text:
Page:Democratic Ideals and Reality (1919).djvu/218

206 In the opinion of those who know Russia best, autocratic rule of some sort is almost inevitable if she is to depend on her own strength to cope with the Germans.

The Slav and kindred nations which inhabit the borderland between the Germans and the Russians are, however, of a very different calibre. Consider the Czechs: have they not stood proof against Bolshevism and asserted their capacity of nationhood under amazing conditions in Russia? Have they not shown the most extraordinary political capacity in creating anew and maintaining Slav Bohemia, though beset on three sides by Germany and on the fourth side by Hungary? Have they not also made Bohemia a hive of modern industry and a seat of modern learning? They, at any rate, will not lack the will to order and to independence.

Between the Baltic and the Mediterranean you have these seven non-German peoples, each on the scale of a European State of the second rank—the Poles, the Bohemians (Czechs and Slovaks), the Hungarians (Magyars), the South Slavs (Serbians, Croatians, and Slovenes), the Rumanians, the Bulgarians, and the Greeks. Of these, two are among our present enemies—the Magyars and the Bulgarians. But the Magyars and


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/12

 In the year 1598, Houtman, who projected the Dutch East India Company, gave his name to the Abrolhos, which they still retain; and in 1629 Pelsart suffered shipwreck upon them. In 1616, the Endraght, of Amsterdam, made Sharks Bay and the island since known as Dorée, more properly Doore, and so named after Peter Doore, her pilot. Dirk Hartog gave his name to the island on the Western side of that bay, which still retains it, and an inscription was placed on its Northern point, Cape Discovery, now known as Cape Inscription. In 1619, Edel gave his name to the district round Sharks Bay; and Cape Leeuwin (or Lioness) was so named in 1622, after the vessel from which it was first seen. In 1627, the coast to the East of Cape Leeuwin received the name of Nuyts' land, from a passenger on board the Guide Zeepart, or Good Shepherd, on her voyage to Japan. In 1628, the captain of the Karien, De Witt, gave his name to the land to the North, and the North coast was visited by Tasman more than once after his voyage in 1642. In 1665, the Dutch Government gave the name of New Holland to the whole country, thus marking the priority of claim to its possession.

In 1689, during the reign of William and Mary, Dampier was sent in the Roebuck to examine the North and West Coasts. He entered, and named, Sharks Bay, and he also gave names, his own notably, to Dampier's land and Archipelago, as well as to other islands and places on the North coast.

In 1697 Vlaming, in the Gielvink, discovered and named the Swan River, and took back to Europe that "rara avis" the, till then unknown, black swan. From that time until 1770, when Cook discovered and took possession of Botany Bay, Australia appears to have been generally neglected.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/13

 The first land seen by Cook was Point Hicks, now in the Colony of Victoria; his successor, Vancouver, entered and named King George's Sound, in 1791; and the French expedition under Baudin and Freycinet, in the Geographe and Naturaliste, examined the Western coasts and sent boats up the Swan River. Flinders and Bass extended the discoveries of Cook to the West in 1798, and were followed by Murray, in 1802; and in the same year Flinders, now commanding the Investigator, sailing Eastward from King George's Sound, made and named Fowler's Bay, at the present Western limit of South Australia,-just anticipating the visit of the French expedition under Baudin, who, nevertheless, claimed the discovery and took possession, giving the country the name of Napoleon. When, however, after his captivity of seven years in the Mauritius, Flinders published an account of his discoveries, his rightful priority was conceded.

In 1801, the French corvettes Geographe and Naturaliste, with the galliotte Casuarina, which had been attached to the expedition at Port Jackson, made Cape Leeuwin in the month of June, and the names of the three vessels and their officers still maintain, on the Western coast, many reminiscences of their visit. The Vasse River was so named after a Dutch sailor, who accompanied the expedition, and was drowned off its mouth. The coasts of Endraght land, De Witts' land, and Sharks Bay were examined and named; returning southward, the Swan River was entered by boats, June 17, and explored as far as the islands above Perth Water, which were named after M. Hierrisen, Enseigne de Vaisseau. M. de Peron, the historian of the expedition, gave a very particular account of the river, which, however, was not confirmed in its details


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/24

14 following, succeeded in reaching the Oakover, the Northern branch of the DeGrey River, by the assistance of camels. It was reserved for John Forrest to cross the centre of the Colony from the Murchison, and thence to the Northern telegraph line of South Australia, with the ordinary equipment of a bushman.

The journals, reports, and maps of the explorers whose names have been recorded, and which are preserved in the office of the Surveyor General, with those of Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, Government Geologist from 1870 to 1873, furnish materials for the description of the Colony, both geographical and physical, as well as for the account of discovery already given; all of which might be enlarged with much advantage.


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/23

Rh to the Settlement of the North-West coast, as it is still called. This year, also, the brothers Dempster made explorations to the East of Northam, and from the South coast to the Lake district, in which H. M. Lefroy made a still more extended exploration in 1863, in consequence of which, surveyor Hunt was sent with a party organised for well digging and to make a road by which cattle might be taken into it. Messrs. Cook and Clarkson were exploring its Northern limits at the same time.

In 1864, Austin, with Dr. Martin and others, entered the mouth of the Glenelg and explored the Western portion of the basin of that river as Grey had the Eastern; and, a settlement having been formed at Roebuck Bay, surveyor James Cowle traversed the country between that place and Nickol Bay. In 1870, surveyor John Forrest traced the coast from Albany to Eucla, and proceeded from thence to Adelaide, without suffering from want of water as Eyre had done.

Of the interior of the country nothing was known as yet beyond the Lake district, but in 1856 A. Gregory, with a party from Queensland, entered the territory of Western Australia from the North-East and found Sturt's Creek in a sandy desert; and—reports respecting white men, supposed to relate to Leichardt and his party, of whose fate nothing is known, having been received from the natives of the Lake district,—in 1869 John Forrest extended his search to the Eastward of Champion Bay as far as the 123rd meridian, and in 1871 his brother Alexander somewhat further beyond Hampden Plains. In 1872, surveyor W. C. Gosse attempted to cross from South Australia, but was driven back by want of water before reaching the 126th meridian. Colonel Warburton, however, the year


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/22

12 acquired (and to those given in the above list several more might be added), should be familiar to those who now enjoy the benefits resulting from them. From 1850 exploration has been continued on a more extended scale, in a more systematic method, with more definite ends, at longer intervals, and for the most part by professional surveyors.

A. Gregory was occupied during the years 1852 and 1853 in the valleys of the Blackwood and Gordon, and made a short expedition from the Murchison to Sharks Bay. In 1854, surveyor Robert Austin with a large party, including several young volunteers since well known in the Colony, left the valley of the Avon, and proceeding East and North, reached Mt. Magnet, in the Lake district, nearly 300 miles due East from the mouth of the Murchison, and thence by a North-West course entered the upper basins of that river, and (after making vain attempts to reach the Gascoigne, where Mr. G. Phillips, with supplies sent by sea, awaited him) was obliged, with much suffering, to return, and with great difficulty reached the river. It was from this journey that some knowledge of the country about the head waters of the Murchison, now being so rapidly taken up for pastoral purposes, was first obtained. F. H. Gregory was on the Murchison in 1857, and the next year traced the courses of the Lyons and Gascoigne Rivers to the sea, and, by his discoveries, opened an easy route overland to the North-West coast, along which both sheep and cattle were driven by E. T. Hooley without difficulty in 1865.

In 1861, F. H. Gregory, landing with a party at Nicol Bay, explored the valleys of the Fortescue, Ashburton, Shirlock, Yule, and DeGrey rivers as far as Mt. Macpherson at the source of the Oakover; this led


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/21

Rh attention to the mineral wealth of the Champion Bay district), as also the small harbor which bears his name; and on the Irwin River his brother, Mr. F. H. Gregory, had found what has since been. commonly known as the coal seam, and this, with the reports of Von Sommer, led to the supposition that there were vast deposits of that mineral extending &om the Irwin along the base of the Darling Range.

Surveyor General Roe, descending the Palinup, crossed to Cape Riche, and, returning on his tract to the North-East, reached Bremer Range, whence, directing his course to the South and East, and crossing the sources of the Fitzgerald and Phillips Rivers, he proceeded as far as Russell Range, near Cape Arid, at the Western extremity of the Great Australian Bight; and returning to Cape Riche, he found on the middle course of the Phillips, and lower course of the Fitzgerald, deposits similar to those found by Gregory on the Irwin, and in consequence, another discovery of coal was proclaimed. On reaching Cape Riche, he made a direct course to Bunbury and thence to Perth. The same year Helpman and Gregory returned by sea and land to make further examination of the reported coal measures, but the result was not satisfactory. They were again very carefully examined in 1875, by the Rev. C. G. Nicolay, who was sent by the Government for that purpose, but without the least indication of coal measures being perceptible.

It will appear, from this brief record, that before the year 1850 the coast of Western Australia, from Sharks Bay to the Great Australian Bight, had been explored, and a general knowledge obtained of the basins of the rivers from the Moore to the Phillips. The names of the early explorers, by whose labors this knowledge was


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/20

10 from the Murchison to the Swan, and his description of the country led ultimately to its settlement. His accuracy was much disputed by some, but subsequent knowledge has fully confirmed his report. It was in this year that Eyre arrived at King George's Sound, having lost all his party except his native guide, in his journey along the coast from Port Lincoln. Captain Stokes, in the Beagle, this year surveyed the Abrolhos and Champion bay, which had been previously entered by Lieut. Helpman in the Colonial schooner of that name.

