126 Report on the District of Azimgurh. [Feb. 



first attempted to make settlements, and obtained his experience. The 

 results, as might be expected, were very incongruous. In 1833-4-5 all 

 these operations were recast on the model adopted on Reg. ix, 1833. 

 The professional survey was conducted by Capt. Simmonds, whilst 

 the field measurement, where it had not been already completed, was 

 conducted by the revenue authorities. One great evil of this was, that 

 the revenue survey, especially on its first commencement in 1833-4, 

 was far from correct. The interior survey, especially, was often consi- 

 derably in excess of the truth, as is al ways likely to be the case, when 

 it is not checked by the native field measurements. The culturable 

 land was also given considerably in excess, from an opinion held by the 

 surveyor, that all the land which would produce any thing whatever 

 should be classed under this head. 



128th. In estimating the settlement, advertence must always be 

 had to the mode in which the "general statement in acres" was from 

 necessity drawn out, and the averages there exhibited. 



129th. The cultivated area was always taken from the measure- 

 ment on which the settlement was formed. This was frequently 

 many years previous to the professional survey, and exhibited a much 

 smaller cultivated area than was found to exist at the time the settle- 

 ment was prolonged for the extended period from 1241 to 1262. The 

 prolongation of the settlement was partly thus determined on consider- 

 ations, which, although they may have influenced the first settlement, 

 were not the foundation of it. The total of the cultivated area there 

 exhibited in the general statement is considerably less than the sur- 

 vey gives, and also below the fact. This of course makes the average 

 rate of assessment higher than it would otherwise have been. The 

 total area was necessarily taken from the survey returns, which were 

 undoubtedly under this head correct. 



130th. The diversity of plan and of persons who had conducted the 

 operations in this Pergunnah, produced its natural effect in great in- 

 equality of assessment. In the remarks I have made on the errors of 

 inexperienced officers, I by no means except myself from the number. 

 On first joining the district in 1833, with no previous revenue expe- 

 rience, I found the Pergunnah distracted, and almost ruined by the 

 mal-administration of the preceding ten years. Large balances accrued 

 annually, not from over-assessment, but from unadjusted rights and 

 disputed claims. Affrays frequently occurred, from ill-defined bounda- 

 ries. There were numerous unadjusted claims, and every thing point- 

 ed out a state of considerable disorganization. It became an object of 

 great importance to terminate this state of things as soon as possible. 

 At the close of the year the revenue survey commenced, and did 



