REVENUE LETTER to India, dated 31st October (No. 21), 1862.

I HAVE had under my consideration, in Council, the Letter from your Excellency in Council, dated the 13th September last (No. 15), with which you transmit copy of the Orders which you have issued to the several Local Governments in pursuance of the instructions contained in my Despatch of the 9th July last (No. 14), regarding the sale of waste lands and the redemption of the existing land revenue.

2. You also forward copy of a Bill which you propose to introduce into the Council of the Governor General when it next meets for legislative purposes, "To provide for the adjudication of claims to waste lands, and for the investment of the proceeds arising from the sale of such Lands and of other Government Lands, and from the redemption of Land Revenue."

3. It does not appear that the Orders which you have issued call for any observation from me. The Bill will probably be found to require some modifications, after you shall be in possession of the views of the several Local Governments, to whom copies of it have been referred.

4. I take this opportunity of acknowledging the receipt of your letters of the 11th March (No. 6), and the 5th August (No. 13), to which no reply is required.

REVENUE LETTER from India, dated 26 September (No. 16), 1862.

Sir, REFERRING to our letters noted on the margin, we have the honour to transmit the accompanying copy of a letter, addressed by the Government of Bengal to the Board of Revenue, under date the 30th ultimo, together with a copy of the "Rules for the sale of unassessed waste lands and for the redemption of the revenue of such lands already granted for a term of years," promulgated by the Lieutenant Governor in conformity with the provisions contained in your Despatch, No. 14, dated the 9th of July. We consider the rules to be free from any substantial objection.

tember 1862.

No. 13 of 1862, dated 5th August. No. 15 of 1862, dated 13th September.

2. We also forward herewith copy of a correspondence with From Landholders' and Comthe Landholders' and Commercial Association relative to the mercial Association, dated 2 Sepinterpretation to be put on the words, "arrangements actually completed," as used in the 76th paragraph of your Despatch above quoted, and to other points regarding the sale of waste lands and the redemption of the land revenue.

We have, &c.

(signed)

To Landholders' and Commercial Association, No. 5236, dated this day.

Elgin and Kincardine.
R. Napier.

H. B. Harington.

W. Grey.

Enclosure 1, in No. 5.

From J. D. Gordon, Esq., Officiating Junior Secretary to the Government of Bengal, to the Secretary to the Board of Revenue, No. 377 T, dated on board the yacht "Rotas," the 30th August 1862.

I AM directed by the Lieutenant Governor to forward, for the information of the Board of Revenue, copy of the "Rules for the sale of unassessed waste lands, and for the redemption of such lands already granted for a term of years," which have been approved and

promulgated by the Lieutenant Governor, under the instructions contained in paragraph 2 of the letter No. 4206, dated 15th instant, from the Secretary to the Government of India in the Home Department, published in the "Calcutta Gazette" of 16th August, together with the Despatch from the Secretary of State, regarding the sale of waste lands and the redemption of the land revenue.

2. In preparing these Rules, the Lieutenant Governor has had the advantage of referring to the Draft Rules of Procedure which the Board submitted to the late Lieutenant Governor with your letter, No. 914, of 28th December, in conformity with paragraph 20 of the Resolution of the Supreme Government, dated 17th October 1861. Those Rules of Procedure had been revised by Sir J. P. Grant, and forwarded for the sanction of the Supreme Government. With the assistance of these documents, the Lieutenant Governor has now drawn up a new set of rules, in which the amendments and modifications prescribed by the Despatch of the Secretary of State have been introduced. These rules will be immediately published in the "Calcutta Gazette;" and the Board are requested to issue them as quickly as possible, in the form of a Circular, with such supplementary instructions for the guidance of public officers as may appear to be necessary.

3. The Lieutenant Governor desires me to draw the attention of the Board to the following points in the rules, which are either new in themselves, cr require further action to be taken by the Board.

4. In Rule II. it is provided that if, for special reasons, in particular localities, a lower maximum area than 3,000 acres should be determined upon, it will be duly notified hereafter. This has reference to lands other than those to be reserved under Rule XXII., which, from their vicinity to stations, or other peculiar local circumstances, it may be desirable to dispose of in smaller lots. A list of any sites coming under this description should be prepared by the Board for notification hereafter.

5. In Rule III. it will be seen that survey and demarcation are held, in conformity with the views of the Secretary of State, to be the first essential preliminary, and no lot can be advertised for sale until the process of survey and demarcation is complete. This rule, the Board will observe, renders it imperatively necessary that a competent Surveyor should be at once appointed in each district where applications are made for tracts of unsurveyed lands.

