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Leader (1850-1860), 11th December 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 19

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      ¦Indian Pliovipmnt 1 Ujnps. In Our Issue...

      India of a strictly provident character , and of still e reat er importance to the Anglo-Indian community , | nd which have suffered in a more serious manner than even the Assurance Companies . These are the Indian lunds , founded for the purpose of granting pensions to the widows and orphans of the members of the military and civil-services . Except to those immediately interested , the vast of these

      extent and enormous financial importance funds arc but very imperfectly understood . We have now before us a series of most elaborate reports by Mr . I . G . P . Noison , who has been for many years consulted as actuary on the affairs of these funds , and we have been quite startled by the magnitude of the benefits they confer . Anything of a similar kind in connexion " with the Royal army , is insignificant in the extreme , and scarcely deserving of

      consideration . In fact , nothing has been organised by the armies of our 'continental States at all approaching , in a financial' sense , to the value and importance of the Indian Puncls . From the-moment that the Indian cadet enters the service his wife and children become thoroughly independent of all pecuniary vicissitude . A lieutenant dying , loaves his widow a pension of 102 / . per annum , " and each child pensions of 30 / . and upwards vcarly , while a colonel ' s widow receives a pension of 3-iOt . yearly . In the Civil Service , however , the pension of a widow is 300 / . per annum , and to children it varies from 30 / . to 100 / . ; with

      endowments of 300 / . to daughters on marriage . If the recent manifestations in favour of competitive examinations are at all likely to eventually supersede the influence of patronage , what a splendid prize do these funds offer to able and aspiring young men , ambitious to distinguish themselves , but who , under the old system , could not , without family interest , secure appointments . These funds give the best assurance that if they pass the prescribed ordeal , nothing but moral turpitude can afterwards , under any circumstance , invalidate their status and independence . . ., the

      It is not generally known that pensions paid in England lo the ' retired members , widows , and orphans of the various Indian Funds , irrespective of the retiring allowances derived directly from the Government itself , are upwards of 500 , 000 / . per annum . So large an amount , and which , from the expanding dominion of the Indian Empire , has for the last fifty years been increasing , must appear to every careful observer as constituting so remarkable a feature in the economic institutions of the empire as to demand especial consideration from all journalists alive to the critical aspect of our Indian affairs , and with the full sense of this conviction on our minds , we feel compelled to invite the attention

      of our readers to a subject which ought really before this time to have received the advocacy of some Parliamentary friend of the Indian services . The young nobleman who by his talents and undoubted patriotism occupies the distinguished and responsible post of Secretary of India in the councils of the nation , we have every reason to believe , will do all in his power consistent with the demands of imperial duty to maintain the integrity and original purposo ot each and every of the Indian Funds , but the recent mutiny has invested those in the Bengal Presidency with so many complicated but unforeseen difficulties ; that it is not easy to predicate what course ho will feel called upon to take in

      regard to them . It is impossible in t . ho present nrticlo to enter fully into the detail of these matters , but wo shall direct attention to sonic points which are certain sooner or later to rivet the attention of those taking an interest iu the Eastern affairs of England . All tho Funds connoeted with the military , medical , and civil services in India are absolutely under the control of tho members of those sorviccs , and arc in , ono sense entirely republican and self-governed in their constitution and their affairs , form ing , as

      all readers of the Indian press must bo fully awaro , the standing politics of Anglo-Indians ; tho only connexion with tho ruling powevs . being that tho Government 'guarantees on tho rcalisoa and accumulated capital a fixed amount of intoroafc , as well as a small annual contribution . In every Other rcspoot tho funds arc therefore entirely selfsupporting , and proporly conic within our sphere of observation as journalists pledgee ! to defend tho publio services of tho state on what wo bcliovo to bo sound financial and economic principles ., On tho present occasion wo shall confino our remarks to tho manner iu which , tho mutiny in tho nativo army of India has nn ' octod tho Bengal

      Military Fund , which grants pensions to widows only . The Orphans' Fund provides for children . The mutiny broke out at Meerut on the evening of the 10 th May , 1857 > and from that date until the beginning of the present year no less than 396 officers , members of the Military Fund , had fallen . This frightful mortality is at the rate of about eighteen per cent , per , annum , or . more than seven times the average ratio of deaths of the previous fifty-six years of this century . Accurate accounts will not ' for some time be made out of the casualties for the present year , but there can be no doubt as to the immense mortality in the early part of it .