The views of the early settlers had been directed principally to agricultural pursuits; but after this time, as it had appeared from the explorations of Governor Stirling and Mr. Roe and their followers, that a large portion of the interior country was more fitted for pasturage, their attention was turned more especially to that industry, and with this object Drummond and Scully made explorations to the Victoria Plains, as did Mr. Henry Landor to the South-East of Beverley, and in 1843, with Mr. H. Maxwell Lefroy, he made an excursion into the Lake district to the East of York, where their names and discoveries are still perpetuated.

During the years 1847-8, Dr. F. Von Sommer, who, having a reputation for knowledge in natural science, had been taken into the employ of Government, examined and reported on the geology of the Victoria, Moore River, and Avon districts, and the country about Capes Riche and Naturaliste. In the latter year the Surveyor General, accompanied by Mr. Augustus Gregory, started on a journey of exploration to the East of the Stirling Range. Gregory had just returned from an expedition to the Murchison, on which river he had discovered lead and copper lodes (thus first directing


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/14

 by the officers of the Success, in 1827. A large number of names given by the French are still retained and familiar to the ears of Western Australians, but some have been replaced by English appellations, as the Moreau, now the Canning, while others have undergone a process of translation, as Port Two-people.

The Northern coasts were surveyed by Capt. King, in 1820 to 1824, and his work was supplemented by Captains Wickham and Stokes, in the Beagle, between the years 1837 and 1843; the latter completing the survey of Sharks Bay.

The coasts of Western Australia being then sufficiently known, and it having been ascertained that the French had determined to establish themselves there, the Governor of New South Wales, in 1826, sent a party of about 75 persons, principally soldiers and convicts, to occupy King George's Sound, and, the next year, H.M.S. Success, to select a place for a settlement on the West coast, with special reference to the Swan River, off the mouth of which that vessel dropped her anchor on the 6th of March, and the next day the gig and cutter were sent, with their crews well armed, and with provisions for a fortnight, to examine the river, to proceed if possible to its source, ascertain the nature and productions of the country, and fix on an eligible site for a settlement. The boats, having reached Hierrisen's islands, were hauled over the flats, and ascended the river until stopped by fallen timber. In returning the gig was sent to examine the Canning River, and during the absence of the boats, the shores and waters of Gage's Roads had been examined.

Mr. Frazer, the Colonial botanist, accompanied the expedition, and he notices with much pleasure the


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/15

 beauty of the scenery, the vivid green of the foliage, and the astonishing luxuriance of the herbaceous plants, which he described as exceeding anything he ever saw on the East coast. Indeed the river, still beautiful, must, before its banks were denuded of the forest trees which then clothed them "so magnificently," to use his own expression, have afforded "a great treat "to one accustomed to the ever brown Eucalyptus of Port Jackson."

The reports made by Captain Stirling and Mr. Frazer, on the return of the Success to Sydney, determined the Governor to recommend that a settlement should be formed on the Swan River, and Captain Stirling was, in consequence, sent out in 1829, to give effect to his recommendation. Hitherto, nothing had been known of Western Australia but the coast line, and that imperfectly, with the lower course of the rivers Swan and Canning, and the lake or estuary into which they have their outlets. On his arrival. Captain Stirling lost no time in obtaining further knowledge both of the coast and of the interior of that country which it had become his duty to develop for the advancement and future prosperity of the Colony of which he was the founder; indeed, even before Stirling's arrival. Captain Fremantle (H.M.S. Challenger) had already hoisted the British flag at the place which now bears his name, and had explored the country lying between Cockburn Sound and the Canning River.

While Mr. James Drummond, the botanist, who accompanied Captain Stirling, was at his work near the coast. Ensign Robert Dale, of the 63rd, explored the country to the Eastward, and reached the valley of the Avon, at Mt. Bakewell; and afterwards, starting from thence, proceeded Eastward for about 60 miles to Mts.


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/16

 Stirling and Caroline, returning by a more Southern route past the mount which bears his name. Meanwhile, Lieut. William Preston, R.N., with Dr. Alexander Collie, had reached Leschenault, to the South; and Lieut. Archibald Erskine examined the Darling Kange. Dale again, in the end of the year 1830, went to trace the course of the Helena River, and Captain Thomas Bannister started from the Swan River to cross the country to King George's Sound. On the South, Captain John Molloy had discovered the Blackwood, and Governor Stirling with the Surveyor General, Lieut. J. S. Roe, R.N., having visited Leschenault and Augusta, military detachments and settlers were established at both places. Nor had those at King George's Sound been idle, and the names of Lieut.-Col. Lockyer, Captain Wakefield, Lieutenants Tollemache and Kent, and especially that of Dr. Wilson. Resident Magistrate at Albany, will not be forgotton.

In the work of exploration none were more active than the Governor himself, who, with the Surveyor General, examined the course of the Collie and Preston Rivers, and the latter explored the country beyond the range of hills, which the Governor named after him. Roe's range; but the first exploration of any length, or presenting any serious, difficulty, was that made from the Swan to King George's Sound, by Captain Thomas Bannister, who, in consequence of the inaccuracy of the calculations of the surveyor sent with him, only succeeded in reaching, after much hardship, the coast near the mouth of the Frankland, having discovered in his journey the Bannister and other affluents of the Murray, as well as those of the Blackwood and Frankland. He first noticed the gigantic growth of the trees near the South coast.


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/17

Rh The next year, Collie and Dale, removed to King George's Sound, proceeded to explore that district Collie from Oyster harbor about the King and Kalgan or Trench River, as it was then called, and the Porongurup Range, while Dale was sent to Tood-e-rup, a part of the Stirling Range, to search, but without success, for a cereal plant said to be used as food by the natives. This year also, 1831, Mr. J. G. Bussell examined the country between the Blackwood and the Vasse, as well as the coast to the West of those rivers.

In 1833, Mr. Alfred Hillman, a surveyor in the employ of the Government, explored the South coast from Albany as far as Nornalup inlet. In 1834, Mr. G. F. Moore made the junction of the Avon and Swan; Mr. Thomas Turner ascended the Blackwood; Mr. John Butler explored the Lake district to the North of Perth; Mr. C R. B. Norcott, Superintendent of Police, the Murray River valley; Mr. F. Ludlow traversed the country between Augusta and the Swan River; and Mr. W, K, Shenton, a draughtsman attached to the office of the Surveyor General, examined the Collie River.

In 1835, Hillman visited the Avon, Hillman, and Williams Rivers; Mr, Patrick Taylor examined the upper course of the Kalgan and Hay; Surveyor Thomas Watson the Murray; and Moore the Upper Swan; but that year is most notable for the expedition under the command of the Governor himself, attended by the Surveyor General, which, traversing the country about the head waters of the Murray and Blackwood, struck the course of the Palinup or Salt River, and returning from the West of the Stirling Range (so named after Governor Stirling), descended the valley of the Kent, and proceeded along the coast to King George's Sound.


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/18

8 From thence they went in H.M.S. Sulphur to Cape Knob and Dillon Bay, and on their return Mr. Roe went back by York to the Swan River.

In 1836, further exploration was made by Hillman and Williams between the Avon and Williams Rivers; by Moore and Drummond about the sources of Moore River, and by Lieut. H. W. Bunbury in the valley of the Williams, and between the sources of the Dale and the Murray. In 1837 the Governor went by the valley of the Murray to Kojonup; and that year is notable for the landing of Lieuts. Grey and Lushington on the North coast, and for the discovery, by them, of the beautiful and fertile valley of the Glenelg River. Grey, however, having been severely wounded in a skirmish with the natives, returned with his party to Mauritius, to restore his health and prepare for a fresh descent on the North coast. Meanwhile, Hillman with his party was surveying the country, and laying out a road from Perth to King George's Sound.

It was, indeed, for the purpose of connecting the scattered settlements in the new Colony, that most explorations were now made. The settlers in the South-West very naturally desired that the road from Perth to Albany should pass near their locations, and the journeys of Messrs. W. Nairn Clarke, R. H. Bland (afterwards Colonial Secretary), F. C. Singleton, and Lieut, G. E. Egerton Warburton, were continued for the three following years with that object. At this time, also, Captain John Scully made further exploration on the Moore River, as did surveyor H. M. Ommaney (formerly a lieutenant in the army), on the coast to the West of Busselton, while Clarke examined the coast and its inlets between King George's Sound and Point D'Entrecasteaux.


text:
Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/19

Rh Grey, by the advice of Sir William Nicolay, then Governor of Mauritius, had come to the Swan River to re-organise his party for farther exploration on the North coast; but as it was supposed that the main drainage of the interior would prove to be to the West, the rivers of the North coast being apparently of sufficient magnitude, and the limits of the basin of the Glenelg being known, he went by sea to Sharks Bay, into which a considerable river had been reported to flow from the East, and was landed with three whale boats and stores on Bernier island, where he made his dépot, and from thence proceeded across the bay, and after much danger and difficulty, succeeded in tracing its Eastern shore and entering the mouth of the Gascoigne River; but returning to his dépot one of his boats was broken up, the others shattered, and his stores destroyed in a violent storm, so that he was obliged to attempt to return to Swan River by sea in two boats, now unfit for service, and with a very insufficient stock of provisions. Attempting to land near the South of Gantheaume bay, his boats were destroyed in the surf on the beach, and it only remained to reach, if possible, the Swan River, on foot. In this terrible journey the party separated, but Grey and a faithful native named Kaibor, having reached Perth, sent back assistance to the rest, who, with the exception of Frederick Smith, a young volunteer who had attached himself to Grey, and Mr. Walker the surgeon, who had reached Fremantle unassisted, were picked up by a party sent to their relief under the Surveyor General. Smith died of exhaustion near the small river which bears his name, after having shown himself, by his courage and patient endurance of hardship and famine, worthy of his cousin Florence Nightingale. In this journey of nearly 300 miles, Grey discovered and passed over all the rivers of the West coast,


text: Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/25


text: Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/26


text:
Page:Railways Act 1921 (ukpga 19210055 en).pdf/14

[Ch. 55.] (4) Every such preliminary scheme shall, subject to such provisions in that behalf as may be contained therein, come into operation forthwith after it is approved.

