322 



MANUAL OP THE nIlAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CHAP 



. XIII, amountjbut tliisloss was more than counterbalanced by the 



PART I. 



J? E VENUE 



History. 



State of tlie 



Revenue 



Rc'oounts. 



Settlnraent of 'M.T. 

 the Kundas 



taking up 1 1,522 acres of waste yielding a revenue of Rupees 4,295, 

 leaving the total assessment at Rupees 13,140 on 35,105 acres, 

 against Rupees 8,1 14 on 17,333 acres in the preceding fasli. Thus 

 it appeared that the Badagas had more than doubled their holdings. 

 " The majority of the lands have been roughly demarcated, so that 

 I think I may say," wrote Mr. Grant, " that the old practice 

 of putting forward doubtful claims to lands applied for by Euro- 

 peans and others has been put a stop to." There can be no 

 question that the increase in the holdings was really nominal, 

 or rather that it imperfectly represented cultivation which had 

 hitherto been moi*e or less concealed. The demarcation was 

 practically useless. From the above assessment Rupees 1,961 

 were deducted for certain waste retained in puttas, caval lands, 

 and " ain " grass lands, leaving the settlement figures at Rupees 

 11,179; but these items were in great measure temporary 

 concessions. 



The following remarks of Mr. Grant are noteworthy : — 

 " The revenue accounts, although they exhibit certain extents of 

 land in each village as assessed and unassessed waste, do not define 

 the boundaries of these lands. The result was, in carrying out the 

 changes under report, it became impossible to say in cases in which 

 unassessed waste lands had been cultivated, which portions belonged 

 to the assessed and which to the unassessed lauds ; and as it was 

 evident that many of the Burghers had both lands in their enjoy- 

 ment, it was resolved, as the best way to meet the difficulty, to allow 

 them to retain all the lands which had been cultivated under the 

 " Bhurty " system, and which in reality formed portions of their exist- 

 ing holdings. The practical result has been that the lands taken up 

 exceed the actual quantity of assessed waste exhibited in the accounts 

 submitted to Government by 5,194 acres, and show a corresponding 

 reduction in the available unassessed waste lands, of which many 

 thousand acres still remain untouched. Although somewhat opposed 

 to the letter of the Government order, the course followed seemed to be 

 in accordance with ita spirit ; in fact it would have been difficult, if 

 not impossible, to have carried it out differently, as, the lands not being 

 demarcated and surveyed, there were no data as to which were the 

 assessed and which the unassessed lands : almost all either were, or 

 had been, under the plough at the time the settlement v^-as made." 



Grant also introduced the new rates into the Kilndas^ 

 which had but recently (1860) been transferred to the Coimbatore 

 District from Malabar. The revenue system hitherto existing in 

 this tract seems not to have been thoroughly understood^ 

 as Mr. Grant speaks of the revenue being collected " on the 

 number of fields locally termed ' Kottoocudoo ' and ' Yercudoo ' 

 at so much on each description of field," but although these terms 

 may have begun to represent the description of the field, that 