6. In Rule VII. power is given to the Collector to postpone the sale of any lot if he deems it necessary to do so. Such a contingency might arise where any delay had occurred to prevent the adjudication of claims preferred to the lot before the day originally fixed for sale. But the sale should always be held, if possible, on the day first advertised; and, if postponed, due notice should be given of the day on which it will actually take place. A form of advertisement should be prepared and circulated by the Board.

7. A draft of the deed of conveyance to which Rule IX. refers should be prepared by the Government Solicitor in communication with the Board, and circulated to the several Collectors for their use and guidance. In all cases where only one-tenth of the purchase money is paid, the deed should provide for the hypothecation and sale of the lot, in case of failure to pay the full value in 10 years, as provided in Rule XV. In the preparation of this deed due attention must be given to the principles laid down in paragraphs 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the Resolution of the Governor General in Council, dated the 17th October 1861, and to the several points mentioned in the rules. It should be expressly stipulated that a strip of land at 20 feet width shall be reserved as a towing path along each bank of every navigable river or stream.

8. Rules XI. and XII. provide for the interference of the Con missioner of the division in cases where any claim to a right in the land is established by a third party. In respect to Darjeeling, the Board of Revenue will exercise the power which is vested in the Divisional Commissioners elsewhere.

9. Rule XVII. provides that the ordinary upset price shall be two rupees eight annas an acre, no deduction being made on any account from the total area of the lot. There will not be many cases in which it will be necessary to raise the upset price to the maximum of (10) ten rupees an acre, as such specially valuable land would doubtless find its true value at public auction. But the power of raising the upset price to 10 rupees an acre should be maintained for the protection of the interests of Government.

10. In Rule XIX. the conditions are laid down on which grants of waste land made under previously existing rules may be redeemed. The Board are requested to explain to Collectors the rule for calculating the present value of such grants, subject to the limitations laid down. Illustrations of the mode of calculation would be most instructive to the local officers.

11. The Board are requested to submit, for the information of the Government, a quarterly statement, commencing from 1st September, of all transactions which are reported to them under Rule XX.

12. A list of the lands in each district which it is proposed to reserve altogether from sale, for the purposes specified in Rule XXII., should be obtained by the Board from the local authorities

authorities without any delay; and after careful revision of the whole, these lists should be combined by the Board in one general list, and submitted with their remarks for approval and publication.

13. Rule XXIII. has reference to those applications which were made on the faith of the Resolution of the Governor General in Council, dated 17th October 1861. As such applications form a class of cases which must be dealt with separately on their own merits, and in accordance with the terms of the Resolution, so far as is consistent with law and a due regard for public interests, it is not desirable to enter into further discussion regarding them here. A special report on them must be prepared as soon as possible, in accordance with the 76th paragraph of the Despatch of the Secretary of State.

14. The Lieutenant Governor will now briefly notice two of the points raised in your letter, No. 014, of 28th December 1861, to which reference has been already made in the 2d paragraph of this letter.

15. It appears to the Lieutenant Governor that the register proposed by the Board in their Draft Rule, No. II. should be prepared by the Collectors for their own use and information, as well as for the information of intending applicants, who may all be allowed to have access to it. But it is not necessary that the rules should provide for the compilation of such a register. The form of the register should be the same as that of the report of sales made to the Board; the report, in fact, might be in the form of an extract from the register. With regard to the question whether one individual may purchase more than one lot of 3,000 acres in adjacent localities, it appears to the Lieutenant Governor that there is nothing to prevent such a contingency. The spirit of public competition will suffice to keep any such speculative purchases within their due limits.

16. The Board will observe that the clause in the rules which provides for the redemption of prospective revenue in grants of waste land already made does not apply to the case of grants made under the old Darjeeling rules; these grants being, in fact, not grants, but sales of land at an upset price of (10) ten rupees an acre.

NOTIFICATION.

The following rules for the sale of unassessed waste lands, and for the redemption of the revenue of such lands already granted for a term of years, in the Lieutenant Governorship of Bengal, are published for general information:

Rule I. All unassessed waste lands in which no right of proprietorship or exclusive occupancy is known to exist, or to have existed, and to be capable of revival, are available for purchase under these rules, unless specially reserved under Rule XXI.

II. No greater quantity of land than 3,000 acres shall be sold in one lot, except with the express sanction of the Government. If, for special reasons, in particular localities, a lower maximum area than 3,000 acres should be determined upon, it will be duly notified hereafter.

III. Every lot shall be compact, and shall include no more than one tract of land within a ring fence; and when the land touches a public road or a navigable river, the length of the road, or river frontage, shall not exceed one-half the depth of the lot. No lot will be sold unless it has been previously surveyed and demarcated, or until it shall have been surveyed and demarcated in consequence of an application for purchase. The survey need only be in sufficient detail to ensure the ready identification of the boundaries of the lot, and to ascertain its gross area. If, on completion of the survey, it shall appear that the area of the lot applied for exceeds the prescribed maximum, the excess shall be excluded.