      It is , however , the deaths which have ^ taken place among married subscribers which entail loss ; in fact , the death of an unmarried officer to some extent enriches , the fund , as part of his previous contributions is saved , and all further liability ceases . In the Bengal Military Fund the married members form nearly one-half of the whole number . It might , therefore , be expected that a moiety of the 39 G V deaths , or 198 , would have entailed loss ; it appears , however , that of the 118 widows who were thrown on the fund during 1 S 57 , not more than S 8 cases arose from causes connected with the mutiny . It is to be hoped that the wives t

      of the remaining 110 married mepibers were no also slaughtered by the rebels , and still it is difficult to assign any other reason for more Widows not declaring on the fund . It is to be remarked , however , that in some ranks of the service , the unmarried , members suffered more severely than the married , but there is no such discrepancy between the two classes of results as to sufficiently account for not One-half of the number of widows being thrown oil the fund that might be expected from the casualties that have taken place . There is little doubt that ' when more precise information is obtained a large number of the members' wives will be found to have fallen victims to the fearful

      mutiny of a whole army . We had recently occasion to congratulate the Directors of the " Medical , Invalid , and General Life Office " on the fact of that institution having so great financial resources as to be able to stand the unprecedented loss sustained by it in India during the nineteen months which have elapsed since the first outbreak , without its stability and success being in any way endangered ; we wish we could with equal confidence assure the members and widows of the Bengal Military Fund that we have as much faith in the stability and permanence of their own institution . In a report on the Fund ' s affairs

      made by Mr . Neisou , and dated the 13 th November , 1 S 5 A , we find that in its transactions with . the then Indian Government it had sustained losses on exchanges to the extent of -137 , 914 / . sterling . These losses , it since appears , the late Indian Government declined to replace , and it yet remains to be seen how the question will be treated by the Imperial Government under the new order of things . In the same report Mr . Neison . shows that in consequence of these and some other losses of a less amount the Fund was then in a very perilous condition . At that time there was a deficit of assets as compared with liabilities of no less than 474-, 571 J .

      Whoever gives close attention to Mr . Neison ' s report , as well as to a pamphlet written by Colonel Henderson , must at ; once admit tho justice of the claim of the Military Fund for a reimbursement of the losses it has sustained in its transactions with the Government , and it is to be hoped tho case may be so p laced before the present Indian Council as to meet with a favourable response . In consequence of this alarming deficit , and no definite decision having been yet come to in regard to their claim to bo recouped the losses , the directors of tho Bengal Military Fund havo boon compelled , for a temporary period , at least , to have recourse to t he tminful expedient of reducing the scale of

      pensions payable to tho widow incumbents . On tho heels of this fottWs tho awful calamity of tho Indian mutiny , entailing , in less than eight months , eightyci ^ ht additional pensioners on tho Fund . The directors iu Calcutta have , iu common with tho assurance institutions there , made application to Government to indemnify tho Fund from all liability iu respect to , these eighty-eight widows . These , of course , do not include all the losses sustained by tho Fund to the present time , and we therefore trust the Government will como speedily to f , ho rescue , and maintain the Integrity of a Fund which as muoh distinguishes the ' prudential feelings of the officers of the Indian nvmy as their heroic oourago and gallantry in this unparallolod mutiny has mado them conspicuous as soldiers in tho eyes of Europe ,

      Wo. 455, December 11, 1858.1 T He Reaper...

      Wo . 455 , December 11 , 1858 . 1 T HE REAPER . 1355

      Taxation And Death. The Registrar-Genera...

