MANUAL OF THE NILAGIEI DISTRICT. 



CHAP. XIII, prices fixed by Lord Cannings drew special attention to the 



PART II. Nilagiris, mentioning an instance of 45 acres of land having 



REVENUE realized Rupees 1^310^ which, with the assessment on the descrip- 



HisToRY. tion sold, Rupees 2 per acre, with a twenty-five years' redemption 



right, gave a total value of Rupees 80 per acre, and urged that land 



which could fetch such a price could not reasonably be sold for 5 



shillings per acre. 



Changes in Since the promulgation of the "Waste Land Rules there have 



the rules and jjggjj g^ fg^ relaxations favouring the planting industry. In 1869 

 their causes. . ° , T . ° , , 



the depressed condition of the planting interests, and the rather 



general disapproval of the auction system by that interest, led to 

 the investigation of the matter. Much valuable information will 

 be found in the Revenue Board's Proceedings, 18th March 1870, 

 and the Government Proceedings, 22nd September 1876, Revenue 

 Department. Under the original rules an assessment of Rupees 2 

 for forest and Rupee 1 for grass land per acre was charged from 

 date of purchase, but in the order above quoted the assessment 

 on forest land was postponed to beginning of the sixth year, that 

 on grass land reduced to 8 annas per acre but levied from date of 

 purchase. These orders had retrospective effect. In making this 

 Auction concession the Government remark that they " fully recognise 



Rystem called ^j^g political and other incidental advantages to be derived from 

 III qucs ion. ^^ influx of Europeans and European capital into India, and they 

 would gladly give every reasonable encouragement to this move- 

 ment. It is true that the grant of land by Government entirely 

 free of tax would not make the cultivation of coffee, tea, or 

 cinchona a profitable speculation under certain circumstances ; 

 but any modification of the existing rules which would render 

 them more favourable to the planter could not fail, in some 

 degree, to assist him ; and it is impossible to deny that at 

 present the large majority of existing estates are in a languishing 

 condition, and that their proprietors have been brought to the 

 vero-e of ruin." The concession regarding forest land proceeded 

 on the assumption that a coffee estate would be in full bearing by 

 that time. The free period was extended to grass land taken up 

 for tea and fuel plantations in August 1874, the concession being 

 especially intended to encourage tea planting. 



When making these concessions the Government expressed an 

 opinion that " the sale of land on the Hills by auction under the 

 existing rules presents impediments to cultivation which it may 

 be desirable to remove." ''Many thousand acres of land " they 

 observed, " are still available with scarcely an applicant, and this 

 tends to show that precautions against land-jobbing may no longer 

 be needed. His Excellency in Council is therefore willing to con- 

 sider whether it may be possible to abrogate this system beyond 

 certain limits, say, three to five miles round the hill stations, 



