1839] 



On the Statistics of DuJchun. 



435 



evils, and, unless to the most praclised, patient, and persevering in- 

 vestigator, ju-esent an inextricable mass of confusion. The evils 

 are, that a cultivator, be he lettered or not, cannot by possibility know 

 what be will have to pay the ensuing or even the present year, because 

 fixed sums, payable by the village, are divisible amongst a varying num- 

 ber of cultivators. Even if fixed sums were divisible amongst a fixed 

 number of cultivators, the limited progress in arithmetic of the poor 

 people would utterly disable them from determining their respective 

 fractional shares ; for instance, of '1 rupees for skins and shoes, 1 rupee 

 for beil,a 4| for ghee, and I for leaf plates, &c. &c. In the whole 

 course of my personal inquiries amongst this class for more than six 

 years, I never met with one Koonbee who could or would give me a 

 detail of his assessments or their amount ; the constant reply was, 



The Koolkurnee knows." This very uncertainty of their means and 

 liabilities makes men improvident and careless. 



The next evil is, that the Koolkurnee, in apportioning the fixed sums, 

 and the Seerusteh Bulta, the commutation money for grain, for ghee, 

 sugar, pumpkins, &c. &c. is assured of impunity in defrauding the cul- 

 tivators, from their want of ability in their accounts, even if they were 

 aware of the value and amount of the cesses and the number of persons 

 they were to hear upon. It is almost waste of labour to give the cultiva- 

 tor a note from government of what he will have to pay, as in nine 

 instances out of ten he cannot read it ; his expounder is the Koolkurnee, 

 or the Koolkurnee's relations, and they read it agreeably to their own 

 calculations. 



The above is an exposition of the assessments as they now bear on 

 the land, which produces 82-30 per cent, of the whole revenue. The 

 remaining portions of the revenue, Avhich appear in vilhige papers are 

 usually classed under the term Sahyer, and are in fact taxes. The two 

 principal heads of Sahyer are Mohturfa, properly " Arhan," or taxes on 

 shops, houses, and professions ; and Ballooteh. 



Operation of Sahyer Tai'es. — An idea of the operation of these taxes 

 will be formed by the following details from Wangee, Pergunnah Wan- 

 gee. 



Wanees, or sellers of grain and groceries, from 4 to 6 rupees 



a shop ; oilman, for one oil-mill in work 6 rupees. 



Weavers, per loom 3 do. 



Other tradesmen pay proportional taxes. The threshold tax is called 



a Beit, " a present." 



