270 NELLORE. Dorenal road, leading to Cuddapah, strikes off from Nellore town, while another branch leads from Ongole to Haidarábád. The Krishnapatam road connects Nellore town with the Buckingham Canal, which for at least nine months of the year is in good working order. The canal connects the District with Kistna in the north, and with Madras in the south. Administration. - In 1883-84, the total net revenue of Nellore District amounted to £401,294, derived from the following sources :Land, £250,464 ; salt, £120,884 ; excise, £13,036 ; licence tax, £1773; stamps, £15,137. The total expenditure in the same year was £54,261, under the following heads : - Land-tax, £18,774; justice, 6777; police, 13,812 ; provincial, £325c; salt, £11,648. The District was first ceded to the British in 1801; and for the ten years ending 1810, the gross revenue averaged £181,572, so that it has more than doubled since that time. In 1883-84 the police force numbered 1176 officers and men, maintained at a total cost of £13,812. These figures show i polic to every 7 square miles and every 1037 of the population, the co being £1, 1os. 7d. per square mile, and 2d, per head of population. The Nellore jail contained in 1883 a daily average number of 124 prisoners, being i prisoner always in jail to every 9839 of the District population. In 1870 there were in Nellore District only 246 schools, attended by 5178 pupils. The educational statistics for 1883-84 show a total of 440 schools, attended by 11,000 pupils, being i school to every 20 square miles, and 9 pupils to every thousand of the population. The Census of 1881 disclosed 13,048 as under instruction, of whom 810 were girls; besides 52,382 not under instruction but able to read and write, of whom 2681 were females. The chief educational institutions are the Free Church Mission school, and the Hindu Anglovernacular higher class school, in Nellore town, both assisted by grants-in-aid. Sixteen students passed the matriculation examination from them in 1880-81. In the District the more important schools are, the Government middle class, and the Baptist Mission School at Ongole; and local fund middle-class schools at Venkatagiri, Naidupet, and Kandakur. The language spoken in Nellore is Telugu; and local tradition claims for the District that it is the head-quarters of Telugu literature. A list is enumerated of 33 Nellore poets, including some who are still alive. The petty chieftains have always prided themselves upon their patronage of letters; and some of them possess old libraries. The most famous Nellore authors are Thikana Somayajulu, who translated the Mahdibharata from Sanskrit into Telugu, and is said to have flourished in the 12th century; Molla, a poetess con
