38 



INDEBTEDNESS OF THE LAND-HOLDING CLASSES. 



measures called for are of a legislative as well as of an executive 

 character. The executive measures are the introduction of elasticity 

 in the collection of the Government demand, and its corollary, 

 the improvement in the system of land records. The legislative 

 measures are concerned, first, with enabling the tenantry to compound 

 for their existing debts ; and, next, with limiting their power of incur- 

 ring fresh debts, or, in other words, imposing limitations on the 

 transfer of their property in the future. We will deal with the 

 legislative remedies first, and then express our views upon the 

 administrative question. 



342. We propose the following legislative measures, and we note 

 that the probability of lasting success will be greatly strengthened if 

 Mutual Credit Associations take root and flourish in the country. 

 In the first place, power should be given by statute for the following 

 or some similar procedure : 



(1) The account between debtor and creditor should be investi- 

 gated, and a fair sum should be fixed, to be paid by the former to the 

 latter in liquidation of the debt. 



(2) The average produce of the holding should be ascertained, and 

 its money value should be expressed in cash. 



(3) The surplus produce, after providing for the subsistence of 

 the cultivator and his family and the necessities of cultivation, should 

 be appropriated to the payment of debt, provided that such appro- 

 priation shall not be continued after the lapse of a term of years. 



(4) In substitution for (1), (2) and (3) the holding should be 

 made over, at the land tax assessed, to the creditor in usufructuary 

 mortgage for a term of years. 



In either case the holding should be declared free of debt at the 

 end of the term. We have ascertained that a procedure similar to 

 this is followed in Rajputana. 



343. In the second place, we think that legislation with the 

 object of restricting the transferability of land should be undertaken in 

 Bombay ; and we might refer to the legislation lately carried through 

 in the Punjab, as indicating how this object can be effected. Other- 

 wise we fear that, as the Commissioner of the Central Division said 

 in 1882, "the number of non-cultivating occupants will continue to 

 largely increase, and our moderate survey rates, which are intended" to 

 benefit the cultivators, will only benefit land speculators, who will, as 



