Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

officer whose success in this work has been remarkable. There is every reason to believe that this virgin nest of robbers has been already turned into a quiet and well-regulated British district, abounding in minerals, timber, cotton, and elephants. The subjected Garos now give no trouble whatever, and the first contribution to our new Economic Museum consists of some extraordinarily fine pods of cotton grown in their country.

The Looshais.

Following on the Looshai expedition, a large portion of the Looshai country has been brought within the familiar knowledge and political control of our officers, and most of the remainder has been explored and mapped by parties who have had friendly relations with the tribes. The Looshai raids have entirely ceased, and our subjects and tea-planters in Cachar, Sylhet, and Chittagong, extend their cultivation in peace.

The Naga Raid.

In the Naga country south of Assam we have also considerably pushed forward our explorations and political influence; important geographical discoveries have been made,

and further discoveries are believed to be imminent in the course of a farther exploration about to be undertaken in the ensuing season. The massacre of a large party of a Naga tribe (chiefly women and children) on the borders of our settled territories by a hostile tribe of the same race, has led to a consideration of our position in regard to the whole of these Naga tribes. Although in this case reparation and a surrender of the skulls of the victims has been obtained, it is felt that something must be done to put a stop to such atrocities on our borders as well as to obviate the constant risk of collision between the Nagas and our tea-planters. The Government of India having accepted the views of this Government, it has been determined to fix the boundary between the regular Assam districts and the Nagas; and with respect to these latter to do what can be done, cautiously and gradually, to bring them under political control. Arrangements are in progress to effect these objects.

On the subject of dealing with the tribes with whom we are brought in contact on our Eastern Frontier, the LieutenantGovernor has expressed himself as follows:

"All our past experience convinces the LieutenantGovernor that the best way of dealing with these Eastern

tribes is to establish a political police among them and become familiar with them. We then stop their raids as we have stopped those of the Garos, the Angamies, the Khasias, and it is to be hoped the Lushais. While we leave them unknown in their obscure hills and jungles, there is no security whatever against the raids which continually occur. Once we know them, we find them very amenable to authority."

The Duffla Raid.

In the north of Assam, where the mountains (the eastern portion of the Himalayas) are less known than those in the south, it is more difficult to settle any definite policy. We have in the past year suffered from one of the frontier difficulties to which we are always liable; a large tribe of a people for some years quiescent, the Dufflas, having broken out and carried away into captivity a large number of Duffla colonists in British territory. Our officers having failed to obtain satisfaction, our relations with these people have been broken off, a blockade has been established, and measures to bring them to terms or punish them are being carried out by a considerable force furnished from the regiments ordinarily stationed in Assam. We have not, however, gone to any considerable expense to form a movable column. It is left to the local officers to do the best that circumstances will admit. Carriage is the great difficulty in these cases, and the Lieutenant-Governor has expressed the opinion that we shall never deal effectively with frontier difficulties in Assam till we have an efficient coolie corps to work on the roads in peace and carry the baggage in war.

Hitherto there had been no definite boundary between Assam and the Bhooteas. Such a boundary has been successfully laid down during the year, and our rights in the important hill post and mart of Dewangiri (formally ceded to us after the Bhootan war, but which had almost slipped out of our hands,) have been reasserted.

Sikkim.

On the occasion of the Lieutenant Governor's visit to Darjeeling, the relations of the British Government with the state of Sikkim, lying between the British territories and Thibet, have been drawn much closer than they ever were before. The Rajah and his family for the first time visited British territory, and arrangements have been made which will, it is hoped, lead to a great increase of our geographical knowledge of and trade with these parts, and which may, if things go as we hope, bring us into nearer communication

b

with Thibet,-the shortest, easiest, and most frequented route to which lies through Sikkim.

Details of all these and other transactions will be found in Chapter II, on Frontier Affairs.

The Eastern frontier districts having been declared by the Secretary of State subject to the special provisions of the Act XXXIII Vict., Cap. 3 (enabling the Government to legislate in a summary manner), a Regulation has been made under this Act to obviate the great political dangers resulting from the unrestrained dealings of European British subjects and others with the wild frontier tribes, and laying down a line beyond which trade and settlement are subject to a special control.

Among the Western aborigines, too, our policy has been successfully carried out, and quiet has there prevailed throughout the year.

The Sonthal Pergunnahs.

Under the new regime a settlement of the Sonthal Pergunnahs is in progress which promises to give satisfaction to the people and to do justice to all parties. Since these Sonthals have been freed from the operation of laws which pressed on them with unfair severity, the anxieties which they had occasioned have been completely quieted.

