MANUAL OP THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 331 



usually assessed on lands for which Government grants are issued, CHAP. Xlll, 

 and that from the same date rent pro tanto shall cease to be PART I. 

 demanded from the Todawars/' All applications for grants were revenue 

 to be accompanied by certificate that the prescribed compensation Histoby. 

 had been paid to the Todas. The area allowed to each house, 

 which had been originally recommended by Sir T. Munro, was 

 maintained, subject to modification in special cases. 



The occupation of lands for agricultural purposes on the Occupation 

 Nllagiris had attracted the attention of the Honorable Court of Europeans^ 

 Directors, and on the 2nd September 1829 the Court communi- attracts 

 cated to the Madras Government a copy of the Resolution of the Q^^^t ^^f ° 

 Supreme Government, 7th May 1824, more particularly referred Directors, 

 to later on in this chapter, and directed that the rules therein laid 

 down should be " strictly observed in the case of every permission 

 granted to a European to hold land on lease for purposes of 

 cultivation." This Resolution provided that lands occupied by 

 Native cultivators by hereditary right should not be transferred 

 without their consent and that of "all parties possessing an 

 interest in the soil or in the rents.'' Lands could only be obtained 

 on lease for a period not exceeding twenty-one years. 



Meanwhile applications for grants of land, mainly in the Change in 

 Ootacamand settlement, began to flow in. Some of them were Mr^Ynshing- 

 disposed of by the Government in April 1831. In sanctioning^ ton's Govern, 

 these grants no mention is made of compensation to Todas, nor ^^^ ' 

 were the grants limited to a period of twenty-one years, but were, 

 " as at Madras, for an indefinite period." In fact the practice 

 in the Presidency appears to have been adhered to in all respects. 

 The quit-rent fixed was Rupees 5| per cawnie *' to be assessed 

 uniformly on all lands on the Nilagiris, whether within or with- 

 out the cantonment."^ The Government justified its departure 

 from the instructions of the Court of Directors by alleging that 

 those instructions referred exclusively to large tracts of land 

 rented by indigo planters and others for agricultural purposes, and 

 could not be held to apply " to the erection of dwelling-houses on 

 small plots of ground at a place where, from local circumstances, 

 the acquisition of very considerable landed property is almost 

 impossible." The claims of the Todas to any compensation, 

 though so emphatically asserted in 1828, were now forgotten. East 

 Indian settlers received grants of waste land according to the 

 extent of their capital, beyond the limits of the cantonment, 

 without any mention of paying assessment to Government. 



Meanwhile, however, settlers continued to purchase lands from Settlers 

 the Todas. These transactions are recounted in a letter from the f^ontinue to 



purchase 

 — from Tddas. 



1 19th April 1831. 



» E. M. C, 8th November 1831. 



