MANUAL OP THE NILAQIRI DISTRICT. 309 



Vizagapatam. An appeal was to lie to the Court of Coimbatore CHAP. XII. 

 iu suits exceeding Rupees 10,000 in value. The Government r^^^t 

 approved this plan, but it was opposed in the Viceregal Legislative History. 

 Council by Mr. D. Elliott on the grounds (1) that it was impolitic 

 to give an uucovenanted officer powers exceeding those of a 

 covenanted Subordinate Judge ; (2) that the litigation on the Hills 

 did not demand a Judge with higher powers than a Principal Sudr 

 Amiu ; (3) that the Criminal Sessions Court being light, could be 

 pi'ovided for by the Judge of Coimbatore holding occasional 

 sessions at Ootacamand. Mr. Elliott's views prevailed, and Act 

 XXV, 1855, was passed. 



The Court continued until the 1st June 1858, when it was Assistant 

 aboHshed, or rather transferred to Combaconum, and the Jgj.^|Jj j'j,^^" 

 Assistant Judge's Court at that town transferred to Ootacamand, Combaconum 

 Mr. E. W. Bird, C.S., being made Assistant Judge on a salary of ^j^^^^^^''''" 

 Rupees 1,400. By noti6cation on the 7tli August 1858, the 

 Kimdas, the Nidumale tract west of the Paikare river, and the 

 Devarayapatnam tract north of the Nilagiris were included in the 

 jurisdiction of the court. A proposal to include the Nambalakod 

 amshom of South-East Wainad with the Ouchterlony Valley in 

 the jurisdiction was negatived on the ground that a Malayalam- 

 speaking people would be brought under the operation of a 

 Tamil court. 



The opening out of the Government cinchona plantations west of Kdndas and 



-1 . 1 ^ ^ ■ ^oor\ ni Nidumalf> 



the Paikare river — narrated m a subsequent chapter — m l«50-bl, annexed. 

 the claims urged to one of the sites by the Nellambur Eaja, and 

 the impending introduction of the Waste Land Rules, among other 

 reasons, induced the Government in 1863 to annex to the Coim- 

 batore collectorate the Kiindas and the tract west of the Paikare 

 already placed under the civil jurisdiction of the Ootacamand Court. 

 About the same time the Madras Government, now presided 

 over by Sir William Denison, who had succeeded to office in 1861, 

 resolved on " the creation of a Civil and Sessions Judgeship on the 

 Nilagiris on Rupees 2,000, in lieu of the Subordinate Judgeship, 

 with the view of placing the administration of justice both in the 

 lowlands of Coimbatore and on the Nilagiri Hills on a more 

 efficient footing.'^ 



It had been found that the unnecessarily prolonged absence First Com- 

 of the Judge of Coimbatore for the sessions on the Hills had S;'^^""^;;^ 

 greatly hindered business in the Coimbatore Court. This 

 arrangement was sanctioned by the Imperial Government, but 

 was not found to work satisfactorily, and was finally abolished 

 by Act I, 1868, which provided for the separation of the district 

 fi'om Coimbatore, and fixes its present administrative and judicial 

 constitution. The first Commissioner appointed under this Act 



