224 



will sell at all or, allowing the necessary margin 

 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 large sums of money be lost to the 

 Sinter.* 



These reasons lead me to the conclusion that 

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

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

 the determination to auction them will be wholly 

 inoperative, except in isolated cases, to secure the 

 State against ultimate and serious loss in those 

 districts where there is a present demand, the 

 fixing of a uniform rate of 5s. an acre as a mini- 

 mum limit, will effectually shut out from all 

 possibility of reclamation, such tracts as the Soon- 

 derbuns, and the great proportion of the immense 

 wastes of India. 



* The Secretary of State directed in his despatch that '* the several 

 Governments 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 beat tlmr disposal in each district of their 

 Presidency or Province." There is little or no waste laud available 

 in the Bombay or Madras Presidencies, and as five shilling's has 

 boen fixed as the uniform upset price for Beng-al and the North West 

 Provinces ; and as the terma on which leases were granted in Arracan, 

 the Tenasserim Provinces, Peg-u, the Punjab, and most other 

 places were not more favourable than those granted in Beng-al, it 

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

 whole. 



