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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 17, p. 340.

340 MIDNAPORE TOWN numbered 26,094, Musalmâns 6,575, and Christians 398. The town was formally declared the head-quarters of the District in 1783, but a factory and fort had been built here more than twenty years previously. Midnapore has no great industry or trade, though brass- ware, rice, and timber are exported on a small scale. The town shows little tendency to grow. It has been recently connected with the Bengal-Nâgpur Railway system by a branch line to Kharakpur. Midnapore was constituted a municipality in 1865. The income during the decade ending 1901-2 averaged Rs. 6o,ooo, and the ex penditure Rs. 58,000. In 1903-4 the total income was Rs. 64,000, of which Rs. r8,ooo was derived from a tax on houses and lands, Rs. 14,000 from a conservancy rate, Rs. 12,ooo as fees from educational institutions, and Rs. 6,ooo from a tax on vehicles. The incidence of taxation was Rs. 1--2-3 per head of the population. In the same year the expenditure of Rs. 63,6oo included Rs. 2,ooo spent on lighting, and the same amount on drainage, Rs. 16,ooo on conservancy, Rs. r 1,ooo on medical relief, Rs. 4,000 on roads, and RS. 20,000 on education. The town contains the usual public buildings, and also a church and a Central jail. The jail has accommodation for 1,340 prisoners, who are employed on cloth-weaving, cane- and basket-work, mat-making, carpentry, and the manufacture of mustard oil. The American Baptist Mission maintains a training school and printing press. The educational institutions include an Arts college and a small technical school. Midnapore Canal.-A navigable and irrigation canal in the Midnapore District of Bengal. Construction was begun by the East India Irrigation and Canal Company in 1886 ; the works were taken over by Government two years later, and irrigation commenced in 1871. The canal originally formed part of the Orissa Canals scheme, but was at an early stage separated and treated as a distinct project. The water-supply is derived from the Kasai river at Midnapore, where there is a regulating weir with head-works, and the canal extends to Ulubâria on the Hooghly, crossing the Rnpnârâyan and Damodar rivers. The length of the main canal is 72 miles, and of its distributaries 267 miles, and the maximum discharge is 1,500 cubic feet per second. The whole length of the main canal is navigable, and the estimated value of cargo carried in 1902-3 was 63.8 lakhs, the tolls collected amounting to R.S. 7o,ooo. The capital outlay up to March 31, 1904, was 84.8 lakhs, and the gross revenue for that year amounted to 2-2 lakhs, the net revenue being Rs. 70,000; the total area irrigated was 146 square miles. Before the opening of the Bengal-Nâgpur Railway the canal formed part of the main route between Calcutta and Midnapore; the railway has tapped the canal traffic and caused