OBSERVATIONS ON IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA. 



159 



but tlie coolies, who promptly removed the wheels, found them 

 heavy and inconvenient to carry on their heads, so the 

 •experiment has not ijeen repeated. 



Iteturning to the stage following the completion of the canal, 

 the next thing is to dispose of the water, and an elaborate 

 organisation is necessary. To begin with, the system of larmers 

 occupying some r)0 to 1,000 acres, tlie buildings requisite for 

 which have been supplied by the landholder, is unknown in 

 India. The land is occupied in small plots of from 2 to say 

 10 acres by cultivators {ryots is the usual name for them) who 

 have built and own all the buildings on the land. The land in 

 Bengal and Upper India is the property of a landlord, whilst in 

 JBombay and South India it usually belongs to the State. 

 Under any circumstances the cultivator pays rent to the land- 

 holder, and usually cannot be evicted so long as the rent is paid. 

 In many cases the rent cannot be raised except at stated intervals, 

 and then only if the yearly value of the land has been increased 

 by some agency other than the labour of the cultivator. I 

 liave spoken of landlords, but it is necessary to say that in 

 India, broadly speaking, the State is the sole landlord, the so- 

 called private landlords {zemindars) having the right only to a 

 ^hare of the rent. This share has in some cases been per- 

 manently settled, and in other cases for a term of years, usually 

 thirty. Where the settlement is for a term of years, the State 

 usually receives half the rent paid by the cultivators to the 

 zemindar, but wliere the settlement is permanent the share, 

 which was originally 90 cent., has grown,* till in 189)) it was 

 found that for four districts in Behar, the government out of a 

 rental of about 240 lacs of rupees received 34 lacs, and the 

 zemindar retained the remainder. The assessment under which 

 Government received -^-^ of the rents paid by the cultivators, 

 erred probably on the side of excess, though the zem indars had 

 their homestead land and all waste or common land revenue 

 free. It cannot be said that the share Government now 

 receives errs on the side of excess, indeed the complaint made 

 by those provinces in which the permanent settlen:ient does not 

 -exist is that Bengal does not pay its fair share of the general 

 expenses of the Indian Empire. I have no personal acquaint- 

 ance with these parts of the country, Bombay and JNIadras, 

 where the Government deals directly with the cultivator, but 

 the settlements are in such cases always, I believe, for a term 

 ^of years, and I gather that, though the rents imposed are not 



Supplement to the Calcutta Gazette for October 25th, 1893. 



