70 



resumed, and the grantee shall forfeit all right in 

 the lands, both those which may be yet uncleared, 

 and those which may have been cleared and brought 

 into cultivation." 



Thus, let us suppose our old friend Jones to have 

 taken a grant of 10,000 acres, and at the end of 

 twenty years to have brought one-half, or 5,000 

 acres, under cultivation. To clear and plant jungle 

 land in Assam costs about 20 an acre. Five 

 thousand cleared acres, therefore, would be worth, in 

 actual expenses to Jones, 100,000. But 5,000 

 acres planted with tea plants of from 6 to 8 years' 

 growth, would be worth, at present market rates, 

 100 an acre, and 5,000 acres at that price would 

 be 500,000. Now it may have been right to im- 

 pose certain conditions regarding clearances to pre- 

 vent land jobbing, and in swampy and jungle dis- 

 tricts on sanatary grounds; nor do the conditions 

 fixed, seem to have been severe or unreasonable. 

 But, in the absence of fraudulent practices rendering 

 extraordinary legislation a necessity,, it appears to 

 me, that a rule giving power, as this does, to a 

 Board, on the simple ascertainment of failure to 

 fulfil any one of these conditions, and without any 

 enquiry into the cause, to confiscate Jones', or any 

 one else's property, to the value of half a million 

 sterling or more, or less, as the case might be, could 

 not be desirable ; and that the enforcement of its 

 provisions, would not only be the arbitrary and 

 unjust exercise of a despotic power, but that the 