IV. Applications for the purchase of waste land shall be made to the Collector of the District, and every application shall contain the following particulars :—

1st. The estimated area of the land applied for.

2d. The situation of the land and its boundaries as accurately as can be ascertained. V. If the Collector be satisfied that the land applied for is available for purchase, and within the conditions prescribed in Rules II. and III., and if it have been previously surveyed and demarcated, he shall advertise the lot for sale on a given day at an upset price of not less than Rs. 2. 8. an acre on the whole area. The advertisement shall be published in the Collector's office, in the court of the principal judicial officer of the district, and at the moonsiff's court (if there be one), and police station within the limits of which the lands are situated.

VI. If the Collector be satisfied as above, and if the land have not been surveyed, he shall cause it to be surveyed and its boundaries demarcated; the estimated cost of such survey and demarcation being first deposited by the applicant. On the completion of the survey the advertisement of sale shall be published as above.

VII. The day of sale to be named in the advertisement shall not be less than 30 days from the date of publication, and the sale shall be held at the Collector's office. The sale may be postponed, if, in the Collector's judgment, it should be necessary, due notice being always given of the date on which the sale will be held.

VIII. If before the day of sale no claim of proprietary or occupative right in the land be preferred, the lot shall be sold by auction to the highest bidder above the upset price, or to the applicant at the upset price, if there be no higher bid.

IX. On payment of one-tenth of the purchase money, and of all expenses of survey, demarcation, advertisement, and sale, the purchaser shall receive a deed (in a form which will hereafter be issued by the Board of Revenue) signed by the Collector, conveying to him the lot, in full hereditary and transferable proprietary right, free for ever from all demand on account of land revenue, but subject, nevertheless, to all general taxes and local rates imposed by law, and to any other claim, whether of the Government or otherwise, that may have been or may hereafter be established in any court of competent jurisdiction.

X. If before the day of sale a claim of proprietary or occupative right in any part of the land be preferred, the Collector shall investigate the claim, and, if satisfied that it is groundless, shall reject it and proceed with the sale.

XI. If on investigation any such claim should appear to be well grounded, the Collector may either reject the application for purchase of the lands, or refer it for the orders of the Commissioner. In the former case the applicant may appeal to the Commissioner.

XII. The Commissioner may direct the Collector either to reject the application or to proceed with the sale of the land, either unreservedly on the conditions prescribed in Rule ÎX., or, if any claim to right of proprietorship, occupancy, or user in any part of the lands be established to the satisfaction of the Commissioner, with a special reservation of such right, or exclusive of the area in which such right exists. If the application for purchase of the land be rejected, the amount deposited as cost of survey will be forfeited.

XIII. On being put in possession of the lot, the purchaser shall be bound to erect as many substantial boundary marks of masonry as the Collector may think necessary.

XIV. If the land be purchased by any person other than the applicant, the estimated cost of survey deposited by the applicant shall be returned to him.

XV. The purchaser may, if he choose, pay the whole of the purchase money when the lot is sold or the deed delivered to him. Or, if he choose, he may pay a portion, not being less than 10 per cent., at the time of sale, and the remainder in instalments at any future time not being more than 10 years from the date of sale. In the latter case simple interest at the rate of 10 per cent. a year will be charged on the unpaid portion of the purchase money, and the whole lot will remain hypothecated as security for the full discharge of the amount, including principal and interest, and be liable to sale by order of the Collector if the said amount be not paid within the stipulated period.

XVI. If the purchaser fail to pay one-tenth of the purchase money and all other expenses within three months from the day of sale, the lot will be put up to sale again on the same conditions as before, and sold at the risk of the first purchaser, whose deposit will also be forfeited.

XVII. The upset price will be calculated on the whole area of the lot without any deduction on any account whatever. Ordinarily, the upset price will be two rupees eight annas an acre, but in special cases the Collector, with the sanction of the Commissioner, may put a higher upset price on any lot, provided that the upset price of available waste lands shall in no case exceed 10 rupees an acre.

XVIII. If it should at any time be found that the same land has been included in more than one lot, it shall be held to belong to the lot first sold, and all subsequent sales shall, as regards such land, become null and void. In the event of any dispute regarding the boundary of two or more adjoining lots, the Collector may, on the application of any one of the parties, readjust the boundaries of the lots, and his decision shall be final. The price paid by any subsequent purchaser for land thus excluded from his lot will be refunded to him with simple interest at 10 per cent.

