History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. IL] FRAM]I KAVAS/I. 113

thus publicly expressing the respect in which they hold his memory.”

In reply the Government, through its secretary, bore high testimony to Framji’s worth in the following words:—“I am instructed to observe that the tribute which the Board have paid to the late Framji Kavasji, Esquire, has been very properly rendered on this occasion to the memory of an excellent and deserving man. The Right Honourable the Governor in Council gladly avails himself of this opportunity again to express the high opinion entertained by himself and his predecessors of the worth of the deceased, as one who perceived that he could best serve his country by encouraging education, and who acted up to his persuasion.”

Framji Kayasji also distinguished himself by his remarkable industry and a love for the extension of agriculture in India, and for his exertions in that direction he was justly styled the Lord Leicester of Western India. On his estate at Pavai, about eighteen miles from Bombay, he introduced the cultivation of cotton and tea, and planted a great quantity of sugar-canes, indigo, and mulberries for silkworms, and a large number of other valuable products of the soil. Though he did not succeed to the extent of his desires, he converted the place from a forest into a fertile estate, yielding a net revenue of Rs.20,000 or £2,000 per annum. Among other improvements

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