pay cultivation and This is the quantity of land held in 1244 F. S. is liable to fluctuation, as the proprietors may at any time include any portion in their own bach rates. .... .... Seeroo Sewuk.. .... Bhowna Biddee ...... Land. .... 17 0 0 .... 125 9 14 5 0 10 3 0 7 8 7 Kullee... 6 0 0 5 10 0 0 4 0 9 2 3 5 0 1 15 0 of the crop Rate. Rs. As. Ps. 2 3 0 12 0 50 of the crop 0 0 6 of the crop 0 Rs. As. Ps. Total. Rs. As. Ps. 11 10 10 2 12 0 of the crop 16 4 15 8 5 5 15 2 0 Goolab.... 9 3 0 5510 1713 0 9 Such is the nature of some of the papers, which it is the business of the settling officer to prepare. Every possible contingency is provided for, and there is no occasion whatever to introduce any amendment, in order to make the record more neat or conformable to a particular system. We have seen a district mohurrir distort and misrepresent the affairs of a whole pergunnah, in order to make his records conform to particular examples. Any attempt to define and compress the limits of the different tenures, is not only injudicious but impracticable. Their variety in these provinces is extraordinary, and as the late William Fraser used to observe, there is scarcely a tenure in the world, however strange or complex, which will not find its counterpart in this presidency; so that every single village should, if necessary, have a new form of its own to exhibit its real peculiarities. 64 20 4 0 33 27 14 3 as. per rs. 13 8 seer pr. md 6 0 31 8 0 14 14 0 Not fixed-there being no money rates. The English settlement forms also, are sometimes made to exhibit fictitious returns, in order to prove that the collector has successfully tried a system, which, perhaps, he has either never attempted, or failed to succeed in introducing. A man may be perfectly convinced he has been acting right while using some peculiar method of his own, which he prefers to the one enjoined for his observance by superior authority, but he will not like to shew by his proceedings that he has gone counter to some express order, which would have inconveniently fettered him in his progress. He will, therefore, endeavour to show that his papers at least correspond with the prescribed pattern, and that the results exhibit the wonderful success of the system which he has carried into effect. Collectors, for instance, are ordered to show the average rent rates which are supposed to prevail in a pergunnah for each kind of soil, and from these they are to deduce their revenue rates. Let us take a table which professed to shew this in more than usual detail, submitted by an officer of no mean reputation. Now, on comparing the village statements received with this form so carefully drawn out, we find not one gross rental correspond with it, and not one deduced revenue rate near the jumma For instance, on comparing two villages we find, that though both had Bangur Rouslee irrigated, one was charged 3 rupees, and the other 2 rupees 8 annas per acre. They exhibited other discrepancies, which it is useless to point out, but which sufficiently proved that this statement was fictitious. The manner in which it was prepared is not difficult to show. The collector, we conceive, after negociating with the zemindars, and getting as much jumma as they were inclined to accede to, fixed the Government demand on what he called "general considerations," and found, when all the engagements were given in, that the jumma amounted to 77,730 rupees, which fell at the rate of 1 rupee 13 annas 5 pies on the cultivated acre. This was distributed on the Bangur and Khadur area: to the former was assigned 1 rupee 15 annas 9 pies, and to the latter 1 rupee 10 annas 6 pies. But this again had to be distributed on the classes of each soil, and this was done by a back process, till all was made square. There would have been no harm in all this, had it been done previous to settlement, and had the 77,730 rupees, and then divided his rates on each class of soil, and assessed the component mouzahs accordingly; but this was not done, otherwise the village rentals and the assumed rates would of course have coincided, which they did not. The formation of these rates was evidently an after-thought. See also how beautifully the rent rates are drawn out even to the fractions of pies. These are more evidently fictitious than the others, and are formed by adding about 30 per cent. to the revenue rates. This would have been all very fair had it been stated, but the endeavour is made to show how carefully the rates have been ascertained by the collector, and inferences are thence drawn to the disparagement of his predecessors. Now the fact is, that where Metayer rates prevail, as they did in this pergunnah, it is not possible to find out proper rent rates, and by many settlement officers it is consequently never attempted; and, therefore, there was less necessity for making a parade about doing that which was not done, and which it was no error to leave undone. The nominal division