73 



the Boon from the plains, building* mills, machinery, 

 canals, draining-, &c., the Government ruled that 

 our proprietary right was inchoate only, and there- 

 fore not complete even in lands brought under culti- 

 vation/* 



( Permission was given to any one who sought it, 

 to fell and carry away the timber in our forests, on 

 the payment to Government of a price for the privi- 

 lege and right of so doing, and which was collected 

 on its leaving* the Boon, not as a toll or tax, for the 

 tax upon timber and other articles imported had been 

 abolished in ISSG.f Our right to protect and pre- 

 serve our property was disputed or overruled by the 

 Government, until the right for which we had been 

 struggling was annulled, by the destruction of all 

 timber, even to the seed-bearing trees. We were 

 compelled to submit to trespassers from the plains, 

 who brought ^ with them extensive herds of murrain- 

 infected cattle into our grants, by which hundreds 

 of our cattle perished. We have had lime-burners 

 cut down our finest timber for fuel for their kilns, 

 because the Government had reserved to itself and 

 to the public the right of taking limestone from 

 lands, provided the price for the privilege was paid 

 to them.'J 



* The opinion of counsel was taken on this subject, both in 

 India and England, which declared the proprietary right of the 

 grantees to be complete. Note by Col. Thomas. 



t See Acts XIV. of 1836, and'XIV. of 1843. 



J Letter from Lieut. -Colonel C. F. Thomas, Joint Proprietor 

 and sole manager of East Hope Town and Arcadia Grants, to 

 the Superintendent Dehra Dhoon, dated 10th October 1859. 