(5) Subject to the provisions of this section, all the provisions of this Part of this Act relating to amalgamation and. absorption schemes shall, with the necessary adaptations, apply respectively to preliminary amalgamation and absorption schemes except that a preliminary amalgamation scheme shall, instead of giving effect to the provisions contained in the to this Act with respect to the direction of the company, make such alternative provision in that respect as may be agreed between the companies to be amalgamated.

(6) In the confirmation or preparation and settlement of the amalgamation scheme for the group the amalgamation tribunal shall give effect to any preliminary scheme approved by them, but so that the interests of the other constituent companies in the group shall not be prejudiced thereby.

(7) Any company formed by a preliminary amalgamation scheme shall be deemed to be a constituent company for the purposes of this Act in lieu of the companies amalgamated by the scheme, and shall not be deemed to be an amalgamated company within the meaning of this Act.

Constitution and procedure of amalgamation tribunal.

9.—(1) For the purposes of dealing, in accordance and with the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act, of with schemes of amalgamation and schemes of absorption, there shall be constituted a tribunal, to be called the Railways Amalgamation Tribunal (in this Act referred to as " the amalgamation tribunal ") consisting of three commissioners, who shall hold office until all matters with respect to which they have jurisdiction under this Part of this Act have been settled.

(9) The first commissioners shall be Sir Henry Babington Smith, G.B.E. (who shall be president), Sir William Plender, G.B.E., and George John Talbot, Esquire, K.C., and in the event of any vacancy occurring amongst the commissioners for the time being by death, resignation, or otherwise, before the expiration of the term of office of the commissioners, His Majesty may appoint a person to fill the vacancy. 10


text:
Page:Railways Act 1921 (ukpga 19210055 en).pdf/15

[Ch. 55.] (3) The amalgamation tribunal shall be a court of record, and have an official seal, which shall be officially and judicially noticed, and may act notwithstanding any vacancy in their number, and two shall be a quorum.

(4) Any commissioner and any person authorised by the amalgamation tribunal may hold such local or other inquiries as appear necessary to the amalgamation tribunal for the ,purpose of the proper execution of their duties under this Act, and before any such inquiry is held the amalgamation tribunal shall give such public' notice as they think best adapted for informing persons affected of the date when and the place where the inquiry will be held.

The provisions of the with respect to—

(a) the administration of oaths and the taking of affirmations ; and

(b) the correction in awards of mistakes and errors ; and

(c) the summoning, attendance, and examination of witnesses and the production of documents; and

(d) the costs of the reference and award;

shall apply in respect of any proceedings before the amalgamation tribunal, and (except with regard to the correction of mistakes and errors in awards) at any inquiry under this section ; but, save as aforesaid, the Arbitration Act, 1889, shall not apply to, proceedings before the amalgamation tribunal or at any inquiry under this section.

(6) The amalgamation tribunal or person. holding an inquiry under this section shall take into consideration all objections to an amalgamation or absorption scheme, or in respect of the subject matter of the inquiry, which may have been. lodged by any class or body of persons within the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner and, where any objections have been so lodged, shall hear any objectors whom the tribunal consider entitled to appear.

(7) The amalgamation tribunal may, and if so ordered by the Court of Appeal or Court of Session shall, state in the form of a special case for determination by the Court of Appeal or Court of Session as the case may require, any question of law which may arise before them, and the decision of the Court of Appeal or Court of Session: shall 11


text:
Page:Railways Act 1921 (ukpga 19210055 en).pdf/16

[Ch. 55.] be final unless that court give leave to appeal to the House of Lords, which leave may be given on such terms as to costs or otherwise as the Court of Appeal or Court of Session may determine.

(8) Subject as aforesaid, the amalgamation tribunal may, with the approval of the Lord Chancellor and the Lord President of the Court of Session, make rules regulating their own procedure and the procedure at any inquiry under this section.

Staff and expenses of tribunal.

10.—(1) The amalgamation tribunal may appoint a clerk and, subject to the consent of the Treasury as to numbers, such other officers and,servants as they consider necessary for assisting them in the proper execution of their duties.

(2) There shall be paid to the commissioners and to any such clerk, officer or servant as aforesaid such remuneration as the Minister, with the approval of the Treasury, may determine, not exceeding in the aggregate thirty-five thousand pounds.

(3) Any such remuneration and any other expenses of the amalgamation tribunal shall be defrayed in the first instance by the Minister out of moneys provided. by Parliament, but on the coming into operation of the amalgamation schemes under this Part of this Act the amount thereof with interest at such rate as the Treasury may appoint shall on demand be repaid to the Minister by the amalgamated companies in such proportions as the amalgamation tribunal may determine.

Composition of claims in respect of Government possession of railways

11.—(1) The Minister shall, out of moneys to be provided by Parliament, place on deposit with Messrs. Glyn Mills, Currie and Company, bankers in the city of London, the sum of sixty million pounds to the credit of a deposit account entitled " The Railways Compensation Account," and that sum shall be. payable by two equal instalments of thirty million pounds each, of which the first instalment shall become due on the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, and the second instalment shall become due on the thirty first day of December, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, and each such, instalment shall be paid within fifteen days after it so becomes due. 12


text:
Page:Railways Act 1921 (ukpga 19210055 en).pdf/17

[Ch. 55.] (2) The payment of the said sum shall be a full discharge-and in satisfaction of all claims which might otherwise have been. made -by any railway company in Great Britain to which this section applies for compensation under the, the  or otherwise arising out of or in respect of the possession by the Crown of the under-taking, railroad, or plant of such railway company or the exercise of the powers conferred by those Acts:

Provided that the rights and liabilities of the Crown or the Minister on the one hand, and of the railway companies on the other hand, under the terms of the agreements or arrangements relating to the possession by the Crown of the railways, shall, so far as regards the making good of any deficiency in the net receipts of the companies (including the payment of interest) up to the end of the period of possession, and in relation to any sums expended and liabilities incurred by the companies in respect of repairs and renewals effected before the end of that period in accordance with the said agreements and arrangements, subsist and continue.

(3) The moneys so placed to the credit of the said account in accordance with the provisions of this section, together with any interest which may accrue thereon, shall, subject to the provisions of the next succeeding section, be distributed amongst the railway companies in Great Britain to which this section applies, in accordance with such scheme or schemes of allocation as may be agreed to by such companies, or, failing agreement, as may be settled from time to time by the amalgamation tribunal, and the amalgamation tribunal shall on request issue under their seal a certificate authenticating any such scheme or schemes as may have been agreed or settled, and Messrs. Glyn, Mills, Currie and Company shall pay to each of the said companies forthwith the amount or amounts allocated to such company in accordance with any such scheme bearing the seal of the amalgamation tribunal, and any sum allocated to any company under any such scheme shall be deemed to become,, or to have become, due to the company on the date on which the instalment out of which the sum is payable becomes or became due.

(4) All moneys received by any of the "said railway companies in pursuance of any such scheme of allocation 13


text:
Page:Melbourne and Mars.djvu/91

Rh had passed away in his sleep without a word or sign. Only the coldness of his face under its loose covering told her what had happened.

As a rule the Martials do not fear death, and do not make much of it. They never wear mourning, and never indulge in a grand funeral. This girl was a very affectionate one, and had been her father's favourite from birth, and so the sudden loss was a terrible affliction. I did not try to check her tears: I knew that they would bring relief, and so merely got her away from her father's body. I communicated with her brother and Fred, and went to the nearest hostel for the night. I gave Helen up to the matron, who was very kind and sympathetic, and left the body laid out in the boat until Harry and Fred could arrive.

It was morning when they came. They were weary, and had forgot to take dinner the day before. I saw that they had breakfast, and we all rested until noon. We then decided to take the old man's body to his home. Harry sent word to Mother Vance. Fred and Harry went in Hern's boat and I carried Helen and the corpse. We were a silent company. We had to go to Highton, section 725, a district some three hundred miles north-east of Sidonia. We arrived at nineteen o'clock, and found all in readiness for our burden. Fred and I were invited to remain with the family, but thinking they would be better without us we went to the hostel.

The next day, at noon, a special boat, with a recepticle for the corpse, came to Hern's. We were ready to follow it. A married sister of Helen's and her husband, Mother Vance, Helen, Harry, Fred and I followed in three boats. We flew slowly to the nearest crematory.

There we alighted on a beautifully kept lawn, and four men came for the corpse. It was carried into the building and placed on a kind of shelf near one of the walls. There was nothing about the building that we could see to suggest fire or death or anything painful or unpleasant. We followed the body in, and each placed upon it a stick of perfumed wood and a few flowers. Then one of our religious teachers, a friend of the family, came and made a few appropriate remarks, mostly of a consoling and thanksgiving character. What he said ended in something like this strain:—'The untenanted body of our friend who has passed from amongst us we reverently commit to the elements from whence it has been derived. It was to him a clothing and a useful working servant; he treated it properly as a gift of God; he has left it for us to dispose of, and we set its various component parts free that they may again be of use in other structures. This is not our friend whom we return to nature's storehouse, but a shell that he has worn and done with. Our friend is in God's hands, and is therefore safe. Nothing evil can happen to him, for the Giver of Life gave Death as the end of Life, its natural conclusion, and what is natural is also right and good.' Here the speaker pressed a spring, and the shelf and its burden slowly drew into the wall. As it went he said, 'What we have known as Thomas Hern passes from our

title: Page:Melbourne and Mars.djvu/91


text:
Page:Melbourne and Mars.djvu/92

90 sight for ever. The real man is as real as ever, and is working out his destiny of eternal progress to better and better states of being.' We then stood in silence for a few minutes and went our various ways.