XIX. All grants of waste land already made for a term of years under previously existing rules, in which no right of occupancy or proprietorship exists, except that of the grantee or that derived from him, will be treated, for the purposes of this rule, as if the land were permanently settled; and the grantees or their representatives may redeem the future land revenue of such grants or of any compact part of them in perpetuity for an amount equal to the present value of all future stipulated annual payments calculated at five per cent. interest, provided the said amount is not less than two rupees eight annas an acre on the whole area of which the revenue is redeemed.

XX. All sales of waste land, and all redemptions made under these rules in each division, will be reported immediately to the Board of Revenue in such form as the Board may direct; but no sale of waste lands once made by the Collector in conformity with the rules will be disturbed by any higher executive authority.

XXI. Reserves

XXI. Reserves of grazing and forest land, of land for the growth of firewood near towns and stations, of building sites, parks, recreation grounds, and the like, and of land required for other special purposes, are not to be sold under these rules without the express sanction of the Government. A list of these lands is under preparation by the Board of Revenue, and when it has been approved by the Government it will be published in the "Gazette.”

XXII. Lands for the purchase of which application has been made under the Resolution of the 17th October 1861, will, if such application were duly registered, be dealt with in accordance with the terms of the said Resolution so far as the law allows.

XXIII. From and after the date of the promulgation of these rules, no fresh applications for grants of waste land under any previous rules will be entertained.

On board the yacht "Rotas,"

30 August 1862.

By Order, &c.
(signed) J. D. Gordon,

Offg. Junior Secy. to the Govt. of Bengal.

Enclosure 2, in No. 5.

From J. Beckwith, Esq. Secretary to the Landholders' and Commercial Association, to E. C. Bayley, Esq. Secretary to the Government of India; dated Calcutta, 2 September

1862.

THE Despatch of the Secretary of State for India, No. 14, of the 9th July, on the subject of the Resolution of the Governor General in Council of the 17th October 1861, regarding the sale of waste lands, together with the circular instructions of the Government of India of the 15th August, as published in the Government "Gazette," have been under the consideration of the committee of this association; and I am directed to ask for information as to the meaning intended to be conveyed by the term "completed" as used both in the Despatch of the Secretary of State, and in the circular of the Government of India. The Despatch states as follows:

"It is not, however, intended that these orders should have retrospective effect, and if any arrangements in regard either to the purchase of waste lands or the redemption of land revenue have been actually completed under the provisions of the Resolution, they must, so far as is compatible with the law, be scrupulously carried into effect."

And the circular of the Government of India makes use of the expression "all arrangements which have been already completed."

Many parties, whose applications for grants of lands are in different stages of progress, are naturally anxious to know as early as possible the exact position in which they stand, and as there is some ambiguity about the expression used, the committee trust that they may not be considered as troubling Government unnecessarily in asking for an explanation.

In your letter No. 3909, of the 2d ultimo, in alluding to the same subject, you say "that in any case in which land has been already actually assigned to an applicant by a district officer, such assignment will be upheld by Government," and the committee trust that at least as liberal and comprehensive an interpretation will be given to the term completed as is contained in the sentence I have quoted from your letter of the 2d.

The committee understand that the legislation to give legal effect to the provisions of paragraph 19 of the Resolution, will have relation only to the mode of dealing with any rights which may be established by third parties in land sold, and will affect only those third parties, and the Government who undertake to make compensation whilst "the possession of the party to whom the land has been granted bonâ fide shall not be disturbed." I am desired to say that the committee will be glad to receive confirmation of the meaning they attach to this part of the subject, as nothing so discourages enterprise in the purchase and reclaiming of waste lands as uncertainty of title; and in case the legislation is not immediate, it is very desirable to have all doubts on the subject set at rest.

I am also directed by the committee to submit some remarks on the alterations introduced by the Despatch of the Secretary of State, and the circular instructions of the Government of India, in the system marked out by the Resolution of the 17th October 1861, for the sale of waste lands in fee-simple.

These alterations are essentially comprised in the point of selling no land except by public auction at upset prices to be hereafter fixed, in place of selling at a uniform and moderate price already fixed to the party applying for the particular parcel of land, without resorting to auction, excepting when there should be more than one applicant for the land.

The committee consider the change in the system to be unfavourable to the object which the Resolution of the 17th October 1861 was intended to promote the settlement of Europeans in India, and which object is declared by the Secretary of State to have his approval in part of paragraph 24, as follows::

I fully admit the advantages which have arisen, and which in future are likely to arise, for the settlement of Europeans in many parts of India, by the introduction of new or improved processes of agriculture and manufacture, and by the moral influence of their example on the neighbouring population; and I am most anxious that every facility should be given to persons desirous of settling in India with that object in view."