Mogulbandi. The encircling tracts, in which the Orissa chiefs maintained a semi-independence, were called the Rajwara. The Mahrattas subsequently overran the province, and Orissa, as made over to the East India Company in 1760, was confined to the territory now occupied by the Midnapore district and a part of Hooghly. The rest of the province was recovered by the English from the Mahrattas in 1803. The Mahrattas imposed on the Rajah of Khurda, and all the "khundaits," as the subordinate feudal chiefs were called, a quit-rent. This the Government frequently had to levy at the point of the sword; and one result to the opposition raised to its payment was the complete subjection and assessment at full rates of the estates of nearly all the smaller khundaits. These estates existed principally in the eastern Rajwara, and when the province was conquered by the British, their number was fifty. They were assessed at full rates and reduced in all respects to the condition of ordinary landholders, though some of them retain to this day their old title of khundait and keep up small guards of retainers. rights of the Rajah of Khurda, and of all the principal khundaits to hold their estates at permanent quit-rents, were recognized by our settlement officers and by Government. The remainder were left in the position of semi-independent tributary estates, and a superintendent was appointed to keep himself informed of their proceedings, levy the quit-rents due from them, and put a check upon any revival of their old turbulent and predatory habits. The engagements entered into by Government with the khundaits of the independent and dependent estates were notified, and the principles upon which the Mogulbandi was to be settled were affirmed by Regulation XII, 1805. The In reference to the large estates incorporated in British territory, it is sufficient to say that by Sections 33 to 35 of the Regulation alluded to they were permanently settled at fixed rents. The arrangement was, however, immediately upset in respect to the most important of them, Khurda, the Rajah of which was dispossessed, and his lands resumed for rebellion. Khurda has ever since been held under direct Government management, the Rajah receiving an annual pension of Rs. 25,600. Settlement. Excepting these large estates the permanent settlement was not extended to the remainder of the province. Sections 4 to 7, Regulation XII, 1805, confirmed, with certain modifications, the terms of a proclamation which had been issued in September of the previous year by the Special Commissioners deputed to settle the province. A series of ten short temporary settlements followed the proclamation, the last of which expired in 1837. A thirty years' settlement was then concluded, which expiring in 1867, was renewed without alteration for a further period of thirty years, and is therefore now in force. The settlement of 1838 was based upon a careful field measurement and upon an investigation into the individual rights of each landholder and under-tenant. It was a work of great labour, and occupied nearly eight years. The system was to settle the revenue payable by each of the old ryots and then to give a settlement to a superior landholder who collected the revenue from them. The total Government revenue of the temporarily-settled tracts in Orissa is Rs. 13,36,725. The people Present condition and current statistics. are on the whole tolerably prosperous, though more subject to overwhelming calamities of season than those of perhaps any other province in India. They have wonderfully recovered from the devastation of the great famine of 1866, and it is to be hoped that the progress of irrigation and embankment works, which have since that time been pushed forward with little interruption, and the measures now instituted to improve the communication by sea between False Point (the only port of the Cuttack district which is easy of access) and other places of export, will soon render the recurrence of so fearful a calamity impossible. Unfortunately the officers who administered the settlement so carefully made were imbued with Bengal prejudices; they wholly objected to the putwaries and to any system of public record and account. Consequently the minute and careful records of the settlement not having been continued and maintained, have been lost to the people; and it has lately been discovered that their rights have been trampled on, and they have been subjected to great tyranny and injustice. The measures which resulted on these disclosures will be described in the report for the present year. SPECIAL ACCOUNT OF ASSAM. The settlement of Assam is strictly "ryotwar," each cultivator being annually assessed by the officers of Government for the land actually occupied by him. The revenue is collected by officers called "mouzahdars," each of whom resides in his own circle, which is much larger than what is called a mouzah in other parts of India. The mouzahdar receives a commission on his collections, and this is the only expense incurred in realizing the Government demand. Under this system the revenue is most punctually and satisfactorily gathered in. The total revenue of the division, which contains the districts of Durrung, Kamroop, Luckimpore, Nowgong, and Seebsaugor, in addition to the Naga, Khasi, and Jyntea Hills, was in 1870-71 Rs. 20,93,374. Of this demand Rs. 20,82,633, or 99.4 per cent., were collected during the year; and against the arrear demand, which was Rs. 15,254, the collections amounted to Rs. 14,712, or 96.4 per cent. In 1871-72 the demand was Rs. 21,75,799. Of this sum Rs. 21,19,947, or 97.4 per cent., was collected during the year. And of the arrear demand of Rs. 17,066, Rs. 15,677, or 91.8 per cent., was collected. These results are probably not surpassed in any part of India. The assessment is fairly up to the capacities of the province under present conditions, and these facts constitute a strong argument (so far at least as the interests of the public revenue are concerned) in favour of the system of ryotwar settlement, where the assistance of a proper collecting establishment is given. SYSTEM OF SETTLEMENT. What has been said hitherto regarding Bengal and Behar has had reference to their general character as Amount of temporarily settled revenue. permanently-settled provinces. A cer tain fraction, however, of the whole revenue of these provinces is derived from lands under temporary settlement. Accurate figures distinguishing between the permanently and temporarily-settled revenue of the past year cannot at present be given, as the standard forms of account supplied