SALT, ABKARI AND MISCELLANEOUS REVENUE.
Calcutta market. They sifted the Karása product, sold the larger crystals in the local market in the ordinary way and then treated the smaller sittings with a concentrated brine containing a small proportion of carbonate of soda. The latter reacted upon the chlorides of magnesium and calcium in the salt, forming carbonates of magnesium and calcium (which could be removed) and chloride of sodium, or common salt. The product thus purified was dried by centrifugals and became an exceedingly white salt which was much less hygroscopic than the ordinary variety. This process was patented and in 1898 the Oriental Salt Company, Limited, was formed to work it. The company carried on operations at Naupada in Ganjám, Jagannaikpur (Jagannáthapuram) in Gódávari and Covelong in Chingleput, as well as at Karása. The venture, however, was not a commercial success and in December 1904 the shareholders decided voluntarily to wind up the company. Messrs. Hall, Wilson & Co. have been recognized as receivers for the debenture-holders, and still carry on work at Naupada.
All along the shore of the district are extensive salt swamps, the nine largest covering an area of 50 square miles. In these much spontaneous salt effloresces and this was at one time extensively consumed by the poorer classes. These people used also to scrape up the salt-earth found in the swamps and lixiviate it with water to obtain the salt from it. The problem of preventing these practices in so large an area was for many years one of great difficulty, and in 1865 a special Deputy Collector was appointed to endeavour to suppress the traffic. He reported soon afterwards that he believed that the quantity of this illicit salt consumed was larger than the amount of Government salt sold at all the factories, and said that the spontaneous salt and the salt-earth were openly collected in broad daylight in kávadis by bodies of men a hundred strong, and were even raided by people with carts. A doubt arose soon afterwards as to whether mere possession of salt-earth was an offence under the existing law, and this checked the preventive measures; but in 1872 prosecutions were revived and no less than 10,000 maunds of earth-salt were seized and as many as 2,000 persons were punished. The next year a special preventive force was entertained, but it was not strong enough to cope adequately with the difficulty and even in 1875-76 as much as 9,500 maunds of illicit salt were seized.
The manufacture of illicit salt has now practically ceased. Some of the swamps have become covered with blown sand and
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