REVENUE SURVEYS. 103 



scarcely a fair criterion. It may be observed, however, that even 

 these rates are almost identical with the average rate of the cadastral 

 surveys under the Madras Government which averaged Rs. 162 

 during the nine years 1864 to 1872. 



The relative intrinsic value of the three classes of survey. 



Comparing the foregoing processes, it is seen that the rates in 

 1878 were Es. 22 for the topographical 1-inch, Us. 53 for the 

 village or mouzawar 4-inch, and Rs. 165 for the cadastral 16-inch 

 survey. For a cheap and fairly accurate first survey of India the 

 first-named is best, and as a basis for the engraved general Atlas of 

 India nothing could be more admirable. The muzawar or village 

 survey affords a careful record of the village boundaries and a valuable 

 check on the field measurements by the amins. But the cadastral 

 survey, though it costs about three times as much as the second 

 and seven and a half times as much as the first, has been pronounced 

 by the Surveyor-General to be the cheapest of all considering the 

 amount of information it gives. In the above rates the cost of 

 publication was not included, and as this was so seriously heavy in 

 the case of the cadastral surveys, a special branch, at a cost of 

 Rs. 30,000 per annum, was added to the Photo-zincographic Office 

 to meet the requirements of the 16-inch North-West Provinces 

 surveys. In Bengal, on the other hand' (where extensive tracts of 

 country had been brought under irrigation by the Soane and other 

 canals, necessitating fresh surveys for water assessment purposes), 

 the fields were found to be generally so much smaller than in the 

 North- West that it was necessary to increase the scale in some 

 districts to 32 inches to the mile, a step which involved the 

 production of four times as many maps for a given area as in the 

 North-West Provinces, and an addition of Rs. 20 per square 

 miles to the cost. In the Government estate of Khurdah, in the 

 province of Orissa, the average size of the fields first surveyed was 

 even smaller thau in the Soane irrigation tracts, or only one- 

 seventh of an acre. This and other causes raised the cost of 

 settlement and surveying together to an amount equal to about 

 six years' accumulation of revenue. 



In 1877-78 the number of revenue parties was reduced to 11 full 

 strength and two small parties, who worked in the following 

 provinces, two muzawar parties in the Punjab, four cadastral in the 