      TAXATION AND DEATH . The Registrar-General reported the number of deaths in the metropolis tite week before last at 1802 , and last week at 1738 . This high rate of mortality , which , were it to , continue , would " deprive the population of its natural increase , " isascribed by the Registrar-General to the " recent severity of the weather . " Gold is notoriously fatal to life . It is to be presumed , therefore , that anything which impedes the people in having wellwarmed habitations increases the death-rate , and

      that anything Which facilitates heating apartments staves off death . We feel some astonishment , therefore , that Mr . Farr , the chief of the Registry-office under the Registrar-General , if not virtually that officer , who is zealous in finding out causes which occasion premature death , and is never tired of adverting to the neglect of sanitary precautions—that Dr . Letheby , the great sanitary adviser of the City—that all the medical officers of the different parishes of the City and suburbs , whose flaming zeal in the cause they are appointed to promote is conspicuous , have not

      on this occasion taken any notice of the City coaltax , which enhances the price of fuel to the poor and helps to starve them with cold , exactly as the Cornlaw starved them by withhol d ing food from them-We are all the more surprised , because they can have no interest in continuinga tax which helps materially to shorten life . When the agitation against the Corn-law was in existence , the clergy , pretending to have at heart the interest of the multitude , made a terrible mistake by not joining that agitation in a body , and promoting the abolition

      of a law that was as expressly forbidden by the words of relig ion as by the commands of nature . But they had in tithes a worldly interest iu keeping up the price of corn , and they sacrificed their duty to the multitude , their country , and the Almighty , from mean personal and pecuniary considerations . The medical men cannot be thus biased , but wliile they vehemently attack petty nuisances—many of them caused by useful occupations which remote " many and worse nuisances than they create—they take no notice of , or actually support , gigantic nuisances which slowly kill people by depriving them of

      fuel and other means of keeping them warm , comfortable , and healthy . Charity prides itself in giving a few scuttles of coal to the poor ; would it not do better were it to join the economists and allow the price of these scuttles of coals to be remitted to the poor by the abolition of a tax which chiefly goes to keep alive waste and corruption amongst City magnates , in the name of promoting improvement ? On many grounds the local imposition , has been most justly objected to , and its tendency to injure health and destroy life , now made manifest , is only an additional , and perhaps an unexpected , element in its noxious character .

      We are quite aware of the old argument that thistax takes very little from each person . But in this and in all similar cases it is the principle , not the degree , which is important . The woman ' s offence was not the less because her child was a small one-The City tax pf 4 d . per ton is less than a fraction of a farthing per cwt . ; it can , therefore , it is said ,, do no harm . Exactly the same plea was urged for the Corn-law . It took away a very small slice of each man ' s loaf , but the terrible consequences which ; ensued from that law , stifling an enormous mass of employment and population , fully justifies thedoctrinethat all laws iniquitous in principle , though their effects bo anoarentlv trivial , should , be condemned .

      Let us examine how the law works . The tax i & advanced to the City by the ooaL merchant , who deducts it in the price of the coal , with a profit to himself on the advance from the dealer ; and the dealer again deducts it with a-corresponding profit on his advance from his customer . Now the poor , who are obliged to purchase their coals in vory small quantities , and go to the chandler ' s shop for them , have to pay tho profits of a succession of dealers ; and , before they get their cwt . pf coal , the tax may take away nearly the odd 12 lb . This may bo equal to one cheerful little fire for a day , and toa life saved or lost in a family . Thus , to trace the effects of the tax adds to tho weight of tho argument derived from tho palpablo connexion betwoon increased mortality , cold weather , and the Oity tax on fuel

      . . . . ,-Unfortunately , tho City duty on coals is not . the only ono which increases the . death-rate amongst the poor . No inconsiderable ahoo is taken off a poor man ' s pouud of cheese and pound ot buttor by the duty whioh enhances its prioo through a series oi

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 11, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11121858/page/19/