I spent the remainder of the day in Highton, and made friends of Mother Vance and Henry. I saw but little of Helen, but was probably more interested in her on that account. Her voice, whenever I heard it, rang through my brain as before, and as I shook hands with her next morning I got one glance of her strange, deep, dumb pleading eye that I could never forget.

Fred and I returned to Sidonia. I promised to see the Hern's in the autumn. When I got back to Sidonia I received a complimentary letter from the Central Executive.

One of my first acts was to tell Grayson of my adventures. He listened with pleasure and attention. When I spoke of Helen Vance he looked grave and troubled, especially when I told him of the strange effect of her eye and voice.

The next day he told me that he had discovered Helen was an earthborn, and frequently, though not constantly, conscious of her earth life. She would be eligible shortly to become a member of the 'Earthborn.' He also said that I had possibly seen her before."

From this time to the end of the sixty-fifth of our diarist's earth years there is nothing of importance recorded in either life. Frankston goes on with his studies in Mars, and Adams with his commission agencies in Melbourne. Occasionally he speaks of his wife as ailing, and evidently business is not prosperous on his side. His wife and sons have had something better in hand than he has.

Near the end of seventy-nine he writes:—"My greatest bereavement has fallen upon me. My wife is dead. For forty years we have travelled the world together, and we have been faithful to each other all the time. Our love was a quiet current on which our lives floated: it has taken death to show me how deep and strong that current is. I had no idea that I could suffer so much. My only hope is that, we may meet again; eternity will be an empty void without her. In anguish of soul I cry out for my lost love."

His loss must have stirred him to the depths of his soul before he left the matter of fact style so far.

His notes for the next two years are very prosy, and mixed up much with business transactions. Sometimes there is not a word from Mars for days together. His double is living quietly and happily. He has the friendship of many good and wise people. He sees Helen Vance now and then. She has become a member of the Earthborn's, and is working in the metropolis. His family have spent some time in Sidonia, and have seen some of the sights

title: Page:Melbourne and Mars.djvu/92


text:
Page:The White Stone.djvu/117

Rh have supposed that two young Romans of illustrious birth, and a philosopher of the Areopagus, accompanied the proconsul. In so doing, I have not taken too great a liberty, since the intendants, the procurators, the propraetors, and the proconsuls whom the Emperor and the Senate respectively sent to govern the provinces, always had about themselves the sons of great families, who came to instruct themselves in the management of public affairs under their guidance, and that of men of keen intellect like my Apollodorus, more frequently freedmen acting as their secretaries. Lastly, I conceived the idea that at the moment St. Paul was being brought before a Roman tribunal, the proconsul and his friends were conversing freely about the most varied subjects, art, philosophy, religion, and politics, and that there pierced the various topics absorbing their interest a deep anxiety as to the future. There is indeed some likelihood that on that very day, just as well as on any other, they may have sought to discover the future destiny of Rome and the world. Gallio and Mela stood among the most elevated and open intellects of the day. Minds of such a calibre are at all times inclined to delve into the present and the past for the conditions of the future. I have noticed in the most learned and well-informed men whom I have known, to name but Renan and Berthelot, a pronounced tendency to interject at haphazard into

title: Page:The White Stone.djvu/117


text:
Page:The White Stone.djvu/118

114 a conversation outlines of rational Utopias and scientific forecasts."

"Here then we have," said Joséphin Leclerc, "one of the best educated men of his day, a man versed in philosophic speculation, trained in the conduct of public affairs, and who was of as open and broad a mind as could be that of a Roman such as Gallio, the brother of Seneca, the ornament and light of his century. He is concerned about the future, he seeks to grasp the movement which is most affecting the world, and he tries to fathom the destiny of the Empire and the gods. Just then, by a unique stroke of fortune, he comes across St. Paul; the future he is in quest of passes by him, and he sees it not. What an example of the blindness which strikes, in the very presence of an unexpected revelation, the most enlightened minds and the keenest intellects!"

"I would have you observe, my dear friend," replied Nicole Langelier, "that it was not a very easy matter for Gallio to converse with St. Paul. It is not easy to conceive how they could possibly have exchanged ideas. St. Paul had trouble in expressing himself, and it was with great difficulty that he made himself intelligible to the folk who lived and thought like himself. He had never spoken word of mouth to any cultured man.

"He was nowise capable of indicating a train of

title: Page:The White Stone.djvu/118


text:
Page:The White Stone.djvu/119

Rh thought and of following those of an interlocutor. He was ignorant of Greek science. Gallio, accustomed to the conversation of educated people, had long since trained his reason to debate. He knew not the maxims of the rabbis. What then could these two men have said to each other?

"Not that it was impossible for a Jew to converse with a Roman. The Herods enjoyed a mode of expression which was agreeable to Tiberius and Caligula. Flavius Josephus and Queen Berenice discoursed in terms pleasing to Titus, the destroyer of Jerusalem. We know that bejewelled Jews were at all times to be found in company of the antisemites. They were meschoumets (accursed unbelievers—anathema to Paul). Paul was a nĕbi (prophet). This fiery and haughty Syrian, disdainful of the worldly goods sought for by all men, thirsting after poverty, ambitious of insults and humiliations, rejoicing in suffering, was merely able to proclaim his sombre and inflamed visions, his hatred of life and of the beautiful, his absurd outbursts of anger, and his insane charity. Apart from this, he had nothing to say. In truth, I can discover one subject only on which he might have agreed with the proconsul of Achaia. 'Tis Nero.

"St. Paul, at that time, could hardly have heard any mention of the youthful son of Agrippina, but on learning that Nero was destined to Imperial

title: Page:The White Stone.djvu/119


text:
Page:The White Stone.djvu/120

116 power, he would immediately become a Neronian. He became so later on. He was still one at the time Nero poisoned Britannicus. Not that he was capable of approving of a brother's murder, but because he entertained a profound respect for all government. 'Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,' he wrote to his churches. 'For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.' Gallio might perchance have found these maxims somewhat simple and commonplace, but he could not have disapproved of them as a whole. But if there is a subject which he would not have felt tempted to approach while speaking with a Jewish weaver, it is indeed the ruling of people and the authority of the Emperor. Once more, what could those two men well have said to each other?

"In our own day, when a European official in Africa, let us say the Governor-General of the Sudan for his Britannic Majesty, or our Governor of Algeria, comes across a fakeer or a marabout, their conversation is naturally confined within restricted limits. St. Paul was to a proconsul what a marabout is to our civil Governor of Algeria. A conversation between Gallio and St. Paul would have resembled only too much, I imagine, that held by

title: Page:The White Stone.djvu/120


text:
Page:The White Stone.djvu/121

Rh General Desaix with his famous dervish. After the battle of the Pyramids, General Desaix, at the head of twelve hundred cavalry, pursued into Upper Egypt the Mamelukes of Murad Bey. On arriving at Girgeh, he heard that an old dervish, who had acquired among the Arabs a wide reputation for learning and sanctity, was living near that city. Desaix was endowed with both philosophy and humanity. Desirous of making the acquaintance of a man esteemed of his fellows, he caused the dervish to be summoned to headquarters, received him with honour, and entered into conversation with him through an interpreter.

"'Venerable old man,' he said, 'the French have come to bring Egypt justice and liberty.'

"'I knew they would come,' replied the dervish.

"'How did you come to know it?'

"'Through an eclipse of the sun.'

"'How can an eclipse of the sun have informed you as to the movement of our armies?'

"'Eclipses are brought about by the angel Gabriel, who places himself before the sun in order to announce to the faithful the misfortunes which threaten them.'

"'Venerable old man, you are ignorant of the true cause of eclipses; I shall impart the knowledge of it to you.'

title: Page:The White Stone.djvu/121


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/280

 variety of the sublime and beautiful during one single day. At sunrise the Dhoon is seen, expanded 3 or 4,000 feet below, like a boundless meadow, dappled with forests and fertile fields, cut into sections by numerous rivulets, with every tree and every house distinctly marked. Beyond it appears the Sewalic range, the cemetery of an antediluvian world, exhumed by Cauteley and Falconer, those eminent geologists, who have reversed the order of the march of intellect, and directed it to an era anterior to man's existence, when the mammoth and the mastodon were the monarchs of the world, and the solid rock that now encases their bones, was a plastic mass of mud. Beyond the Sewalic range the fertile plains of Upper India may be traced to an immense distance; the Jumna filled by the melted snow, and the periodical rains, is seen on the right, meandering like a rivulet, or overflowing its banks like a sea. On the left is seen the most magnificent monument of the Company's dominions, the great Ganges canal, the mighty river being turned from its bed, and measured out in streams to fertilize the provinces through which it runs along a course of 7 or 800 miles, with a breadth of 170 feet, a depth of 10 feet and fit also for navigation.

About seven in the morning the dews of the night ascend and congregate in clouds, expanding


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/279

 though a tree of five or six feet in diameter, is too brittle for service, and the pine and the deodar (cedar) are rare. The neighbouring hills are for the most part bare, and only a few peaks of snow are to be seen on the horizon.

