96 



would not be a loser. But the return to labour 

 and capital expended on tea lands, including 1 all 

 expenses of clearances, is several hundred per cent, 

 more than that upon any land under cultivation in 

 India, except perhaps opium lands. If then, all 

 thing's considered, 5s represents the value of this 

 kind of land, it must follow that no other waste land 

 will sell at all or, allowing 1 the necessary marg-in 

 for the operation of secondary influences, if other 

 lands will sell at this rate to any great extent, that, 

 in the absence of a very active competition, these 

 lands will be sold much under their value, and, 

 ultimately, very larg-e sums of money be lost to the 

 State.* 



These reasons lead me to the conclusion that 

 there are, at present, no proper means of determin- 

 ing 1 the value of any of these lands ; and that while 

 the determination to auction them will be Avholly 

 inoperative, except in a few districts, to secure the 

 State against ultimate and serious loss in those 



* The Secretary of State directed in his despatch that " the 

 several Governors and Lieut.- Governors should be instructed 

 to fix, after communication with the chief Local Authorities, 

 a minimum price suited to the circumstances of the various 

 descriptions of land which they may find to be at their dis- 

 posal in each district of their Presidency or Province." There 

 is little or no waste land available in the Bombay or Madras 

 Presidencies, and as five shillings has been fixed as the uni- 

 form upset price for Bengal and the North West Provinces ; 

 and as the terms on which leases were granted in Arracan, 

 the Tenasserim Provinces, Pegu, the Punjab, and most other 

 places were not more favourable than those granted in Bengal, 

 it may be assumed that this price will, indeed must, regulate 

 the whole. 



