114 



'?■■ 



Salem, who was examined by the Select Committee, varied in 

 each district and in every village, and its assessment was, in 

 the highest degree, arbitrary. The mode of assessment was 

 often as follows : A man's father had paid the tax and the 

 son was generally assessed at the same amount. If the lat'ter 

 was considered to be an energetic man and was believed to 

 drive a better trade, the matter was reported to the Collector 

 the next time he visited that part of the district. If the 

 trader was a man of any sense, I use Mr. Dykes' words, he 

 bought off the village authorities and did not get his assess- 

 ment raised, the extent of his dealings not being reported. 

 Sir Thomas Munro mentions that in the Bellary district, the 

 tax amounted to between 15 and 20 per cent, of the income 

 in some taluks and little or nothing in others, the reason 

 for indulgent treatment in the latter cases being that the 

 merchants were obliged to furnish at a low rate whatever 

 articles were required for the public service, to take the 

 Sirkar share of the crops, damaged stores, &c., at 10 per 

 cent, above the market rate, and to pay " occasional " contri- 

 butions. Sir Thomas Munro proposed to impose a uniform 

 tax of 15 per cent, throughout the district. In one village 

 in the Coimbatore district barbers, carpenters and black- 

 smiths paid Ks. 2-5-8 each; pariah labourers paid As. 14-2 

 and chucklers paid each Rs. 2-5-8. The Public Works Com- 

 missioners of 1852 give some interesting statistics regarding 

 the oppressive character of this tax. They state, " In 

 connection with the important object of increasing the class 

 of consumers not directly concerned with the growth of food, 

 we cannot but observe that the moturpha or tax on trades- 

 men and artizans appears singularly objectionable. In a 

 country where the classes engaged in trade, manufactures 

 and the useful arts are extremely few in number compared 

 with those occupied in agriculture, the disfavour of the former 

 branches of industry is increased by a special impost levied 

 on those employed in them. It amounts in all to £116,000 

 and this trifling sum is collected from no fewer than 994,224 

 individuals being only 1 ^ R. or 2s. 4d. from each contri- 

 butor." The Commissioners go on to remark "a large part 

 of the moturpha is paid by the weavers and forms an addition 

 to the difl5.culties with which they have to contend in com- 

 peting with the English manufacturer. In this case too, the 

 tax is more than usually inquisitorial, as the amount varies 

 with the number of looms employed by each payer ; houses 

 are frequently entered in order to discover concealed looms, 

 as the Indian loom is easily dismantled and put away." The 

 grossly unequal incidence of the tax in the seveVal districts 



