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330,000 maunds, and the share of the salt shipment similarly consigned was about 240,000 maunds. Thus the shipments for Behar and the North-Western Provinces, as registered at Nuddea, were 250,000 maunds in excess of the shipments as registered at Sahebgunge; and almost the whole of this excess was in the one item of salt. The excess, may be added, is uniform for most of the great salt receiving marts. Thus there were shipped for

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The difference seems to be all one way, and to be fairly regular; it may therefore possibly be that the heavier salt traffic sets in during the months of November and December, and that many salt vessels which passed Nuddea before the end of December 1872 did not reach Sahebgunge until January 1873. When a whole year's returns are available for both registering stations, this doubt will be cleared up.

The Matabhanga river returns

The Matabhanga river returns exhibit the trade between Calcutta and the districts on the Pudda (local name of the Ganges after the Bhagiruttee leaves it) and the Berhampooter rivers and their tributaries. The totals of the Matabhanga trade are for the half-year

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The principal articles of the down-stream traffic are

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Mds. 1,260,587

606,257
220,040

57,608

12,611

36,537

Of the total traffic 1,945,013 maunds come to Calcutta. The only other marts which receive large shipments from eastern districts by way of the Matabhanga are

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This latter mart is said to take 251,370 maunds of rice alone, but it is understood that in reality the bulk of these consignments is made to Bhudressur, which is just south of French territory. There is no doubt that there is a large export of rice from Dinagepore, &c., besides what is shown in these figures, and that a good deal of rice despatched from the Attrai finds its way to districts south of the Ganges, and does not pass the Kissengunge toll station.

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The Lieutenant-Governor has desired the Commissioners of Rajshahye, Dacca, and Cooch Behar, to give some short notice of such of these marts as belong to their divisions. Serajgunge is really the only one of these marts which has more than a local reputation; Hilee has recently become known, because it is to be a station, and has always been held to be an obligatory point on the Northern Bengal Railway. But regarding the rest of the places there is little information available in Calcutta; yet on the list there are places which, like Booreedaha, send some thousand tons of jute to Calcutta in the season, and it would clearly be an advantage that the Calcutta public should know something more regarding the great produce marts of Eastern and Northern Bengal.

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The two main articles of the up-stream traffic on the Matabhanga

Salt from Calcutta
Miscellaneous from Calcutta

Mds.

460,000

211,000

The only mart to which any large consignment of up-stream goods was sent is Serajgunge, which took 179,000 maunds of salt.

The statements of the trade of the Calcutta canals give no details

The Calcutta Canals returns.

remedied in future returns.

of the places of destination or shipment, an omission which will be The Lieutenant-Governor does not wish details of the trade to and from all the smaller marts, but he wishes to know the transactions of the larger places, and to have the transactions of the smaller places grouped according to districts.

The four returns from the Calcutta canals give

(1) The trade from Calcutta to the eastern districts via the canals, which amount to 1,179,725

maunds, or

43,256 tons, in all for the half-year. Of this total 924,669 maunds were salt.

(2)

The "trade to Behar and the North-Western Provinces." The precise meaning of this heading is not clear, but possibly the return shows all the trade which goes from the Sunderbuns and the eastern districts to Western Bengal and places on the Hooghly above Calcutta. The total of the traffic shewn in this return is 2,493,200 maunds, or 91,417 tons. Its principal items are

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(3) The trade from the eastern districts with Calcutta and its environs. The total of this trade is 8,517,635 maunds, .or 312,323 tons, for the half-year. More than half of this total, or 4,494,585 maunds, was firewood from the Sunderbuns. Of the rest the chief items were—

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(4)

Hides

Miscellaneous

In the absence of information as to the places from which these Calcutta imports come, the figures are less instructive than they might otherwise be.

The trade "from Behar and the North-Western Provinces" to Calcutta and its environs through the Calcutta canals. The total of this return is 426,140 maunds, out of which 346,460 are shown as "miscellaneous." Without some account of the particular traffic shown. in this table, its figures are not very intelligible.

Until the East Indian and Eastern Bengal Railway traffic tables and the river and canal returns for a whole year are available, it will not be possible to review the whole inward and outward trade of Calcutta by railways or by inland waters. Meanwhile some beginning towards ascertaining this trade has been made, and in another half. year or so the river and canal returns ought to be complete. In the chapter of this Report on railways, such information as is available on the subject of railway traffic is furnished. The LieutenantGovernor has submitted to the Government of India a statement of the traffic returns he would wish to receive and have published for general information regarding the East Indian Railway and Eastern Bengal and Mutlah Railways.

The districts of the Burdwan.