Landour, as I have said,is about 1000 feet higher than Missourie, with a very easy ascent by a well made road. It is a depot for sick European soldiers, and contains barracks for about 200 men, and a very excellent hospital, with an assistant-surgeon in charge. A commanding officer, an adjutant and several officers doing duty reside on the hill. A limited number of invalids is every year sent up by different regiments in the adjoining provinces, where they reside one or two years, and in most cases return to their duty effective men. Of the comparative advantages of Missourie and Landour,much may be said on either side, there is more society, more gaiety, less rain, less fog, and less lightning at Missourie. At Landour there is more retirement, a cooler temperature and more sublime scenery, and if on duty there, rent-free quarters; but articles from the bazar must be brought up from Missourie, and water from 300 feet below its level, for there is no water on the hill of Landour in the dry season.

The Dhoon and the Dhoon breeze, and the Dhoon mist, are the most prominent traits in each landscape. Few scenes in nature can surpass the


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/122

 This is the easiest mode of conveyance, and best adapted for an invalid, and admits of his having a comfortable bed, and a nap all the way".

Travelling, throughout Bengal,is attended with as little risk, either to person or property, as in any country in Europe; and ladies and children travel from Calcutta to the Indus without escort, and without apprehension, either from robbers or from wild beasts; and even the accidents from native horses or breaking down of carriages are not greater than the average on all roads.

5. MARCHING.—On ordinary occasions, when there is no hurry, long journeys are made by marching ten or twelve miles a day, either from bungalow to bungalow or by means of tents. One tent is sent on in the evening to the new ground, where it is found ready to receive its owner next morning. The sleeping tent and the heavy baggage follow their master at daylight, and generally arrive about noon. Of all modes of carriage, camels are the best, and carts or hackeries the worst: the latter are constantly liable to accidents; and it is no unusual thing for one to come up late in the afternoon, having been detained by an axle-tree breaking and the cutting down a tree to make a new one.

6. HOTELS are rarely to be met within India,and only at larger stations, such as Allahabad, Cawnpoor, Agra, Meerut.


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/123

 '''7. POSTAGE'''.—The rate of postage is as rapid in Bengal as in most countries where it is not conveyed by rail. The pace along the trunk road is nine and ten miles an hour; and a letter travels from Calcutta to Peshawur in about twelve days. The boon of cheap postage is now extended to all India;and one may send a letter from Simlah to Cape Comorin for half an anna, which a few years ago would have cost eighteen or twenty annas.

8. ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.—The electric telegraph is now open all over India. The events at any one presidency are known at any other presidency an hour or two after they have taken place; and messages can be transmitted by the public at large at the rate of one rupee for sixteen words.


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/124

1. CANTONMENTS.—It is time that I should introduce the stranger to the life of cantonments in the interior; and I cannot do that better than by following the career of an Assistant-surgeon.

The disposition of the Bengal army consists of eight divisions,each under a general officer, viz., that of the Presidency, Dinapore, Benares, Cawnpore, Meerut, Sirhind, Lahore, and Peshawur, subdivided into minor brigades, regiments, wings, or companies, cantoned at convenient distances apart from the head quarters of the division.

The European troops are all quartered in barracks erected by Government, the native in huts of mud and mats and thatch, partly at their own expense, partly at that of Government. The officers live in houses, either their own property,or rented at from thirty to sixty rupees a month; but in garrisons they have public quarters assigned them at a moderate rate. The extent of a large cantonment is surprising to a stranger, being from six to eight miles in extent.

2. EUROPEAN BARRACKS.—The European


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/125

 barracks and hospitals are all of the most spacious size, with walls of brick and mortar, floors of tiles or flags of stone, or of a composition of mortar and brick dust, beat up when wet into a consistence as hard as stone, called ; the roofs flat, and made of the same material—puckah—sometimes tiled and sometimes thatched. The consumption of timber in such buildings is enormous, requiring a whole forest of saul and teak; and the destruction by the white-ant is so great and so rapid that annual surveys to detect their ravages, annual withdrawal of beams, and substitution of new ones are necessary; thus entailing an immense expense to Government that might be avoided.

When making a recent tour in Palestine where timber fit for building is unknown, I was struck with the ease and economy with which the roofs of houses were arched over with pottery—little conical pots, about six inches long and two to three inches in diameter, being used in the construction of the arches, and covered over with puckah and made waterproof.

It struck me that the roofs of all houses in India ought to be constructed of such materials; they would be impregnable to the white-ants. Good clay is everywhere abundant. The original construction would be much less than buildings of timber roofs and the annual repairs


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/126

 would be avoided; the roof would be a better non-conductor with such a series of air cells. It will be said that the rampart barracks of Fort William, with its arched roofs, are the least desirable quarters in the fort, the echo alone being an intolerable nuisance; but the echo might be easily avoided by facading the arches in the Moorish or Italian style, thus combining elegance with economy.

No barrack better adapted to India could be constructed than one with a centre line of archway and two side ones—a nave and two aisles, combining strength and elegance,light and ventilation, coolness and convenience, and no roof could be constructed, combining greater coolness and economy.

3. NATIVE BARRACKS.—These are of a very inferior description, being long lines of mud huts, covered with thatch or tiles, just high enough to stand in, and just long enough and broad enough for a bed either way. Being on a level with the ground, the floors and walls are excessively damp, and the unhealthiness is increased by exuberance of vegetation in the lines.

The penurious economy of the native character is carried to the utmost extent by the sepoys. Every pice is begrudged in the construction of their huts; and though Government, on every change of a regiment,grant what is called hutting


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/127

 money to repair the lines, yet this does not seem to be expended on the houses. The present system of cantoning native troops is an antiquated one, and Government would save the expense of better accommodation by reducing their invalid and pension list.

4. MODE OF LIFE.—On arriving at a large station, such as Agra, Meerut, or Umballa, he must wait upon the Superintending-surgeon,the General commanding the division,and the Brigadier commanding the station, and report his arrival; and will most likely be ordered to do duty in the hospital of some European corps. The medical staff generally attached to a European regiment is a Surgeon and two or three Assistants. At such division stations there may be four or six .or more regiments cantoned, a European regiment of the line, a regiment of native cavalry, two, three or more regiments of native infantry, and a considerable body of artillery, each having its own medical establishment. The mode of life is rather monotonous; duty is in general very light and occupies but a small portion of the day; and balls,concerets, races, hunts and theatricals are valuable resources for spending time. There is less general sociality than might be expected. Each regiment forms its own little section of society; and it often happens that one half of the residents remain strangers to one another, though meeting daily,


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/128

 for months or years. Nor is this much to be wondered at, considering the great extent of a large cantonment; the houses being scattered over an extent of six or eight miles, and the difficulty of keeping up acquaintance in hot weather at such distances; for all visits, even in the hottest weather, are made during the heat of the day, and all new arrivals are expected to make the first visit.

The signal for rising is the morning gun which is fired at day-break. Then every one starts to his feet, performs a hasty toilet, has his cup of coffee, or tea, or chocolate, mounts his horse, and takes his constitutional ride, goes to parade, or visits his hospital. About eight the officers of the regiment assemble at the mess-house, have a cup of coffee, read the newspapers, discuss the politics of the day, or the events of cantonments, or play billards. About nine o'clock they retire to their own quarters,have a cold bath and breakfast. During the day they may have to attend courts-martial, courts of requests, courts of enquiry, courts of inquest, boards of survey, committees of examination, &c., &c.; or should none of these require their attendance,they spend their time at home. About sunset every one, ladies and all, turn out upon some public course well watered on purpose, and exchange recognizances with their friends; or assemble round some


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/129

{|
 * band; then, at dusk, home to dinner, and about ten o'clock retire to bed.
 * band; then, at dusk, home to dinner, and about ten o'clock retire to bed.
 * band; then, at dusk, home to dinner, and about ten o'clock retire to bed.
 * band; then, at dusk, home to dinner, and about ten o'clock retire to bed.

The expence of living, compared with that of England, is very considerably greater. Though income, and window, and road tax, and wheel, and horse, and dog taxes are unknown; and though the staple articles of food are extremely cheap, yet every article of European produce is at least cent. per cent. above the home tariff, and it requires considerable economy for any officer, under the rank of captain, and not of the Staff, to live well on his pay.

5. EUROPEAN REGIMENTS.—On joining a European regiment the Assistant-surgeon will be issued into an extensive society of officers, have the entrée to a well found mess; sit down to an excellent dinner, served up in elegant style, where politeness and decorum preside. He will not be long connected with the regiment until he learns that the majority of cases in hospital are directly or indirectly caused by intoxication, induced in many cases, by the dull, listless, routine of a barrack life. There is, in fact, a constant struggle between the men rushing to their graves and the Surgeon trying to keep them out of it—and his best intentions are often defeated.

If officers, with all the resources of a refined education, and all the indulgences of easy circumstances, so often fall victims to ennui, what must
 * VII
 * }


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/130

 be the situation of the private soldier, whose life during half the year, is little better than solitary confinement; whose duty is little more than a plausible pretext to keep him out of idleness; whose idle hours are wearisome and monotonous to an excessive degree, owing to a general incapacity for intellectual pursuit. It is not surprising that men so situated become listless, gloomy, and melancholy; that they should cultivate the seeds of disease;chop off their fingers;put out their eyes; and malinger incorrigibly, in the hopes of getting invalided;that they should drown their senses in intoxication and die of delirium tremens; that they should commit some act of felony with the express object of being emancipated from military duty by transportation; or, failing in attaining their object by any of the above means, that they should put an end to their sufferings by committing suicide.

Much has been done to improve their condition. Excellent barracks have everywhere been erected without regard to expense; supplied with both punkahs and tatties; cricket grounds, racket courts, and skittle alleys, are open for the playful, schools for the illiterate,libraries for the learned, temperance societies for the temperate; theatres for the comic; chapels for the devout; promotion and rewards for the well conducted, and dry rooms and solitary cells for all offenders. The


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/131

 best hospitals are open to the sick, supplied with every comfort that science or humanity could suggest for their recovery, and when these fail, the sanataria on the hills are had recourse to.

