[Extracts from the Famine Commission's Report, 1880."] 



Part II, Chapter IV, Sec. Ill, pp. 143-45. 

 GOVERNMENT LOANS TO FACILITATE LAND IMPROVEMENT. 



Sketch of existing practice. 



1. Advances for the improvement of land are now made for 

 the most part under Act 26 of 1871. The object of this Act 

 was to define the purposes for which it was held to be legitimate to 

 place a charge on the land, as security for the repayment of advances 

 made by the State, to enable improvements to be carried out, and 

 to give the Government a preferable claim on the land for such 

 repayment. These purposes were defined to be undertakings whose 

 object is the permanent improvement of the productive powers of the 

 land ; and such undertakings are of three classes : (1) wells, tanks, 

 or other works for the storage, supply, or distribution of water for 

 agricultural purposes, or the preparation of land for irrigation ; (2) 

 works for the drainage of land, for reclaiming land from river or 

 other waters, and for the protection of land from floods or erosion ; 

 (3) for reclaiming, clearing, or enclosing lands for agricultural pur- 

 poses. The provisions of the Act, which has been amended as to 

 procedure by Act 21 of 1876, are, that a landowner, or tenant 

 with his landlord's sanction, should apply for an advance ; and that 

 the Collector after satisfying himself that the object comes under one 

 of the above three classes, and that the security offered is sufficient, 

 may make the advance, and shall ultimately recover it in the same 

 way as the land revenue is collected. Further details as to the 

 amounts to be lent, the mode of making applications, the mode of 

 enquiring into the security and the object, the interest to be charged, 

 the manner and time of repaying instalments, and the amount of 

 those inatalments, are to be provided for by rules drawn up by 

 local governments and sanctioned by the Governor General in 

 Council. 



Defects of the system. 



2. The evidence we have received regarding the working of this 

 Act renders it unquestionable that it has failed to realise the intention 

 of* promoting improvements, and that there is a very general reluc- 

 tance to make use of its provisions. The sums which have been 



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