of the village lands exactly according to the hereditary shares of the proprietors is another fiction, now, we are happy to observe, totally repudiated. Some settlement officers are in the habit of fixing the allowances of the putwaree in money, and orders are issued to the malgoozars, to see that the putwarees are paid from the "village expense" fund, and in the papers sent up But let us go into any of for approval so much is deducted on this account. the villages where such orders have been issued, and in scarcely one will the system really be found in practice. These men prefer their own measures to ours. and we should suffer them to legislate for themselves, and not interfere with the internal economy of their villages, as if they were so many children, unable to act without our guidance. We had occasion once to inquire about these putwaree allowances in a district, where the collector professed to fix their money salaries, and found that the proprietors had all reverted to their old mode of paying a certain amount as perquisite in the rupee or maund. For this reason we consider the police statement furnished with the settlement papers to be somewhat useless, and have great doubt whether the chokeydars are likely, two years hence, to find themselves in possession of the land which has liberally been granted to them. Nay more, we much doubt if the land which is thus bestowed upon the policemen, is any thing more than the portion which the collector thinks they ought to get, but which he never attempts to give them. We were much struck a few days since with a most beautifully drawn out chowkedaree form, in which every policeman was stated throughout a whole large pergunnah to have from two to six acres a-piece of irrigated land, and the rent rates of the pergunnah, which such land was supposed to yield, were calculated as the profit of the policemen. Now, where does this land come from? it must have been in somebody's possession, or it would not have been irrigated ;-or if it were the chokeydar's hereditary possession, how did it happen to be in even acres, which is a standard of English mensuration? On our making further inquiry, it was replied, that all the cultivation of the pergunnah was irrigated, and, therefore, the rent rates were, of necessity, put down at the rate of irrigation. We are almost tempted to believe that in this also there is a lurking fiction. To be sure, on looking at the general statements for three very large pergunnahs sent up by this office, we find nothing except irrigated cultivation, but we can hardly conceive these returns to be correct, when we find that the culturable waste is in each of these pergunnahs as large as the following returns exhibit: Pergunnah No. 1. Pergunnah No. 2. Pergunnah No. 3. 6,050 1,917 739 Irrigated.. Culturable waste Lately abandoned and in these pergunnahs there is not one single acre of unirrigated land? It ...... 21,096 ..... .... 18,511 7,655 880 .... may be true, and the high character of the gentleman whose forms are under consideration forbids us to surmise the contrary, but the circumstance is unparalleled, particularly when the same gentleman reports that he fixed his assessment with reference to the means of irrigation, which means, as they were open to all, there was no occasion to take into consideration. These pergunnahs, moreover, are by no means the best in the district, for under the former Government they were allowed two fingers in every yard, in order to make up in quantity what they were deficient in quality on comparison with one of the neighbouring pergunnahs. But to revert to the chokeydars, we inquire, have they got actual possession of this irrigated land in even acres? The value of their land was deducted from the village assets, and thus given maaf by Government. Was it intended that this vast body of men should become Government stipendiaries? Certainly not, according to Sec. 32 Reg. XXV. 1803. We may remark here upon the tendency of some men to found their calculations, in the first instance, on the very unsubstantial basis of putwarees' papers. Ingenuous men are apt to think that these loose detached furds represent the true state of the collections. Even when they are gained, at whatever price, a special interpreter will be required for these Sybilline leaves, unless the collector, as indeed he ought, is able to read them himself. Almost the only true putwaree papers which are to be gained, are those which represent jumma dala rates; but these again are also dangerous in their way, for we have known a man take his average pergunnah rate from them, and asses his villages so high, in consequence (because the ryots' land was entirely excluded from consideration in that particular instance) that he was compelled after the first year to revise his own settlement. Moreover in selecting putwarees' papers for examination, we almost naturally look out for the best villages, and the nearer they approach