With all these, much still remains to be done to render the life of a soldier in India an agreeable one. The canteen system is, by many, looked upon as the source of many miseries, but its abolition would, I fear, be more correct in theory than in practice. Many of the men have learned intemperate habits before joining the army, and, needing more stimulus in India than at home, will get spirits somewhere; and if they cannot get good grog from the canteen they can always contrive some means of getting bad grog from natives about the lines. Even in the canteens a great improvement has been made by the introduction of wholesome beer and porter, which has greatly reduced the consumption of ardent spirits, and improved the tone of health and the conduct of the men. But the grandest field for improving the condition of the soldier remains still untilled, and that is their mind. An effective medical establishment is, no doubt, a good thing, but a prophylactic mental establishment would be a better. Exercise is valuable, but when combined with what is agreeable and interesting, it would be doubly more so. A system of recreation should be organized as regular as


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/132

 their regimental drill. Some may say that amusement, when compulsory, is no longer amusement; but there is a wide difference between being compelled to amuse ones'self and having no amusement at all. Every European regiment should have its gymnasium under cover and protected from sun and rain, where the men might play rackets, bowls, billiards, concerts, comedies, &c., at all hours of the day. If the racket courts, in almost every cantonment, were covered with roofs, they might be made much more useful than they are at present when without roofs.

Soldiers in all countries assist in the construction of public works; more especially those connected with their own cantonments or barracks. Fatigue duty is common in other British colonies, even in hot ones, as Malta, Corfu, and Gibraltar; but in India, unless at some urgently required field-work, it is unknown. There the British soldier does nothing for himself but clean his accoutrements—every thing else is done for him—whilst,like an unused musket, he becomes rusty and enervated by sheer idleness.

6. SOLDIERS' GARDENS.—Perhaps the best way of giving exercise and occupation to the soldier would be the establishment of regimental vegetable gardens, and telling off a certain number to gardener it. These institutions would be useful in two ways; they would afford healthy exercise


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/133

 to a large number, and wholesome vegetables to the whole regiment; and where vegetables are scarce, as in the Punjaub, would check the predisposition to scurvy, a disease more common in India than is generally believed. A very excellent example of what may be done by such gardens is to be seen at Lahore, constructed under the superintendence of Sir Henry Lawrence, C. B., where an extensive native garden, overgrown with weeds and brushwood, was converted into a place of public resort for the amusement and instruction of the European soldier; where they could spend the day in the shade, or read or play at all sorts of gymnastic games according to their tastes.

I had lately an opportunity of seeing what soldiers could do, and I have no doubt did of their own accord, especially in the camp of the Royals at Komara, and in the French camp before Sebastopol; ornamental, and even useful, little gardens filled with flowers and wholesome vegetables were common amongst their bell tents; and in the fertile valley of the Tchernya, the Zouaves had very extensive ones of a more substantial character. Many a weary hour must have been pleasantly beguiled in the construction of such gardens, though the sowers had so many chances against then surviving to reap the fruits of their labour. If, under such difficulties, such recreations could


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/134

 be found, and such works constructed, what might not be done in a quiet cantonment in India. There is abundance of waste land in the neighbourhood of every European cantonment. The only expense would be the wells and the tools.

7. NATIVE REGIMENT.—After doing duty with an European regiment for a few months the Assistant-surgeon may expect to be posted to the medical charge of a native regiment at some out station. This is a desirable change for a young officer, and he may now,for the first time after his arrival, consider himself settled; he will become a member of the regimental community, an adopted son in a large family, and consider the commanding officer as his father, and each other officer as his brother; and lucky will he be if he finds all things going on harmoniously. But he may find all things the very reverse;he may find many of the officers at variance with one another, a civil war raging in the cantonment, and find it no easy matter to preserve his neutrality. But this he must do if possible, and it is possible, by great discretion, listening to all but repeating nothing. Everything should be confidential where all sides tell their complaints; as confidential as the professional complaints of his patients, should be sacred.

A regiment of Native Infantry consists of 1,000 men, partly Hindoos, partly Mussumien,


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/135

 —the former preponderating,—all men of high caste, and proud of their profession. The European officers attached to it are, 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 1 major, 6 captains, 10 lieutenants, 5 ensigns, 1 surgeon, or assistant. Such is merely the nominal strength; there are seldom more present than 1 lieutenant-colonel or major, commanding; 2 or 3 captains, 3 or 4 and 4 or 5 ensigns; the rest being absent on staff employment. There are corresponding grades of rank amongst the natives as among the Europeans. Sepoy corresponds with private, naik with corporal, havildar with sergeant, jemmadar with lieutenant, and subadar with captain, the last two are called commissioned officers,but rise from the ranks, and are subordinate to the junior ensign. A European quarter-master, sergeant, and sergeant major are also attached to each regiment and a numerous band.

In most regiments there is a well regulated mess, at which most of the bachelors dine; also a good book club, a band, and a billiard table. It is somewhat remarkable that it is not compulsory on all officers, when present, to join the mess, for nothing contributes so much to the good-fellowship of a regiment as a well ordered mess, and when there is no mess, or when that is attended by only a few, there must be something wrong. A great reform has of late years been effected


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/136

 in the convivial habits of messes; and it is a very rare thing to see an officer in a state of intoxication; and he who so far forgets the respect due to himself and others as to get drunk at the mess table, will, sooner or later, be called to account. What is not tolerated in general, will be unpardonable in a medical officer, who may at any moment be called upon to save a patient from death, and, if drunk on such an emergency, nothing can save his commission.

In the interior, especially at small stations, there are no barracks, but each officer rents a house of his own, or buys one; the latter is the best system, as the owner may inmost cases sell it for as much as it cost him, and thus live rent free. However, in the event of the station being abolished, the owners of houses are allowed no compensation for the loss of property, the allowance for tentage being considered equivalent to meet all contingencies.

There is one part of the establishment of a house which newcomers find very annoying, that is, being obliged to entertain one or two watchmen to prevent being robbed. These are called chokeydars, in most cases members of a caste of thieves; their wages are a sort of black mail imposed upon the residents, and, provided that is paid regularly, there is very little risk of being robbed. When such is the custom, I would


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/137

 every one to follow it. The natives, when inclined,are the most expert thieves in the world; to remove the contents of the bed-room in which the master is sleeping is considered an easy matter, to steal the sword from his side,or the revolver from under his pillow requires but the dexterity of a journeyman, and an accomplished artist will succeed in stealing the very bed clothes from under him, leaving the chill of the night to apprise him of his loss.

The uniform of officers of Native Infantry is almost the same as that of H. M.service,the chief distinction being in the button and the red stripe of the trouser. That of the medical officers was formerly the same as other officers of the regiment, but of late a fixed uniform has been assigned the service,the same in all branches, a great improvement upon the old system, which imposed a new uniform upon every change of regiment, and a great extra expense. Still there is something wanting in the dress of medical officers to identify them in action;but of this anon.

8. IMPORTANCE OF MEDICAL OFFICERS.—To a right thinking man, few positions in life are more serious or more responsible than that of a medical officer in charge of an out station, with the lives of two or three thousand individuals entrusted to his care, where he may, at any moment, be called to attend cases of imminent danger without time


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/138

 for deliberation, with no other to consult or assist him with advice, or aid him in an operation. Nevertheless, the doctor, under ordinary circumstances,is sometimes looked on as an idler—as one that does but little for his allowances. His pursuits, private as well as professional, remarkably different though not the less important,meet with but little sympathy; nay, in some degree isolate him from the rest of the officers; and though linked in the same regimental chain, he often forms an extreme link—as a hook or an eye. The young surgeon must not expect to get on without occasional annoyances. He will be importuned for sick certificates when his own conscience tells him such were not required, and if they are refused resentment may follow. He may detect a skulker in malingering, and his commanding officer may shield him from punishment. He may give a certificate to an officer to go to the hills, and the commanding officer, jealous of such power,may vent his jealousy in petty spite. The commanding officer may be so indiscreet as to meddle in the performance of his medical duties, and this he must respectfully decline. He must not expect to please all parties, but the mens conscia recti must console him for such rare exceptions.

However, opportunities will arise when he will be amply repaid for occasional petty annoyances;


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/139

 to rescue the young, the brave, and the beautiful, from an untimely tomb, and restore them to the society of their afflicted friends; and their usefulness to the world is no small source of self-congratulation; and it is the most gratifying retrospect of my service in India, that I never lost a lady patient, and that I passed through the late Burmese war without losing an officer of my charge. When some scourging epidemic crosses the frontier, enters the camp or the cantonment, panic strikes the little community, thins the ranks of the soldiers, crowds the hospitals with sick, and threatens to sweep away the native and the European, indiscriminately, to an unexpected grave, the doctor will be looked up to as the guardian of the public health, as the protector, to whose skill one and all may soon be indebted for the preservation of their lives. Then is the time to have his merits duly appreciated; then all his professional science is called into action; then all his physical energy, and all his moral courage, find full scope;—then is the time to gather in a rich harvest of good opinions, that will afford food for envy, malice, and all uncharitableness for years thereafter, and lay a solid foundation for his professional character. Should he himself be attacked by the malady, fortunate will it be for him if he retain his reasoning powers unimpaired, and be able to conduct his own case to a


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/140

 issue. And if it should be his fate to fall a victim, he will have the consolation of dying in the cause of humanity, in the protection of his friends, and the service of his country.

