March i, 1892.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
651 
view. His obligations to existing literature have been 
freely acknowledged in the couree of the papers, and 
it would afford him unalloyed satisfaction if some 
better quahfied person would devote to the irrigation 
of India the prolonged investigation and expert ex- 
position which it deserves. The debt of obligation 
which the country is under to the British Government, 
and the British Government to its engineers, will 
otherwise never be known or estimated aa it probably 
will never be disohargeii. 
In India irrigation of some kind, probably in the 
first instance from inundation canals, antedates history, 
though it was not until the thirteenth and fourteeth 
centuries that any works pointing to the perennial canals 
of today appear to have been attempted. There are 
remains of large disused storages in all parts, and some 
still in operation are of great age, but the watering 
from these has never been relatively extensive. The 
primitive rain-filled tank, or little well, remains the 
chief souroes of native supply outside the domain of the 
Government schemes. Millions of ceres have betu, and 
are, irrigated aDunally from them by the simplest 
means. It is to these, and not to the Muhal canals, or 
the tanks built by Muhammad:in monarcha, that the 
people have trusted for centuries. Almost every 
field had its own separate supply, the taek of 
securing and utilising it forming the chief concern 
of the ryot, and the title to its possession beiHg more 
important because neceesarilyimplying that to the land 
which it made fruitful. The cattle required to draw 
water from the deeper wells formou this account a chief 
element of the farmer's wealth, and their capital value 
has assisted in certain districts to make a distinction 
between the proprietor und his labourers. The whole 
agricultural system, and in some degree the social 
system, of psrts of India have been greatly modified 
by the practice of irrigation, but in ways which have 
nothing to teach us. The solitary inference to be drawn 
from a glance at the Hindu experience is that similar 
results are certain to follow in Australia, where new 
principles of ownership and fresh legislation recognising 
a property in water is inevitable. It would be well if 
they were introduced at ouce, before more vested in- 
terests are created. 
How widely tho position of the farmer under the 
Victorian Irrigation Act varies from that of the 
Indian ryot under an irrigation canal should scarcely 
need further exposition. The ryot has no respon- 
sibility except to pay for the water when he gets it, 
and even then may obtain a partial or complete re- 
mission if his cn p fail. This may seem an ideal 
couditirn to the resident in the Goulbur/i Valley, 
but it must be remembered that this immunity from 
risk is part of a system, and is purchased by serious 
diaqualifications of another kind. This Victorian 
farmer within a trust area is responable, not only for 
the water he may pnrchfise, but for his proportion of 
the difference between the enm obtained from sales 
and the amount necessary to pay 4J percent, interest 
upon the capital cost of his scheme, »nd of the 
national work, if any, which feeds it, after providing 
for working expenses. What he gets in return for 
this is the power of voting for or against a scheme 
in the first instance, and of shttping it iifterwards 'o 
meet his view of prei-ent neci-t-sities with the ri(iht 
of managing it economically and so as to insure 
justice for himself and iho»() who live near him. 
J<'inally, if he pays his sinkir g fund long enough, the 
otiligation upon his land for int' rest will be entirely 
extinguished, and 'he whole scheme will become %he 
property of his children who will be )i.<\ble only for 
levies to meet it-" woiking expenses. TIih means of 
criticism which he enjoys attaches to him, it is true, 
not as a trust membor, but 3k n citizen of a free 
community. Yet he would not have the p wer to 
make bis critici^ui effective, as the mero unit of one 
constituency for enoh branch of the Legiels'ure, in 
anything like the degree that he enjojs as the cons- 
tituent of a small body in which his perponal influence 
can be ilin ctly exeroieed. Local control can scarcely 
I'nil to bo mort.' effective, as well as cheaper, than 
control from a distant capital by political agencies 
The irrigation expendituro of the British Qovern- 
ment may be viewed in several ways. Thus, regard- 
ing works which are almost wholly new, the figures 
would run ; — 
Acres irrigated 
— Expenditure. annually. 
A:mere ... £160,000 36,000 
Bombay ... 2,500,000 85 COO 
Sind ... 1,180.000 15o;00O 
bengal ... 6,000,000 550 000 
North-west ... 8,000,000 2,00o'oil0 
Madras ... .'j,30O,0GO 2 400000 
Punjab ... 0,500,000 S^OOoiooO 
The fact that native works have been more largely 
utilised in Madras than elsewhere partly explains the 
relative cheapness of its schemes. Roughly it may 
be concluded that British canals have cost £4 per acre 
irrigated and pay 3^ per cent, on the outlay. Adding 
native canals utilised in Governmene schemes the 
table would he increased by— Burmah, 200,0008 ; Sind 
an extra 1,000, 000a.; and Madras another 2 500 000a' 
making about 13,000,000a. for £33,000,000, j iclding 4 
per cent, net revenue. In the course of a few years the 
totals will have risen to about £35,000,000 outlay for 
15,000,000a. watered, reckoning twice cropped land 
twice, 80 that m reality the actual surface cultivated 
18 considerably less. To this total has to be added the 
immense extent of country everywhere, but especially 
in the north-west and in Madras, supplied from well 
and tanks by the Hindus themselves, and also the 
totals of the independent states, including Government 
and private schemes. There is no absolutely trustworthy 
record of these, but it is safe to say that they more 
tcan double the land irrigated from the canals of the 
British Government. There are therefore over 
S0,000,000a. watered every year within the Empire, 
with a constant tendency to increase the areas 
Nowadays this increase is limited by the fact that 
almost all the accessible supplies have been utilised, 
and, as in the Punjab, large schemes are required' 
to command new territory. Neither in Bombay nor 
in Bengal does irrigation pay the State, but major 
works pay 5 per cent, in the Punjab and in the north- 
west, 7 percent, in Madras and 12 per cent in Sind 
It pays the Hindu everywhere, for without it some 
millions could not live at all, and some millions would 
be decimated by famine every few years. Keckoninff 
its influence upon the railways, commerce and good 
government of the country, its value is simply ines- 
timable. 
The State in India means the Government in a deeper 
sense than in Australia, for in that country the citizens 
are unable to mould the Government to their wishes 
having practically no political opinions, and no 
po'itical privileges whatever. Instead of projecta for 
the watering of a special area originating with the 
farmers, as in Victoria, and being subject to their 
specific approval, the Indian ryot, although in most 
cases he bears the s&me responsibility for interest 
upon the capital expended in providing him with an 
artificial water supply, is never consulted in anv way 
or at any stage in the consti notion. Government 
initiates, designs and executes the work, offering him 
the water if he likes to take it, and relying only upon 
his self-interept to induce him to become a purchaser. 
In the Pan jab a system of compulsory labor prevails' 
and in Oeylon the sanction of the natives concerned is 
required before Government advances are made, but 
in each case this has regard to minor works, in w'hioh 
the State is little more than a sleeping partner. Upon 
all " major" schemes the Government acts upon its 
own motion, at its own rcsponsit'ility, and acknow- 
ledges no tit'e in those who use the wafer to criticise 
its proposals. In an equally peremptory way it ignores 
riparian rights, or makes but small compensation for 
actual injury done or land token ; not that this 
involves injustice, but bcop.use the tenure of land is 
less al'solute. and the property affected tar less valu- 
able than in Australia. The advantages of a despotic rule 
are exhibited in such cases as those, where the officers 
of the dopartmeiit are perfectly free to choose the 
best scheme possible, and to execute it without 
regard to the individual wishes of interests of their 
