THE SURVEY QUESTION IN COCHIN CHINA. 27o 



I. THE FEASIBILITY AND COST OF THE SURVEY. 



It is necessary, in the first place, to give a general des- 

 cription of the different operations which make up the 

 " cadastre/' 'for, as is usual in Cochin-China, the people who 

 talk the most about the allotment survey seem to be those 

 who are least well informed as to the circumstances under 

 which such a work is carried out and maintained. 



Nature of survey operations. — A survey, of the nature 

 of that which has been undertaken in France, has for its 

 object the ascertaining of the area of holdings and the sum 

 to be levied thereon by way of revenue. 



The plans and areas are consequently made out for 

 individual holdings having regard either to difference of 

 proprietorship or the nature of the cultivation. The plans 

 have to be preceded, — 



ist. By the definition of the boundaries, of the "com- 

 munes," a work a great portion of which has already 

 been carried out in the Colony, but being mapped 

 on a scale of T o^oo-- * s useless for the purposes of 

 the cadastral survey. 

 2nd. By triangulation, the purpose of which is to fix 

 with precision certain points selected at convenient 

 distances one from the other, to which the details 

 of the survey are thenceforth referred. 

 The revenue survey is effected with the assistance of 

 " indicateurs " and with the concurrence of the proprietors 

 on whom the surveyors serve notices showing in each indi- 

 vidual case the position and area of all the lots belonging to 

 each of them, whether contiguous or scattered here and there 

 in the commune. 



The areas of these lots are afterwards computed and a 

 list is then prepared describing the proprietors and the hold- 

 ings. 



Commissioners charged with classifying the different kinds 

 of lands proceed then to assess the revenue which is to be 

 leviable on each lot. This is a matter of valuation. 



I leave unnoticed the subsequent stages, viz. : — the verifica- 



