6oU MANUAL OF THE \ILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CHAP. XIII, enclosures shoiild be fixed at the ordinary rates^ Enpees 5i and 3^ 

 PART II. per cawnie. In regard to Mr. Sullivan^s proposal that lands 

 Bevekue occupied for agricultural purposes should be at the same rates as 

 History, the lands held by Badagas, they remarked that they held the 

 proportions just, " because were the assessment regulated so as 

 to exceed the rates of assessment paid by the Burghers, the occu- 

 pancy of new lands would be checked, or to avoid the higher 

 assessment new-comers would hold of the Burghers^ and thereby 

 defeat the object of the comparatively high assessment. Besides 

 it has been usual with Government to continue the rates of taxation 

 which have been established. In the populous and rich district 

 of Malabar the ancient light assessment has been preserved, 

 and the private rights in the waste land have been continued to 

 the proprietors. There seems no good reason, therefore, why the 

 advantages of the established rates of assessment should not be 

 secured to the scanty population of the Hills. ^^ 

 — determina- In their order of 25th July 1836 the Government accepted 

 Government ^^^' Sullivan^s proposals as regards agricultural lands in Ootaca- 

 mand and those at some distance therefrom_, but maintained the 

 ordinary rates, 5;^ and 3^ rupees, on lands enclosed for pui'poses 

 of building. The territorial limit of the agricultural lands paying 

 the enhanced rates was to be fixed by the Board with reference 

 to their accessibility to the market- This limit was shortly 

 afterwards fixed, on the Board's recommendation, roughly at 

 three miles radius from the centre of the station — the present 

 limits of the station, not municipal limits. Badagas already 

 cultivating within this limit were to be exempt. The limiting 

 line followed the extreme boundary of the Badaga villages 

 situated nearest to a circle of three miles from the centre of the 

 cantonment, and where there were no villages it ran through the 

 points nearest the circle best suited to be used as landmarks.^ 

 — subsequent In December following, it having been brought to the notice 

 mo 1 cations. ^£ Government that the rates of assessment fixed for house 

 enclosures pressed heavily on the house-proprietors of Ootaca- 

 mand, they determined to maintain the highest rate, Eupees 5f , 

 for the cawnie of land which constituted the site of the house. The 

 remainder was ordered to be assessed at the rate in force on fourth- 

 class lands, viz.. Rupees 1-2-4 per cawnie, At the beginning of 

 the following year (1837) it was decided to raise the assessment 

 on lands of the second class taken up for agricultural purposes 

 within the cantonment by three-fourths instead of one-third the 

 ordinary assessment, so that the gradation in the assessment 

 might be more regular. 



' The exact limits so fixed will be found in a memorandum by Mr. D. Elliott 

 in the Board's Proceedings, 18th August 1836. 



