotted for the supply of seed grain and cattle to cultivators in British districts are 123 lakhs for advances to cultivators. The charitable funds have also distributed for the same purpose a considerable sum to the poorer cultivators. Strenuous efforts were made in parts of the Bombay Presidency to collect and distribute fodder earlier in the season. Now that rain has come and grass is growing I do not anticipate that further endeavours in that direction will be required. I am not able to say what proportion of the recently supplied cattle have perished from lack of fodder or from lack of water.