Orissa tributary estates.

The countries farther west held by the tribes of Kols and other aborigines formerly considered wild, have been as usual successfully managed by Colonel Dalton and Mr. Ravenshaw. Among the wildest of these tribes, the demand is for education. Perhaps the most unique instance of beneficial selfgovernment and self-taxation to be found in India is among the Khonds on the further borders of Orissa, who so lately were notorious for human sacrifices and other barbarities habitually perpetrated. So civilised are they now that, while last year they voluntarily taxed the grogshops and devoted the proceeds to the institution of primary schools, this year they have of their own accord proposed and levied a housetax for roads to bring them into communication with the world.

The Kol countries of Chota Nagpore are peculiarly interesting. We have now a Chota Nagpore tributary estates. large settled agricultural population whose manners and habits are totally different from those of the Hindoos, and among whom Christianity has made much progress. They are a docile race, and an exceedingly prolific

Internal administration.

one; and from having been needy and troublesome savages are now among the quietest and most contented of our subjects. Turning now to the more important subject of the internal administration of these provinces, it may be stated that the past year has been peaceful and prosperous. We are now unhappily under the shadow of a great calamity,the failure of the autumn crops; but the result of the measures taken to alleviate it cannot yet be known, and that must be the most important chapter in the history of another year. Meantime we may safely say that the prosperity and abundance of the year just past go far to mitigate the suffering which must follow the present unfortunate failure.

Confining ourselves then to the past year, the freedom from political difficulties or social anxieties which we have enjoyed, has enabled the Government and its officers to devote itself with unremitting attention to the works of progress which we have had in hand. There has been a singular subsidence of any rumours of Wahabee conspiracies and such like troubles throughout the country; and excepting the rent disputes in limited parts of the country, which have raised large agrarian questions above alluded to, the country has been free from political excitement of any kind.

In Chapter I, on the Changes in the Administration, the reforms in the administrative system made or suggested are fully set forth.

All the plans described in the last report have been steadily followed out, with the exception only of the proposed new system of municipal and communal administration, to which a stop was put, inasmuch as the Viceroy was pleased to veto the new Municipal Act passed by the Bengal Council. Other plans, of which the projects were then inchoate only, have been matured. Perhaps feeling less sure of its ground as in complete accordance with the views of the present Government of India, this Government has been less willing than previously to embark in anything which had not been already sanctioned and commenced, and a good many things have latterly been submitted to the Government of India in respect of which no serious and decisive action has been taken, their consideration by that Government having been postponed for a time.

The system under which, both at the head-quarters of the Government and in every district, authority is more centralised, and the working of the departments is controlled

and brought to a common action, has been put into effective, and, it is hoped, successful practice.

At the same time, far from taking from local authority, narrowing local discretion, and reducing local activity by centralisation in the sense of more complete subjection to the central authority, the object of the Government has been to extend the power and enlarge the freedom of well-ordered local authorities, to trust officers selected as worthy of trust, and to give to the people as much self-government as circumstances permit.

Conduct of the services.

This the Lieutenant-Governor desires prominently and confidently to say, that, so far from measures of reform and improvement having met with opposition, active or passive, from the officers of Government, as has been sometimes supposed, he has received in his measures the most hearty and efficient co-operation from his officers, with very rare exceptions indeed. He feels thoroughly sensible that without their complete assistance it would have been impossible to do what has been done. They have worked most zealously and efficiently, and his very best thanks are due to them.

The public services in these great provinces are so great and numerous, that the Lieutenant-Governor shrinks from the attempt to single out and distinguish particular officers in a report of this kind. If he were to mention some as particularly deserving, he would be compelled to omit very many others of much merit, in a manner which might seem invidious. He will therefore here only state his general appreciation of, and thanks for, their services.

THE CIVIL SERVICE.

Parallel promotion in the Executive and Judicial lines.

In the Civil Service the change of which the design was explained in the last report, and by which it was hoped to obviate the evils arising from too frequent changes, and to secure more permanent, more efficient, and more experienced officers for the charge of districts and other important posts, has been sanctioned by the Government of India and Her Majesty's Secretary of State, and carried into effect. The main feature of the plan is what has been called promotion in parallel lines; that is, Civil Servants, instead of being almost of necessity changed from the executive to the judicial line, and vice versa at every frequently recurring step of promotion, are invited after some years' service to choose one line or the other, and having chosen are ordinarily kept

« ПредишнаНапред »