No small share of courage is required to encounter an attack of cholera; yet the world seldom give medical men credit for it. The officer who heads a successful attack against a powerful enemy, or sustains their charge unflinchingly, is looked upon as a hero, and rewarded, as he deserves, with honour and promotion. The physician, who with no less courage encounters the assault of death, when scores of stronger men than himself fall around him, is too often passed over unheeded, unhonoured and forgotten.

9, HOSPITAL ATTENDANCE.—The hospital visits are made at sunrise and sunset. All medicines should, if possible, be taken in presence of the surgeon; and, with proper arrangement, this, in the majority of cases can be done, by having a stock of doses likely to be required ready prepared and carried round in a tray, each patient having his lota or katora ready to receive it. Sepoys have a prejudice against drinking out of a glass; but they will not object to the contents of the glass if poured into their own vessel, and by a man of good caste.

The authority of the Surgeon is paramount in his hospital, and though the commanding officer


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/141

 may inspect, yet he is forbidden by standing orders from any official interference in medical duty.

Sepoys are in general very tractable patients, and the best possible subjects for either physic or surgery. Their diseases are fewer than those of European troops, much more manageable, uncomplicated with excess in either eating or drinking. The low state of their constitutions is most favourable for the treatment of bodily injuries, and their recoveries are quite wonderful. They are quiet, orderly men, most temperate in their living, cleanly in their habits, well-formed and well-featured, and far above the standard height of Europeans; respectful to their officers, proud of their profession, but most bigotted to their religion and most intolerant of all interference. The young Surgeon must therefore learn to respect their prejudices and their superstitions, for they are the fundamental principles of their faith, and as sacred in their own eyes as the Ten Commandments are in his. He must even consider himself an unclean being, and not venture to touch with his own hands the medicines he prescribes. Of all things, he must guard against coming near them when cooking. Every man cooks his food with his own hands, generally out of doors; and to guard against contamination, marks out a circle about six feet in diameter, in the centre of which he cooks and eats. Even in the hospital, the


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/142

 sepoys make their own arrangements for their meals; and if too sick to cook for themselves,one of their comrades is allowed to wait upon him. Medical comforts only, such as wine, sago, arrow-root, sugar or tea, &c., are supplied at the public expense. A greater outrage could not be offered them, than by stepping into this tabooed circle; and were even the commanding officer of the corps to do so, a strict Hindoo would consider his meal polluted and cast it to the dogs. I have seen a poor villager stop in the midst of his repast and scatter his morsel of rice upon the ground, because I inadvertently passed so near that my shadow fell upon it; and I have witnessed an old woman returning from the Ganges with a jar of water on her head, pour it out as an abomination, because I suddenly met her on the foot-path. He must not be annoyed,if now and then some patient, in articulo mortis, distrusts his prescriptions and prefers being treated by charms and sacrifices in his own way; for in extreme cases they are very apt to return to their birth-right notions, and invoke the aid of some of their numerous deities.

In fatal cases, the Surgeon must dispense with autopsy, as sepoys have the most inveterate pre-judice to that being done; and consider such an act an affront and disgrace inflicted upon the surviving relations.


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/143

 When change of air is thought necessary, the Surgeon's recommendation for leave to visit his home for six or more months is almost always granted; and the invalid generally returns to his regiment in robust health.

10. RECRUITING.—One of the most important duties of medical officers is the examination of recruits, for without their certificate of efficiency no sepoy is enrolled in a regular regiment; and his firmness will often be put to the test by the men of his regiment trying to pass inefficient youths, their relations, into the service. Every recruit should therefore be stripped and carefully examined from head to foot, in private, of course. The natives of the upper provinces from which recruits are chiefly drawn, are not liable to many constitutional disorders unfitting them for arms. Scrofula, that blight of British climate, is little known amongst them. Few races have so little deformity;and young lads of fourteen or sixteen, though tall, slender, and even feminine, provided they are straight and have well-developed chests, will improve wonderfully after having eaten the Company's salt for a year, and turn out effective men.

11. MALINGERING.—This is not a commonpractice amongst sepoys. When such is suspected, the state of the pulse, the temperature of the skin, the colour of the eyes, or of the tongue, (if not a pawn eater) are good guides to a diagnosis. One


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/144

 should, when any obscurity exists, give the man the benefit of the doubt, for it is better to be imposed upon for a time than run the risk of refusing admission to a man actually unwell,and who might die in the lines. The sepoy is at no period of his service so apt to malinger as when he has served long enough to be entitled to his pension, for he has perseverance enough to induce stiff joints, contraction of muscles and tendons, and shrivelled limbs, by sitting doggedly in one posture. On such occasions, I have seen both natives and Europeans convicted of gross malingering by chloroform, the contracted joints that resisted all means of extension immediately becoming relaxed. Eck mussuck thunda panee, prescribed a posteriori, is with sepoys a fundamental cure for many doubtful ailments, and can do no harm.

12. GENERAL CHARACTER OF SEPOYS.—I believe I am correct in saying that in no army of the world is there less crime and less punishment than in a regiment of native infantry. Courts martial are therefore very rare. Flogging, though at one time abolished and since made legal, is so uncommon that I have never seen a sepoy flogged. Their fidelity to their colours is as conspicuous as their good conduct in cantonments and their courage in the field. During the late Punjaub war, the strongest temptations were held out to them to desert; but, I believe, not, half-a-dozen


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/145

 men went over to the enemy. The sepoy is born a soldier, and the esprit de corps grows with him as he grows; his father has, perhaps, died in battle, and his mother and his sisters are comfortably pensioned by Government. He looks to the Company's service as the means of an easy and honourable livelihood, to his pension as the support of his old age, and to his old regiment as the sphere in which his sons and his sons' sons may follow Ids example. Such men are, therefore, worthy of our respect and esteem!

13. RELIEFS.—Regiments seldom remain longer at one station than three years, when they are removed to some other, two or three months' march distant. The order for the relief of all troops for the season generally appears in August, and few subjects give rise to so much speculation and excitement. In Bengal all marches,unless on emergencies, are made in the cold weather, the 15th November being the general time for breaking ground and the 15th March as late as is found agreeable in tents. Most officers look forward to a long march, not as an inconvenience, but as an agreeable tour and a welcome release from the dull monotony of a life in cantonment. Probably the regiment may be ordered to take the field, and form part of a grand army against some powerful enemy.


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/146

1. SERVICE IN THE FIELD.—Within the last fourteen years, the armies of India have been engaged in no less than seven great wars; viz., in Afghanistan and China; in Gwalior and Scinde; in the Sutlej and Punjaub campaigns; and latterly, in Burmah; and honorary distinctions have been granted for no less than eighteen general actions; viz., Kelat-i-Gilzee, Candahar, Ghuznee, Cabul, Jellalabad, Meeanee, Hyderabad, Maharajpore, Punniar, Moodkee, Ferozeshahur, Alliwal, Sobraon, Mooltan, Chillianwalla, Goojerat, to which may be added the numerous actions in China and Burmah. Extending over the same period,nearly as many little wars have been carried on within our own refractory provinces, of which Fame now takes no account. Few armies in the world have therefore seen so much service, or had their discipline and efficiency so urgently put to the test; and hence the reason for their being at all times, and in all places, ready to take the field.

2. RENDEZVOUS.—When a campaign is about to open, a point of rendezvous is given, and troops


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/147

 are ordered thither from distant stations throughout India. Time enough is in general allowed to provide extra camp equipage, and the medical officer takes care that his own department is complete. He makes indents on the engineer or the barrack department for doolies; on the commissariat department for bearers and carriage; and on the nearest medical depot for instruments and medicines, special directions for which will be found in the Medical Code.

3. BAGGAGE.—For his own personal use, an assistant-surgeon,entering upon his first campaign, will find a single pole tent,nine feet square inside, with a verandah of three feet, and double kanats or walls, the best description. This gives perfect protection against heat and cold, wind and rain;is easily pitched and loaded, and is easily carried by a couple of camels. I think the regulation tent of twelve or fourteen feet square inside,with a four-feet verandah and outer walls,unnecessarily large, and so much more unwieldy, as not to be worth the great extra trouble attending it. When camels are procurable, a couple of camel trunks, a low legged charpay or bed to fit over the trunks, a good tarpaulin, a folding table and a chair, form the usual load for another camel, while the crockery, pots and pans, &c., &c., form a load for a Cooly, who carries them in a couple of baskets, called petarahs, suspended from the ends of a


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/148

 bamboo, called a bangy. With a horse, three-camels and a Cooly, and a well regulated mess in his regiment, an officer is fit for any campaign, and few enter upon one with less baggage.

4. LINE OF MARCH.—Troops upon the march in India always start very early, so as to be at their journey's end before 8, or before the heat of the day is disagreeable. The reveillie sounds in the darkness of the night, at four, three, or even two in the morning, when every man starts to his feet, and before he has had time to dress, the tent is unlaced, ready to be struck, and before the hour has expired, the whole canvas city is down,packed up, and fast upon the camels. Each regiment forms line upon the front of its own camp; and, when the advance is sounded, takes its place in the order of march. The surgeon falls in in rear of his regiment, along with the adjutant, closely followed by his doolies. The baggage follows in rear of the whole force, and when that is large, the last camel has not left the old camp when the first enters the new, the line of march being one continued stream of beasts of burden. Nor is there the least confusion on the march, nor delay in finding their position in the new camp.