An account of the principal features in the trade and traffic of the interior of Bengal is briefly given in the following paragraphs of this report, which will supplement the figures of the river traffic. Burdwan division have but little to do with commerce in the "grandiose" sense of the word, but they are all more or less the tributaries or the channels of commerce; and Bhudressur, in Hooghly, is a very large commercial depôt, where the native merchants keep their cargoes as it were out of sight of the Calcutta market, but still within their easy reach. The town of Bhudressur is situated on the west or right bank of the river Hooghly, to the immediate south of French Chandernagore. This mart extends down towards Bidyabatty, Showrafully, and Chatra, as far as Serampore, and the deposited transitory produce to be found in all these depôts must be of very great value. Howrah, as a suburb of Calcutta, seems to come in for but a small share of its commerce, though it is rapidly adding to its jute warehouses and increasing its manufactories. The river face is unfortunately too much pre-occupied by the East Indian Railway Company and by docking companies. The canal from Calcutta to Midnapore promises soon to become the highway of commerce in that direction, and Ghattal is at the present time a remarkable commercial centre for the exports and imports which find their way up the Roopnarain river up to that part of the country, the tidal influence of the river being felt as far as Ghattal, and thus far as it were impregnating the country with the stream of commerce.

Rice is exported from Midnapore and Beerbhoom, but the other districts of the Burdwan division cannot be said to support themselves with this staple. Silk and indigo are exported to Calcutta. Among minor exports, Midnapore has a specialité in mats, the value of which, as exported by the low level canal, was Rs. 75,000 during the year. Jute is exported from Hooghly to Calcutta.

Presidency.

In the 24-Pergunnahs an extensive trade is carried on in sugar, rice, jute, timber, and firewood, thatching leaves, shell for lime, honey, and bees-wax, which articles, with the important exceptions of sugar and jute, and also rice to some extent, are brought from the Soonderbuns. The jute trade was particularly brisk last year owing to the high prices which prevailed for a time; but it has since fallen off, owing to the market being glutted with the large crops produced all over the jute districts of Bengal. In Nuddea indigo, cloth, sugar, and brass utensils, are those in which the trade is usually the largest. The minor exports consist of grain, oil-seeds, and chillies. The articles imported are principally salt and piece-goods. Rice is also imported into Nuddea. In Jessore goor and sugar manufactured from the produce of the date tree are the principal articles of trade, and next indigo, which of course finds its way to the Calcutta market. There is also a trade in rice and other Soonderbun products, such as wood, reeds, mats, baskets, honey, shelllime, fish, cocoanuts, and betel-nuts. Besides these exports there are chillies and the betel leaf or pân. Morrelgunge, a port lately opened in the Jessore district, appears to have already attracted a fair number of vessels, and a steadily increasing export trade in rice has sprung up there.

Rajshahye.

The principal marts in the Rajshahye division have been already mentioned in the preceding paragraphs on the river traffic returns. Serajgunge is the principal emporium of the districts of Pubna, Mymensing, part of Bogra, and Rungpore, and Dinagepore. It is the greatest jute market in Bengal. The amount of the jute trade from Serajgunge was estimated at thirty lakhs of rupees in 1871-72. In 1872-73, 1,508,900 maunds of jute were exported by the Eastern Bengal Railway Company's steamers, and it is understood that more than half the jute from the mart leaves in country boats. The total value of the steamer trade from Serajgunge in 1871-72 is stated at Rs. 66,38,525, and about as much was sent by country boats. At all events it is certain that the annual exports from Serajgunge are above a million sterling. From Hilee in the Bograh district it is calculated that nearly 300,000 maunds of rice are exported. to Calcutta and the Hooghly district. From Dubchanchia, on the Naga river, there is said to be at least an equal export. Both these marts will be tapped by the proposed Northern Bengal Railway.

The chief articles of exports in this division are jute, silk, indigo, tobacco, hides, sugar, and rice. Rice is exported most largely from Dinagepore: Rungpore, Bograh, and Pubna, are the largest juteproducing tracts. Ganja is supplied from Rajshahye to the whole of the Lower Provinces.

The proposed Northern Bengal line of Railway from the Ganges to Darjeeling, which traverses a portion of Pubna, Rajshahye, Bograh, Dinagepore, and Rungpore, has already been marked out. It will, when carried out, tend more than anything else to develop the resources and trade of these districts. From Rungpore it is this year reported that the yield of rice was considered too good by the ryots, as the prices were thereby kept down. This idea will presumably cease to exist when there are better means of exit for superfluous produce. In Bograh also the Magistrate notes that in Adamdighi, one of the richest rice tracts of the district, a field of rice long over-ripe and deteriorating was still uncut after the middle of February. The districts of this division are ordinarily quite self-supporting in the way of food grains.

Cooch Behar.

The trade of Darjeeling except in tea is at present insignificant. The main export from the Cooch Behar division is mustard-seed, while there is. a considerable import of rice. The exports of jute and tobacco are increasing. Ghee also is sent south in considerable quantities from the Dooars.

Dacca.

The principal exports of the Dacca division are jute, tea, rice, hides, safflower, betel-nuts, oil-seeds, cocoanut oil, sugar (coarse goor), dried fish, lime, oranges, stick-lac, India rubber, cloths (cotton), and Dacca cheese and soap. Imports are English piece-goods and cotton twist, hardwares, spices, tobacco, ganja, salt, opium, and fermented liquors; cattle, which come from Dinagepore chiefly, and tobacco from Rungpore. The exports are largely in excess of the imports in money value, and vast quantities of silver are paid to the cultivators and petty traders residing in the division, of which a very large proportion is converted into ornaments or is buried and lost to circulation. During the last

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