184 RELIEF OF INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS. 



and adjusted as not to drive the ryot to the sowkar, even temporarily, 

 in order to meet it then I believe that all trouble will be soon and 

 safely tided over. That the so^ukar will permanently cease to lend, 

 there need be no fear whatever. The ryot is just as likely to cease 

 to cultivate. The ryot is as necessary to the sow/car, who can only 

 employ his capital in agricultural dealings and banking, as the 

 sow/car is to him. The pair will not sit down and starve together, 

 with a bag of money between them ! 



Another large question, which I cannot pass over without remark, 

 is that of the novel provisions for village munsifs and conciliators. 

 It has two branches the one relating to their personnel, and 

 the other to their functions. I will first speak of the personnel 

 available for each office. As to village munsifs, it will have 

 been gathered from what I said in my introductory speech that 

 I did not expect that more than a patel here and there would be 

 found qualified to be a village munsif. If the suggestion which I 

 put forward in 1863, in 1867, and again in 1871, that after a 

 reasonably distant future date no person should be appointed patel 

 who had not received a suitable education, had been adopted, the 

 class would now have stood higher in education and intelligence 

 than they do. But a knowledge of reading and writing is not, after 

 all, indispensable to successful disposal of petty suits, though 

 absence of interest is so ; and this is just what will be in patels 

 so rare. Now, however, that the restriction of village munsif ships 

 to patels has been removed and the proposal in the Bombay draft 

 assented to, any person of local influence will be eligible, and the 

 field of selection will be advantageously enlarged. Virtually, it 

 will become nearly the same as that from which conciliators are to 

 be drawn. As to whether competent persons can be found for the 

 two offices, especially the latter, I observe some striking differ- 

 ences of opinion. On the one hand, the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, 

 MR. BYRAMJI JIJIBHAI in his clear and representative memorial, and 

 a portion of the native press appear to have no misgivings. On 

 the other hand, the Collectors of Sholapur and Satara seem to be 

 pretty much of the opinion of the Commissioner (MR. E. P. ROBERT- 

 SON) that too much power will be thrown into the hands of a class , 

 quite incapable of exercising impartiality, or of resisting local or 

 personal influence and acting independently and uprightly.' One 

 of the principal native newspapers, too, the Dnyan Prakctsh, which 



