§ MR. SAMUEL SMITH (Flintshire)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether the Census Returns relating to the famine districts in India have yet been completed; and, if so, whether they show a decrease as compared with the Returns for the same districts in the census of ton years ago; and if be can inform the House of the amount of the decrease in British territory and the Native States respectively, and how far that decrease is to be attributed to the prevalence of plague and famine.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONThe preliminary information about the census which I have received by telegraph from India is not sufficient to enable me to give any answer as to the effects of plague and famine. In the British Provinces, taken as a whole, there is an increase of nearly ten millions; in the Native States there is a decrease of about three millions since 1891.