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It may not be generally known how extensively emigra* tion is already resorted to by the people of India. "We-know that the impression is abroad that Indians will not leave their country, that they fear the sea, are too much attached to their home and their customs, and are far too much filled with the dread of losing caste to yield to any pressure that may be brought to bear upon them to quit the shores of their own land for foreign fields of labour. * As a matter of fact, however) emigration to a considerable extent, already exists,
In Ceylon alone there ^ are nearly 300,000 Tamil coolies, employed on the Tea Estates, besides hundreds of thousands, more who have permanently settled in various parta of the Island. Yast tracts in the Island are still wait-* ing to be occupied. The former population of Ceylon i& variously estimated as having been from twelve to thirty millions,—now it is only three ! Is it impossible for us to> suppose that it can be restored to its former prosperity T Immense tanks aud irrigation works cover the entire couiin try in tracts which are now unoccupied and desolate.. Many of these have been restored by Government, and there are now 100,000 acres, of irrigable land in that country, only waiting to be occupied and cultivated, Govern* ment is ready to give it on easy terms. Here, then, alone is it wide and hopeful field for Indian emigration, only requiring to be skilfully directed in order to find a home and living for millions of India's destitute.
Now what we propose to do is not to check the stream of emigration, nor yet to help it to flow an in its present, channel until it overflows its banks and engulfs, in ruin the colonies it might have enriched, but rather to dig out new channels, founding .entirely new colonies in. districts yet xm-. dj on the plan laid down in " Darkest'England.'*-