1839.] Report on the District oj Azimgurh. 123 



•v 

 had depressed the Indigo market, and the cultivation of Opium even 

 now is less extended than it might be. 



116th. The chief labor of the settlement consisted in the difficulty 

 of deciding the numerous boundary disputes, and fixing the relations 

 between the proprietors amongst themselves, or the proprietors on one 

 hand, and the numerous subordinate tenants on the other. The whole 

 area of 2,121 square miles is parcelled out into 5,541 villages, which 

 gives an average of less than 245 acres to each village. When we 

 advert to the former state of this district, and the rapidity with which 

 it has been in our hands, it is not surprizing that numerous disputes 

 should exist between the different villages. The adjudication of these 

 had never yet been attempted on any uniform plan, and it was a task 

 of no small difficulty, in many cases, to reconcile or give effect to the 

 different decisions which had been formerly given; voluntary arbitra- 

 tion between the parties was the means generally employed for deter- 

 mining the boundary, but where the parties would not arbitrate of 

 their own accord, persons were appointed by lot, under the established 

 mode, to settle the dispute. 



117th. I cannot say that I contemplate with satisfaction the mode 

 in which this duty has been performed. Too much was left to private 

 arbitration, and the awards thus given were too strictly followed. The 

 venality of the arbitrators became at length notorious, and there were 

 some, who were known to have amassed large sums in this method. 

 When the work was nearly completed, all persons were convinced 

 that the preferable method was to refer as little as possible to ar- 

 bitration, and in the cases which were so decided, to tie down the 

 arbitrators within the narrowest limits, and to insist upon a prompt 

 decision in the immediate presence of the superintending officer. This 

 plan was pursued very successfully after the completion of the unsettled 

 portion of the district, in the permanently settled Pergunnah of Secun- 

 derpore. 



1 18th. Whatever may be the defects of these operations, it is how- 

 ever certain that the amount of good has been enormous, and quite 

 throws the other into the shade. Possession has been scrupulously 

 upheld, so that the main injustice which could ever be inflicted was to 

 transfer more or less of the cul tumble waste between two interjacent 

 villages to one or the other. To this waste it was seldom that any 

 title could be made good. By no other plan than that prescribed by 

 the system of settlement could these have been ever brought to adju- 

 dication. They have now been all decided, marked off, and a record 

 of the boundary formed both by native Ameens in a rough manner, 

 and by professional Surveyors, on scientific principles. It is scarcely 