by the local officers to the Board do not fully supply the necessary information. From special inquiry, however, it was lately ascertained that in the year 1871-72, the total current demand of which (excluding Orissa and Assam) was Rs. 3,54,82,671, the sum of Rs. 28,22,285, or not quite 8 per cent., represented the demand under temporary settlement. All classes of Government estates were at first usually, and under present rules are invariably, brought under temporary settlement. A policy was inaugurated fourteen years ago of making permanent settlements of, and selling all Government estates of the resources of which no very rapid development seemed probable, or which there was any other ground for getting rid of, the object being to get rid of a number of widely scattered small properties requiring at the hands of the officers of Government a kind of attention and supervision inconsistent with the system thus prevailing. This view of matters has, however, of late been challenged, and, pending a final decision of the question, temporary settlements only are now permitted of Government estates. The following are the general rules which have been prescribed by the present Government for the guidance of the revenue officers in making settlements : Settlements. I.-No estates of any kind (save those described in the next following clause) are to be settled in perpetuity without the express sanction of Government in each case, unless the holders have a statutory right to such settlement. II. Very petty estates, which, though well cultivated, pay less than one rupee land revenue per annum, may be sold revenue-free for ever, being put up at an upset price of ten times the annual jumma, or sold by special bargain to the cultivator in possession at not less than the above rate. III.-Alluvial accretions to private estates should be settled IV. No settlement or resettlement should be concluded without VI.-The persons with whom the settlement may be made, whether tenure-holders, or ryots, or purchasers, will be proprietors, and will be entitled to have future resettlements made with them. No more farming leases are to be granted, except when there are special reasons for such an arrangement. VII.-When the settlement is made with an outsider, or with tenureholders, or with village headmen, old ryots permanently located on the land are to have pottahs at fixed rates for term of settlement, wherever this may be possible. VIII.-Until the survey and record of rights necessary to a resettlement can be completed, existing leases may be extended from year to year. IX. A year should be fixed for each district or division, at which all future long-term settlements or resettlements for estates therein should expire. Direct management. An option has also been allowed to the Collector in the case of any estate, to the settlement of which no private individual is entitled by law, or the settlement of which may have been declined by a person entitled to it, to take the property into direct management when he considers it desirable for the interests of Government or the tenantry. A system of direct management under village headmen and tehsildars is now in operation in many Government estates and in some of those under the Court of Wards. A selected ryot or headman of the village collects the rents according to the rent-roll furnished to him, and pays the collections to Government. This is the simplest form of settlement. In larger estates tehsildars are appointed who collect the rents through the agency of the village heads. The whole is supervised by the Sub-divisional Officers, and in the management of all Government estates yielding not more than Rs. 1,000 per annum, the newly sanctioned subordinate sub-divisional establishments undertake the duty of collecting from the village heads without any special assistance. Demarcation survey. SYSTEM OF SURVEY. Almost the whole of these provinces have now been surveyed so as to show the boundaries of each village and estate, but there has been no field measurement except in a few limited tracts. There is a Demarcation Department whose business it is to define the boundaries of villages and estates, and to make a compass and chain survey of them. The ordinary scale of the maps prepared from this survey is 16 inches to the mile. All disputes regarding boundaries are decided by the Demarcation Officers. Where the whole of a village belongs to one estate, nothing but the outer boundary of the village has to be defined and surveyed; but in a very large proportion of cases there are lands of more than one estate in the village, and the lands of each estate are frequently scattered about the village, and not situated in one compact block. Thus there may be lands of ten estates in a village, but they may be contained in forty, fifty, or even double that number of separate plots. Each of these plots has to be separately defined and surveyed by the Demarcation Surveyor. It is the extent to which plots of land belonging to different estates are thus intermixed that renders the demarcation of a Bengal district such a lengthy operation. To take Hooghly as an example. There were in round numbers 4,000 village circuits demarcated. In about 1,000 of these the whole of the village belonged to one estate, and no interior measurements were necessary; in the remaining 3,000 no less than 80,000 plots had to be surveyed owing to the intermixture of lands of different estates. The demarcation is followed by a professional survey, whose business it is to make a scientific sur The professional or village survey. vey of village boundaries and also a map showing the geographical and topographical features of the country. The whole of the works, both of the demarcation and the professional survey, has been carried out at the expense of Government, although the Government derives no additional revenue and no direct advantages of any kind from the process. The surveyors, in making the survey of the village boundaries, are guided by the marks put up at time of demarcation at every bend and turn of the boundary. Unfortunately there are no permanent marks round the boundaries of villages. or estates in Bengal, and no provision exists for compelling landholders to set them up and keep them on. The consequence is that the marks have been obliterated, and the use of the survey for practical proposes is very much lost. The subjoined statement shows how far all Bengal has been surveyed up to date; when the survey of each district was commenced and completed; the scale and nature of survey, and the total area as far as it can be ascertained : : |