el PABIA. 517 price reached by common rice in years of scarcity was ios. 6. d. per cit, in 1866, and gs. Id. in 1871. Pabná is not specially liable to either of the calamities of flood or drought, and the means of water communication are sufficiently ample to prevent a local scarcity from intensifying into famine. The natural rising of the rivers lays a great portion of the country under water every year, and no irrigation works are needed. In 1874, the deficiency in the local rainfall was such as to render necessary relief operations on the part of Government, and about £11,000 was expended on this account. If the price of rice were to rise in January to IOS. Iod. per cwt., that should be regarded as a sign of approaching distress. Vanufactures, etc.- t Máchimpur, near Sirajganj, there is a large factory for gunny-weaving, maintained by European capital, which gives employment to about 3450 men, women, and children. The total value of gunny-bags exported from the District in 1876-77 is returned at £70,000. In 1883-84, the number of gunny-bags cxported from Pabná was 3,591,596. The cultivation and manufacture of indigo are on the decline, the total annual out-turn of this dye being now only about 300 cuts. The weaving industry, also, is no longer prosperous. A coarse paper is manufactured in certain villages of the Sirajganj Sub-division from meshti (Hibiscus cannabinus). Jats and baskets are conimonly woven from reeds, canes, and bamboos; and there is some export of these articles to other Districts. Commerce and Trude.- Pabná District is most favourably situated for river traffic. SIRAJGANJ is, perhaps, the most frequented mart in all Bengal, both for steamers and native boats. Its trade is mostly of a through character, the agricultural produce of all the neighbouring Districts being here exchanged for piece-goods, salt, and European wares. But, apart from Sirajganj, there are numerous minor marts which export their jute and rice direct to Goalanda and even to Calcutta. There is no article of Indian trade which does not figure in the Sirajganj returns on both sides of the account, but the chief exports proper are jute, rice, pulses, oil-seeds, hay and straw, hides and gunny-bags; the imports comprise European cotton manufactures, salt, tobacco, betel-nuts, spices, cocoa-nuts, line and limestone, iron, and coal. It is calculated that coin to the amount of at least £400,000 is annually imported, in order to liquidate the favourable balance of trade. The registration returns for 1876–77 give a total value of exports amounting to £2,205,277, of which £1,722,502 was carried by country boats, £182,548 by private steamers, and £300,226 by railway steamers. The total imports were valued at £2,324,590, of which £1,912,014 was carried by country boats, £1505 by private steamers, and £411,071 by railway steamers. These figures include the trade of Sirajganj, which will be shown in detail in
