Page:A Statistical Account of Bengal Vol 1 GoogleBooksID 9WEOAAAAQAAJ.pdf/105

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90
STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF 24 PARGANAS.

nations, males, 2553; females, 2708—grand total, 5261. Average number of persons per house, 4.6. Municipal income in 1869, £411, 2s. 3d.; expenditure, £328, 12s. 3d. Income in 1872, £192, 14s. 0d.; expenditure, £171, 10s. 0d. Rate of municipal taxation in 1872, d. per head of the population. The town police consists of 1 head constable and 15 men. Lat. 22° 35' 27" N.; long. 88° 57' 50" E.

(19) Dum-dum (Dǎm-Dǎmá) is a military station, about four and a half miles north-east of Calcutta; lat. 22° 37' 53" N.; long. 88° 28' 1" E. In 1869, it contained 936 houses, and a population consisting of 3224 males and 1178 females—total, 4402. Population according to the regular Census of 1872: Hindus, males, 1669; females, 917—total, 2586. Muhammadans, males, 692; females, 509—total, 1201. Christians, males, 1053; females,339—total, 1392. Total of all denominations, males, 3414; females, 1765—grand total, 5179. The municipal revenue and expenditure in 1872 amounted to £97, 4s., or d. per head, including the troops. The following information is extracted from Major Smyth’s Report, and refers to a period anterior to 1857:—‘Dum-dum was the headquarters of the artillery from the year 1783. In 1853 they were removed to Mirat (Meerut), as more central. The cantonment, however, still contains a proportion of artillery, together with a magazine and percussion-cap manufactory. There are twenty-five good substantial houses, the residences of the officers, and a noble mess-house; a Protestant church (St. Stephen’s), capable of containing from seven to eight hundred people; a Roman Catholic chapel; a large square surrounded on three sides with two-storied barracks, and on the fourth side by barracks of one floor; a European and Native hospital; a large bázár; and several very large clear-water tanks. Within the balustrade which surrounds the Protestant church is raised, by his brother officers, a handsome pillar of the Corinthian order, to the memory of Colonel Pearse, the first commandant of the Artillery Regiment, who died in Calcutta 15th June 1790. On the small plain in front of the regimental mess-house, another monumental column was raised (since blown down in the severe gale of May 14, 1852) to the memory of the officers and men who fell during the insurrection and retreat from Cabul in 1841, but more especially to Captain Nicholl and the officers and men of the 1st Troop, 1st Brigade, Horse Artillery, who were cut down to the last man in defence of their guns. The pediment of this monument, with the marble slab con-