272 THE SURVEY QUESTION. 



the native land-holders want to bring under the new system.'' 



The questions which will naturally occur to any one on 

 comparing these recommendations are : — 



Will not the argument about the communal system, which 

 is said to be a reason for not carrying out a cadastral survey, 

 apply to the proposal to survey separate holdings and issue 

 separate titles for them under the Torrens system ? 



Suppose that the number of land-holders who apply to 

 have their lands surveyed and their titles registered be very 

 large and constantly increasing, will not the Govern- 

 ment be compelled to carry out what would in effect be a 

 cadastral survey ? 



It cannot be readily admitted that there are any real 

 grounds for the fear expressed that the system of revenue- 

 settlement by villages would be prejudiced by a field to field 

 survey. In British India, the experience is the contrary. It 

 must not for a moment be supposed that the lambardari 

 settlement is abandoned and a raiyat-wari settlement intro- 

 duced as a consequence of cadastral survey. 



The expense of isolated surveys of holdings, to be carried 

 out from time to time, according to demands, by surveyors 

 stationed here and there throughout the country, would be 

 fatal to the success of any voluntary scheme for the introduc- 

 tion of registration of title, and how such isolated surveys 

 are ever to fit together as one compact and accurate map, 

 M. Camouilly does not explain. He had forgotten, per- 

 haps, that in Australia, where he saw and admired the Torrens 

 system, the survey of a whole tract before the alienation of 

 any part of it is the rule. 



I have to express to the author, whose work I have translat- 

 ed, and to the Societe des E tudes- Indo-Chinoises de Saigon^ 

 my hope that they will pardon me for having taken for grant- 

 ed their permission to reproduce here this interesting paper 

 on an important subject. If I do not agree with M. CAMO- 

 UILLY, being myself an advocate of a good cadastral survey 

 as a help to good administration, and being sceptical as to 

 the existence of difficulties which have been overcome in 

 British India, I am able at all events to place his views before 

 those in this Colony whose opinions may more nearly coin- 

 cide with his than with mine. 



W. E. MAXWELL. 



