4 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



limit of Rs. 2-8, and sold perhaps at Rs. 8 or 10 per acre. 

 Had the Government given land gratis to Tea cultivators 

 the policy would have been a wise one. To do what 

 they did was scarcely acting up to their professed wish " to 

 develope the resources of the country." 



Since the above was written, new rules have been pub- 

 lished for the sale of waste lands. The objectionable auction 

 system is continued, and the upset price is much enhanced, 

 as follows : 



Schedule of Rates of Upset Prices. 



Upset price per acre. 



Districts of the Assam Division . Rs. 8 

 Districts of Cachar and Sylhet . . 8 

 Districts of the Chittagong Division . 6 

 Districts of the Chota Nagpore Division . 5 

 The Soonderbuns ..... 5 

 All other Districts . . . . .10 



It is not likely that Government will sell much land at 

 such exorbitant rates.* 



Security of title, it is generally thought, is one of the 

 advantages of buying land from the State ; but I grieve to 

 state my experience is that the reverse is the case, and will 

 so remain until the following is done : 



First. The Government should learn what is and what is 

 not theirs to sell. Such an absurdity, then, as Government 

 ascertaining, years after the auction, that they had sold 

 lands they had no right to sell, could not be. 



Secondly. That before land is sold it be properly surveyed 

 and demarcated ; and what might so easily have been done, 

 and which alone would have compensated for much of bad 

 procedure in other respects, that the simple and obvious 

 plan before the sale, of sending a European official to show 



* Since the Second Edition went to press, further Rules for Waste Lands 

 have been enacted. Generally speaking, they are only now leased to applicants 



