100 



V. 

 REVENUE SURVEYS. 



The Revenue Surveys of India form the principal basis on which 

 the whole fiscal administration of the country rests. In India the 

 Government is the chief landowner, hence the determination of the 

 area of the fields of the cultivators or of the zemindars,* with whom, 

 as the case may be, the Government " settlement " is made, is a 

 matter of prime necessity to the State. The ideal survey, as truly 

 remarked in the " Memoir on the Indian Surveys," while furnishing 

 complete information for settlement purposes, should be executed 

 throughout on accurate principles and supply at the same time 

 materials for compiling trustworthy maps for general use. A good 

 revenue survey should also supply such agricultural statistics as will 

 give a statesman knowledge to enable him to improve the condition 

 of the people, to increase their means of subsistence, to avert 

 famines, to add to the wealth of the country, and adjust taxation. 



Although revenue surveys have been conducted on different 

 principles in various provinces of India, the introduction and 

 spread during the last IS years of the cadastralf system indicates 

 that the advantages of the best and most accurate principles 

 of surveying, as understood by the chief Continental nations, are 

 recognised more and more in India. The chapters in the 

 •'Memoir" have dealt with the development of the older system 

 and the inauguration of the cadastral method up to the period 

 just preceding the amalgamation of the three branches of the 

 Indian Survey. 



In 1876—77 the Revenue Surveys were conducted under the 

 general supervision of General D. C. Vanrenen, Superintendent, 

 by 14 parties, which were thus distributed, viz., two in the Punjab, 



* Landowners. 



t More than one derivation lias been assigned to the word cadastral. The 

 " Dictionnaire des Dictionnaires " derives it from the mediaeval Latin word capitastrum, 

 but the " Rccueil des Lois et Instructions sur les contributions directes " defines it as 

 a plan (probably from earlier, to square) from which the area of land may be computed, 

 and from which its revenue may be valued. 



