828 Memoir of Sylhet, Kachar, ^ adjacent Districts, [No. 104. 



On the other side it is answered, that the documents alluded to 

 cannot be relied on, and that even if they were worthy of more 

 credit than can be conceded to them, still it would seem a good 

 argument against a demand for increase of ** jumma," if the Talukdar 

 were to urge that the total quantity of land in his estate was put down 

 originally too small, either in consequence of " fraud, collusion, or 

 mistake." To this it has been rejoined, that there is of course no 

 intention to deny the validity of such an objection in every case 

 when it shall be satisfactorily established by evidence ; and the parties 

 seem thus to be at issue on the point, whether the revenue officers 

 having shown that there is an excess of land, it rests with the Talukdar 

 to prove that this excess was within his original boundary, or with the 

 government to go one step further, and shew by additional proof that it 

 was acquired from the waste. 



In the course of this inquiry some documentary evidence was 

 brought to light, calculated to facilitate the latter course of proceeding 

 very much. This was contained in certain records prepared soon after 

 the settlement, and shewing the boundaries, locality, and estimated 

 extent of the waste lands which had been reserved from the settle- 

 ment. These papers were very incomplete, and did not include the 

 whole of the wastes; but on a measurement of the lands indicated 

 by them, a very considerable quantity of cultivation was elicited, upon 

 which the claim for revenue was admitted, and a much larger quantity 

 on which it was nearly certain it could be established. I have had 

 no opportunity of learning the result of these inquiries, having been 

 removed from the district before they were completed. 



The revenue of Kachar was derived, at the time of its acquisition 

 by us, from a land tax levied at a rate much higher than that of 

 Sylhet, from customs levied on all the frontiers at most extravagant 

 rates, from a sort of excise taken at all Bazars, from monopolies 

 of every thing valuable in trade, as ivory, timber, &c. and from a house 

 tax on the inhabitants of the mountains. The first steps taken for the 

 reform of this department were, the abolition of all monopolies, the 

 removal of all prohibition on exports and imports, the abolition of 

 the excise, and the reduction of duties in the external trade. The 

 immediate results were, an increase of trade, the customs on which, 

 though levied at very reduced rates, yielded a far larger amount than 



