556 Mineral Resources of India. [No. 139. 



Mr. Farquhar to the Government. 



Hon'ble Sir and Gentlemen, — It is with the greatest reluctance I bring 

 myself to trouble you with a fresh application, but the many inconveni- 

 ences I foresee I should have to labour under in executing your orders of 

 the 20th February, if possessing no influence amongst the miners, oblige 

 me once more to request that you will be pleased to grant me the farm of 

 the duties on the Beerbhoom iron. And as this has no connection with 

 the farms of the land, and yields to Government only 766 Rupees a-year, 

 I flatter myself that you will not deem my request unreasonable. 



I beg, Gentlemen, that you will likewise please to order that I be fur- 

 nished with a letter of credit on the Burdwan Council, to the amount of 

 five or six thousand Rupees for carrying on the works. 



Calcutta, 28th April, 1778. 



The Council ordered the farm of the iron mahals to be made over to 

 Mr. Farquhar, but considered the advance unnecessary, as their orders 

 of the 20th February, related to the experimental casting of four guns, 

 which they now revoked. 



Farquhar went down into Beerbhoom, and soon found his shrewd- 

 ness sufficiently tasked by the natives, with regard to the settlements 

 he was expected to make with the Zemindars. 



Mr. Farquhar to Mr. Marriott and the Council of Burdwan. 



Gentlemen, — I beg leave to trouble you for a few minutes on the sub- 

 ject of my farm of the iron mahals of Beerbhoom. 



On my arrival here, I found that the rents had been raised the year be- 

 fore from 766 Rupees to 3,262 Rupees ; at the same time it appeared by the 

 papers of the Aurungs, that the whole collections did not amount nearly 

 to that sum. I found likewise that the same person held the farm of the 

 iron mahal and of the Noony pergunnah, and that at the very time when 

 this increase was made on the mahals, he got an abatement of 4,471 Ru- 

 pees on the pergunnah, by which he was in fact a gainer of 1,975 Rupees 

 a-year. 



The reason of this voluntary increase on the mahals was not difficult to 

 discover. By this means the farmer imagined he had secured to himself 

 the constant possession of them, as the people at the Aurungs were sensi- 

 ble that the sum collected was much less than this nominal jumma. 



The Malgoozaree of Belputtah is estimated at 131 Rupees, on the sup- 

 position of there being sixteen saals, (furnaces,) but in reality there are 



