MYSORE. 105 any other leases, provided that the conditions referred to have been fairly complied withi. The payment of excise' has recently been superseded by an assessment on the cultivated area. Coffee lands are now (1885) held on an acreage assessment-either at i rupee (25.) per acre with a guarantee for 30 years on the terms of the Survey Settlement; or on a permanent assessment of 1.} rupee (38.) per acre to those who may desire it, on the terms of the Madras Coffee Land Rules, reserving to Government the claim to royalty on valuable mineral products, namely, metals and precious stones. Nearly all the large planters have adopted the permanent tenure. Grass lands, merely for purposes of pasture and growth of fuel or grasses for fodder, are granted on a separate assessment of 4 annas (6d.) per acre, provided they are in clearly defined compact blocks. The Famine of 1876–78.– The drought which affected all Southern India in 1876-78, fell with especial severity upon Mysore. From October 1875 to October 1877, four successive monsoons failed to bring their full supply of rain. The harvest of 1875 was generally below the average, and remissions of revenue were found necessary; but it was not till towards the close of 1876 that famine was recognised to be abroad in the land. The crops of that year, in some parts, had yielded only one-eighth; and even in the less stricken Districts of Hassan and Shimoga, under the Western Ghats, only one-half of a fair harrest was gathered. The administration promptly opened relief rks, and appealed to the assistance of private charity. But here, as elsewhere, the calamity suddenly swept onward with a rush which fore sight could not anticipate, and which measures of palliation were unable to cope with. Actual starvation, with its attendant train of diseases, soon became common. The miserable inhabitants, losing all traditions of social cohesion, flocked into Bangalore by thousands, only to die in the streets of the cantonments. On the other hand, grain was poured into Bangalore by the Madras Railway; but the means for bringing the food to the hungry mouths were inadequate. When the rains of 1877 again held off during July and August, the crowds at the relief centres increased, and the mortality became very great. It was in these circumstances, at the beginning of September, that the Viceroy visited Bangalore and directed the adoption of a system of relief based on that followed in the Bombay Presidency. The labourers were to be concentrated on large works; and the relief establishment was generally augmented. The suffering reached its worst in September 1877, when a total of 280,000 persons throughout the State were in receipt of relief, of whom only 24,000 were employed on works under professional supervision. In that month, the famine deaths reported in the town of Bangalore averaged about 40 a day, while double that number perished daily in
