clii 



(i) One acre of Cotton. 



3 plougKing requiring 5 pairs 



Seed 



Manure (^ of the value of 20 cart-loads) 



Sowing 



3 weedings 



Watching the crop ... ... ..." 



Clearing the plants ... 



Assessment 



Total 



Outturn of uncleaned cotton 1^ podis (of 



328 lb. each) at Rs. 22 a podi 



3 cart-loads of plants 



Total ... 



Balance or profit 



RS. A, p. 



2 8 



4 



1 8 



12 



1 8 

 8 

 12 



Note (1). The Government assessment of an acre of land as regards (b), (c), (d), 

 (e), (f), (g) and (h) may be taken at one rupee. 



(2). The season in the year to which the outturn given in the above tables 

 relates is reported to have been particularly good. 



(f ) — Remarks on ihe alleged increase in the price of Salt due to 

 the Salt Excise System. 



The evil features of the monopoly system of salt manufacture are 

 the following. 



2. Under the monopoly system the Government undertakes a 

 work for which private agency is better fitted. The Grovernment 

 cannot by means of its officers manufacture salt as cheaply as private 

 individuals^ under the stimulus of self-interest, can. I do not put 

 this on the laissez fairs or any other abstract principle, but on the 

 experienced results of the monopoly system when it was in force. 

 There are certainly cases in which Government can advantageously 

 undertake the supply of services to the community, for instance, 

 the Postal service, the Telegraph, and perhaps in this country 

 even Railways. These are all cases in which the work to be 

 done is spread over such large tracts of country, and is of such in- 

 variable routine character as to make its regulation by general rules 

 issued by a Government department possible and desirable. In these 

 cases, the work done by the officers of the department in different 

 parts of the country is such that the failure or laxity on the part of 

 one of them is liable to immediate detection and exposure by throw- 

 ing out of gear almost instantaneously the work of those similarly 

 employed in other parts. No one will maintain that salt manufacture 

 is a business of this kind. As in agriculture, so in the manufac- 



