---

Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 5, p. 436.

436 SOUTH ARCOT DISTRICT Police administration is in charge of a District Superintendent at Cuddalore, aided by an Assistant Superintendent stationed at Tiruk- koyilfir. There are 86 police stations; and the force in 1904 numbered 17 inspectors, 796 constables, and I24 head constables, and also 2,043 rural police. Besides the Cuddalore District jail, 17 subsidiary jails have accommodation for 337 prisoners, male and female. According to the Census of I9oI, South Arcot stands ninth among the twenty-two Districts of the Presidency in the literacy of its male popula- tion and twelfth in that of its female population, 13.8 per cent. of the former and 0-5 per cent. of the latter, or 7-I per cent. of the total, being able to read and write. Education is most advanced in the Cuddalore and Chidambaram taluks, and most backward in Kallakurchi and Tiruvannamalai. The District is the only one in the Presidency in which the Christians are worse educated than either Hindus or Muham- madans. The total number of pupils in i880-i was I5,302 ; in I890-I, 32,I89; in I900-1, 44,215; and in 1903-4, 48,271. At the end of 1903-4 South Arcot contained 1,540 educational institutions of all kinds, of which 1,178 were classed as public, and the remainder as private. Of the former, I,I41 were primary schools, secondary institu- tions numbered 29, and there were 7 training and other special schools, and an Arts college at Cuddalore. In the public and private institutions taken together, 4,476 girls were under instruction. Of the 1,I78 public institutions, i6 were managed by the Educational department, 99 by the local boards, and II by the municipalities, while 530 were aided from public funds, and 522 were unaided but conformed to the rules of the department. Only 6 per cent. of the boys and 18 per cent. of the girls under instruction have advanced beyond the primary classes. Of the male population of school-going age, 20 per cent. were in the primary stage, and of the female population of the same age, 2 per cent. Among Musalmans, who, however, form a very small proportion of the popula- tion, the corresponding percentages were 50 and 6. About 4,000 Panchama pupils were under instruction at 168 schools especially maintained for their education. The Arts college, which is of the second grade, is the St. Joseph's College in Cuddalore. The total expenditure on education in 1903-4 was Rs. 2,39,000, of which Rs. 92,000 was derived from fees. Of the total, Rs. 1,48,000, or 62 per cent., was devoted to primary education. There are 8 hospitals and I6 dispensaries in the District. The former are situated at the taluk head-quarters, and the latter are mostly at the deputy-tahsilddrs' stations. They contain 140 beds for in-patients; 1,700 in-patients and 248,000 out-patients were treated during I903, and 9,100 operations were performed. The total cost of the mainte- nance of these institutions was Rs. 55,000, mostly met from Local and municipal funds.