to truth, the heavier will be the assessment on the who'e pergunnah. In endeavouring to seek for averages, there is almost always a danger of taking the best as our standard; for we do not like to look at the dark side of the picture, and do not consequently mix the bad with the good in the requisite proportions. This was strikingly illustrated in the old Bijnore settlements by Mr. Halhed, who conceived he had taken as his standard average crops, when it was notorious that he was content to measure the produce of those fields only, which presented an inviting appearance. This was, no doubt, the cause of many other Regulation VII. settlements breaking down. When the villages are classified, and the standard of assessment, or of comparison, is once obtained by the preliminary calculations, we are of opinion, it should not be departed from, and that three or four other standards should not be assumed at the same time, which are to be appealed to in case of necessity, that is, when the collector finds himself diverging considerably from his original rates. We will elucidate our meaning from the papers of a man, who has taken, perhaps, more care than any other settlement officer to fix his jummabundees. We will quote a few of the miscellaneous general remarks. "The estimates for the rental," he says, 66 are as follows: 1st. 3d. 4th. 5th. By average rates. Average collection Patoutee of year Patoutee of 1243, Rental proposed of 10 years accord- of measurement. by ameen. ing to Putwarees' F.S. papers. 2d. 2,201 2,760 3,090 2,808 2,930 The land is of productive quality, and there is a pool of water in which singaras are produced, and which pays in good years about 300 rupees. But this is rather an uncertain item, as it occasionally fails entirely. The sum which I have assumed as gross rental, will be thought sufficient when compared with the estimate by average rates." The sum assumed in this instance as gross rental is 2,749 rupees, which comes nearest to the second rate. But it should be remembered, that the 1st 5th rates. They had already been taken as the grand basis of the first rate; and therefore ought to have been left out altogether, or if the 2d is the one, according to which he proposed to settle, the others ought to have been excluded. But he does not take the 2d as his standard, for another statement says "1st. "1st. 545 2d. *329 There is more variance between the estimate by average rates and the actual rental in this village, than in any other in the pergunnah. But I have satisfied myself by personal observation and inquiry, that the present rental cannot be reckoned at a higher sum than I have assumed for it. The cultivation is in the worst order, and till 1240 F. S., a great part even of the land now under plough was allowed to remain waste." He fixes, therefore, the rentab at 581 rupees, which is nearest to the 3d estimate, and, therefore, he should have kept to the third. But neither does he keep to the third, for in the next we have the following: "1st. 2d. "1st. 1163 "1st. 1813 The land is of very bad quality, and the jumma demanded by the proprietor during the last twelve years, has varied between 222 and 375 rupees. The collections of past years are low, in consequence of the defective cultivation.” 2d. 526 3d. 556 The rental assumed in this case is four hundred and seventeen rupees, which comes nearest to the fourth estimate. Let us take another purgunnah, on which even more care has been bestowed, because we find there are no less than six estimates. Premising also in this case, that the first has been chiefly founded upon the results of the other five. 2d. 1407 3d. 253 3d. 512 2d. 1846 3d. 1424 4th. 525 4th. 622 4th. 438 The land is of poor quality, which renders the first estimate by average rates inapplicable to this estate, and even the sum proposed by the tahseeldar is more than appears likely to be regularly realized. The gross rental has, therefore, been assumed at 550 rupees." This brings it close upon the second estimate.-Another : 4th. 1538 5th. 500 4th. 1981 5th. 5th. 5th. 1406 Upon examining the nikassees of this village for the last twelve or thirteen years, it appeared that the produce had in some years reached 1,500 rupees when the seer land was fully assessed. With reference, however, to the amount of the first estimate by average rates, the sum above-mentioned appeared to be somewhat too high, although the soil is certainly of good quality. On this account the new jummabundee was assumed at 1,440 rupees." This again is close'upon the third estimate.-Another: 3d. 2015 5th. 1985 6th. 6th. 1467 6th. 2016 This is a fertile village, and whenever the land has been properly cultivated, and no seer or other cause bas intervened to diminish the rental as shown in the yearly accounts, the latter have shown a total amounting to, or somewhat exceeding 2,000 rupees. There still exists some culturable waste, |
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