furniture is generally formed. If it once became an 

 article of export, its price would rise so rapidly, that 

 it would soon be beyond the reach of the natives who 

 are so dependent on it. Whether any increase of 

 revenue, however great, would not be too dearly 

 bought at such a price is a question for very serious 

 consideration ; and the reason which determined the 

 Government to exempt bamboo from taxation (in 

 Burma) will no doubt carry equal weight when they 

 come to consider the question of its export for the 

 purpose of paper manufacture. The Government 

 felt that to levy a tax on this product would be to 

 deprive the hill tribes of their chief means of gaining 

 a livelihood, and feared that such a deprivation 

 might act as an incentive to crime. In like manner, 

 when it was contemplated to check the destructive 

 habit of toungya* cultivation, it was urged that the 

 tribes, who are dependent on this rude mode of cul- 

 ture, are a barbarous race, who, though rude and 

 ignorant, are not destitute of spirit ; and that to 

 attempt summarily to deprive them of their only 

 means of livelihood would be simply to drive them 

 to cattle-lifting and other crime, if not to open rebel- 

 lion ; while if they fled the country, the last state of 

 the forests would be worse than the first. The same 

 argument applies with not less force to the question 

 of the utilization of Bamboo for paper-making. The 

 gradual development of revenue, when regulated with 

 due regard to the condition of the people, is an un- 

 deniable blessing, but more harm than good results 



* A system of cultivation practised by the hill tribes, who bum large 

 forest areas, and subsequently cultivate the sites so cleared. 



