REVENUE SURVEYS. 119 



their being extended, if matters should be- found favourable, to 

 other permanently settled districts of the Lower Provinces of 

 Bengal. The result of the experiment, so far as the temper of the 

 people was concerned, had been in every way satisfactory. The land- 

 lords offered no opposition, as had been feared they might have done, 

 through their regarding the formal recording of the rights of the 

 tenants as a restriction of their proprietary rights. The tenants 

 did not object, as had been partly expected, to the measuring of 

 their fields, through apprehension of an increase of rents, though 

 it was also evident that they were still ignorant of the great 

 advantages accruing to them from the accurate record which was 

 being made of their holdings. Generally they were found to be 

 passively indifferent to the operations. The cost of the survey had 

 been at the total rate of Es. 269 per square mile, being Es. 140 for 

 survey proper and Es. 129 for writing and compiling the records. 

 These rates, however, were exceptionally high, owing to the opera- 

 tions being new, and several of the hands untrained. For the 

 ensuing season it was confidently expected that the cost would have 

 been reduced to less than Es. 200 per square mile, or below 5 annas 

 per acre. 



But so useful and important a measure was not destined to be 

 permanently abandoned, and the subject soon came to the front 

 again. The Government of India, on inquiry into all the circum- 

 stances, arrived at the same conclusion as that formed by the 

 Surveyor-General, that the experimental survey in Muzaffarpur had 

 really been a success and deserved to be extended.* And when the 

 matter came before Lord Cross, as Secretary of State, he accepted 

 this favourable opinion, and finally reversed the decision of Lord 

 Randolph Churchill as to the cost in the following terms : " I fully 

 " agree in your opinion, that if the work is undertaken at all the 

 " cost of the survey and of the subsequent maintenance of the 

 " village record must be kept within the narrowest possible limits 

 " of cost, as the expenses will have to be defrayed by the classes 

 " and localities concerned. "f 



There is therefore every prospect that this survey will be resumed 

 as soon as the people have recovered from the loss caused by the 

 scarcity of 1889. A beginning will thus be made with a proper 

 cadastral and statistical survey of the permanently settled districts 



* Sir E. Buck's letter to the Government of Bengal, dated 16th June 1888. 

 t Despatch to India, No. 66 (Revenue), dated 16th August 1888. 