5. CAMP.—Every regiment has its large distinguishing flag; every tent its perch stuck into the place for its pole, all laid off byline and compass the evening before, by the quartermasters of corps, who


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/149

 always go forward in the afternoon; and,before nine, or at latest ten o'clock, the new camp is again complete,in all the order and regularity of the preceding day, with its streets and squares and bazars; its baking ovens, and its shambles. The camp of a large army is a sight worth seeing, and may extend, from flank to flank, two or three miles, and with as much, or even more, regularity and order than that of a city. Each regiment occupies its place in front of the line, the tents for the soldiers first and those for the officers, one continuous street from right to left, the baggage and bazars in rear. Fresh meat, fresh butter, warm loaves and new laid eggs, are as easily-got as in a cantonment. Tradesmen of all sorts ply their trades; cutlers, shoemakers, tinkers, blacksmiths, carpenters,tailors, corn dealers,cloth merchants, confectioners, jewellers and money-changers; in fact, all the necessaries, and many of the luxuries, of life, are procurable in every large camp. Nor are amusements wanting. After the fatigue of the march is over, in the afternoon, quoits, cricket, &c., are practised. Some stroll out with their gun, and supply an extra dish of game to the mess-table, whilst others transfer the features of the landscape to their portfolios. Upon the line of march,it is remarkable that very little sickness takes place, and the Surgeons never have so little professionally to do.


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/150

 '''6. FOREIGN SERVICE'''.—A campaign, under the above circumstances, will appear mere feather-bed work; but affairs undergo a wonderful change on foreign service, and the tug of war is then felt in real earnest. Every idea of luxury and comfort must then be left behind, and a new regime must be submitted to, consistent with the nature of the country, the seat of war. On board ship, the utmost discomfort is to be expected; such a thing as a cabin is entirely out of the question; room on deck for a chair by day and a mattrass by night, and a seat at the dinner-table, is the utmost accommodation to be looked for. The deck, from stem to stern, is crowded with soldiers, and the very ship heels from side to side with the top weight.

Government pay liberally on account of officers embarking on foreign service. They are not charged for passage, and their table expenses are also in a great measure paid by Government. Great confusion in embarking and disembarking, is almost unavoidable; tents and stores are in the hurry mislaid, or unapproachable, and on landing are not to be found. Hence, exposure to the intense heat of the sun by day and the comparative cold at night; to wind, and rain, and damp, and malaria; to hunger and thirst, and great bodily exertion and fatigue in getting into position to meet the enemy. As the army advances into the interior, its difficulties probably increase.


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/151

 may not be procurable, unless for a very limited quantity of essentials, and the means of transporting a tent out of the question. The country may be found desolate and deserted; the crops destroyed; the cattle driven far beyond reach; the towns burnt to the ground; the roads broken up, and the bridges broken down; the wells poisoned by putrid carcasses; the means of subsistence—the rough rations of the commissariat; and the bivouac the only alternative; and even that disturbed by midnight attacks along the line of outposts.

7. DISCIPLINE.—Military discipline is as rigidly adhered to, even in the presence of the enemy,as in a cantonment. If a petty theft be committed by a camp follower, the thief, if caught, is immediately punished; if a soldier be detected plundering, he is liable to be flogged by a provost sergeant, upon the spot; if an officer be guilty of any gross breach of duty, he may be brought before a court martial, and be cashiered; if even a Cooly be found dead in camp, a court of inquest is immediately assembled, to ascertain the cause of his death. Even divine service is performed when the bugle may summon the congregation to disperse, and stand to their arms; and a funeral party may be hurried from the graves of their comrades that fell in battle, to meet the enemy in another battle equally destructive of life.


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/152

 '''8. ROUTINE'''.—The amount of official correspondence on all matters of duty is in India very great, but on emergencies in the field these are not invariably exacted. Supplying the wants of the service is the first duty. Official adjustment of accounts the second! For example, when in medical charge of a brigade of troops at the outpost of Sultanporc, Oude, I indented amongst other things for—quinine, and the quantity was sanctioned by the Superintending-surgeon, though only a portion could be spared from the medical depot. I knew that there was plenty of quinine in the private dispensary at Cawnpore, and ordered the remaining portion from it, and forwarded the bill to the proper authorities for payment,and it was paid. Again, on my assuming medical charge of the civil station of Gowhattyr in Assam, I found scurvy epidemic amongst the prisoners, and that many had died of it. In the Kassya Hills, adjoining, limes are indigenous. I bought them by the basketful, served them out as a daily ration to the prisoners, with the most beneficial effect, and was reimbursed by the payment of the contingent bill. Again, after the capture of Rangoon, and before I had access to my hospital stores, cholera broke out in a very violent form, and I had most of my wants supplied from the commissariat only simple receipt roughly written in camp. Had that department acted up to the


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/153

 strict order of duty, many days might have passed before I could have got the supplies, and disastrous consequences might have ensued. Afterwards, when an extensive ruin was allotted as an hospital for the artillery, instead of making official indents for repairs, and pressing the already overworked barrack department to have done what they could not do for weeks, I borrowed a lot of tools, set all my dooly bearers to collect materials, engaged carpenters, bought what I could not find in the ruins of the town, and by personal superintendance, in a few days, made a comfortable hospital. My own house I began on the 4th of May and took possession of it on the 12th of May, and I was better quartered than most officers. No surgeon who knows his duty is embarrassed by the dread of responsibility, and when the public stores are not available, he buys what he wants if he can, and his contingent bill, when forwarded through the proper channel, is paid.

9. CONVEYANCE OF SICK.—The usual mode of conveying the sick and wounded is the same now as in the days of Clive, viz., by the dooly—a sort of bed, with four low legs and corded bottom, suspended on a bamboo pole, over which is fixed a waterproof top with dependant curtains; the patient reclining at full length. For the conveyance of a dooly six men called bearers are allowed; two in front and two in rear, the other two


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/154

 relieving them alternately. When an army takes the field, one dooly is allowed for every hundred natives,and for every ten European soldiers; so that the bearers alone of a European regiment of 1000 strong amount to 600 men.

If the bearers were equal to their work and the doolies always serviceable, officers would not complain of the dooly as a mode of transport, for it has the advantage of being waterproof and of forming a good bed in camp. But the system is notoriously inefficient. The doolies are all supplied by contract from the barrack department—most rickety constructions, always breaking down and always undergoing repairs. Indeed it is the interest and the practice of the bearers to render them unserviceable, for a broken dooly is much easier carried than a sound one, with a wounded soldier in it. The bearers are men collected by the commissariat by a sort of press-gang or conscriptive system—men who never carried a dooly before, mere Coolies; and passed into the service to be discharged at the end of the campaign, their number, not their efficiency, being the chief object. I have rarely found the bearers equal to their work, and have often been obliged to set apart two sets to one dooly, having the other conveyed on a cart. They are a troublesome, unmanageable set of men, at all times a great incumbrance to an army, and in a general action,


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/155

 when most needed, they are too often dispersed in search of plunder. They are told to look on the superintending surgeon as their commanding officer, and the regimental surgeon, who ought to have the control over them, with magisterial power to inflict corporal punishment for neglect of duty, finds his authority quite limited.

Several great improvements upon the dooly have at various times been suggested to the authorities by officers of experience, but the old rotten antiquated system is to this day adhered to. When lately at Sebastopol,I could not help admiring the transport system of the French army, and copied from it into the English army, the Cacolet and the Ambulance. The Cacolet is a sort of iron chair, folding up like the step of a coach, with arms, belts, and cushions, either for the sitting or the recumbent posture, one being fixed on each side of a mule, by which a brace of sick men are carried smartly along with ease and comfort to themselves and credit to the transport establishment. The ambulance is a large waggon on springs, and on four wheels drawn by four mules, capable of containing four patients in the recumbent posture in rear, and four or six in the sitting posture in front, with compartments under the front seats for medicine and instruments. The interior is fitted with four portable beds, two above two, that slide into


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/156

 grooves and admit of being pulled out in rear and carried like a hand-barrow to a distance to receive a wounded man, and again of being slid bodily into their places. It struck me forcibly that both of these modes of conveyance were admirably adapted for India, the Cacolet on the back of a camel and the Ambulance drawn by bullocks.

There is another very essential article of which hospitals are much in want, and that is a pair of stout compact trunks with compartments for medicines and instruments, to be carried on a bangy by a Cooly. At present these essentials are stowed away in bulk in a pair of petarahs, of all shapes and sizes, often made of basket work. These ought to be of some regulation pattern. Iron would be the best material, and Government could not supply such things so cheap or so efficient as by sending out from England apair of such boxes for every regiment in India. The freight would cost nothing, as they could be filled with articles sent out for the public service.

Much as the transport for the sick in the Crimea excels that in India, so much does our tent system in India surpass the Crimean; and the Indian army may congratulate itself in being the best tented army in the world.

10. PREPARATIONS FOR ACTION.—The


text:
Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/157

 are entrusted to the hospital sergeant, or havildar, whose duty it is to see the wounded brought to the rear immediately. The best way of carrying the instruments and dressings, is to have them laid out in order in a dooly, to be distinguished from the rest by a couple of yards of bandage, tied to either end of the pole; a dozen or more rollers should be ready prepared; ligatures waxed,and cut into convenient lengths; the tourniquets made to run easy; the saws found not to lock; the knives and needles oiled; the sponges washed and wet; chloroform and a bottle or two of port wine; and last, and yet of most importance, a mussuck, or sheepskin of good water. A few portable tourniquets should be distributed amongst the officers, with instructions how to apply them, in case of hæmorrhage. An amputating table should not be forgotten, which can be stowed in a dooly. The young assistant will do well to wrap a pillow and a counterpane,a bottle of beer and a few biscuits,up in a bundle, and stow them away in the dooly; he may have occasion to dine on the one, and to bivouac in the other, and think himself lucky in having them. To take care of others the first thing is to take care of ones'self!

It may appear ridiculous to warn him against the risk of losing his regiment in a dark night; but when many columns are moving at the same