1 REVIEW BY SECTIONS.
2 PUNJAB MINES.
3 Falling off explained,
4 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATICN OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
5 As a commentary on th se statements and on the state
6 of the trade generally during the past year, I can scarcely
7 do better than quote what the Assistant Commissioner of
8 the division says:—‘ The ,average quantity of salt sold each
9 year for the past four years falls a little short of 20 lakhs of
10 maunds. The quantity delivered at the four depdts of the
11 division during 1894-95 is only maunds 17,83,646 or 2,84,575
12 maunds less than was delivered in 1893-94. But the latter
13 year closed with a balance of through-traffic salt awaiting clear-
14 ance of only 64,308 maunds against maunds 1,22,805, which
15 remained uncleared on the 3lst of March 1895. April 1894
16 opened with a very slack demand, and this condition continued
17 throughout the whole year. The same month closed with a
18 decrease of 89,616 maunds, which by the end of May had risen
19 to 1,08,040 maunds, Some improvement set in in June and
20 continued through July, at the end of which month the decrease
21 had fallen to maunds 52,227 ; but a period of renewed and even
22 greater depression then began, which continued until the end
23 of January 1895. In this period the decrease at the close of
24 each month stood as follows:—August 64,593 maunds, Sep-
25 tember 1,60,172 maunds, October 2,56,483 maunds, November:
26 3,24,687 maunds; December 3,48,086 maunds, January
27 3,57,014 maunds. .
28 “For many years the sales had not been so small in April,
29 and the depressed state of the trade, which began in March
30 1894, attracted attention from the very first. Under orders
31 from the Commissioner, Northern IndiaSalt Revenue, I aban-
32 doned my usual tour of the salt range, and remained at head-
33 quarters to watch the sales and do whatever might te done
34 locally to stimulate them. I had several interviews with the salt
35 traders of Pind Dadan Khan, and went also to Miani to discuss
36 the falling off with the traders there. These local traders (of
37 Pind Dadan Khan and Miani) have dealings with nearly all the
38 large salt marts in the country, and ought to know why the
39 trade was so slack. They ali agreed that it was because, when
40 thé year opened, traders everywhere in the Punjab held
41 unusually large stocks, and that, owing to the large harvests, the
42 removal of which monopolized carriage, the salt could not be
43 removed, but remained in their godowns at the various markets
44 along the railway lines. The Miani traders added that there
45 had also been some fear among them that owing to the ~
46 Congress agitation the duty on salt might at any moment’
47 be reduced, and that their stocks in hand would have
48 to be sold at a loss. They, therefore, kept their supplies as low
49 as possible. The Pind Dadan Khan dealers denied having been
50 influenced in any degree by this fear, but attributed the talling
51 off to all the availble carriage being employed in harvest work ;
52 under which circumstances it would be a dead loss to go on
53 purchasing salt in excess of the demand, They specified places
54 such as Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Dinanaggar, Pathankote, Multan,
55 &c., where their salt was lying unsold, because the carriers who
56 usually distributed it among the outlying villages cuuld not be
57 got away from their harvest work. Jn January and February
58 1895, the Deputy Commissioner, Northern India Salt Revenue,
59 visited, in the course of his tour, Umballa, Ludhiana, Jullundar,
60 Amritsar, Sialkote, Jammu, Rawalpindi, Multan and Feroze-
61 pore, which are among the largest of the marts for Punjab
62 Mines rock salt, and I accompanied him. The large decrease
63 in the sales, for ube first nine months of the year, formed a subject
64 ( 14 )