March i, 1892.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
651 
view. His obligations to existing literature have been 
freely acknowledged in the cunrse of the papers, and 
it would afford him unalloyed satisfaction it some 
better qualified nerson 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 he known or estimated as it probably 
will never be discharged. 
In India irrigation of some kind, probably in the 
first instance from inundation canals, autedatca history, 
though it was not until the thirteenth and fonrteeth 
centuries that any works pointing to the perennial canals 
of today appear to have been attempted. There are 
remains of largo disused atorages 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 litt'e well, remains the 
chief sources of native supply outside the domain of the 
Government schemea. Millions of seres have been, and 
are, irrigate! annually from them by the simplest 
means. It is to these, and not to the Mubal canals, or 
the tanks built by Muhammad m mouarche, that the 
people have trusted for cen.uries. Almost every 
field had its own separate supply, the task of 
scenting and utilising it forming the chief concern 
of the ryot, and the title tn its possession being more 
unporiaut because nececsarilyimpiying that to the land 
*bich it made fruitful. The cuttle required to draw 
ator from the deeper wells form on tbisaccouut a chief 
cmeiit of the farmer's wealth, and their capital value 
. ? assisted in certain districts to make a distinction 
the proprietor "iid his labourers. The whole 
avor"** 83 stem, “ud in some degree the social 
h t? ' Psrts of India have been greatly modified 
y ® practice of irrigation, but in ways which have 
otbing to teach us. The solitary inference to be drawn 
‘■■om a glance at the Hindu experience is that similar 
results are oertaiu to follow in Australia, whore new 
principles of ownership and fresh legislation recognising 
a property in water is inevitable. It would be well it 
they were introduced at once, before more vested in- 
teroata are created. 
How widely the position of the farmer under the 
Victorian Irrigation Act varies from that of the 
Indian ryot under an irrigation canal should scarcely 
oeed further exposition- The ryot has no reepon- 
"ibility except to pay for the water when he gets it, 
and even then may obtain a partial or complete re- 
mission if his cri p fail. This rosy si-cm an ideal 
'onditicn to the resident in the Gouibnrn Valley, 
“""I bo remembered that this immnnity from 
,11 ’®.Part of a system, and is purchased hy serious 
^'“qualifications of ancther kind. This Victorian 
^armer within a trust area is respoiiable, not only for 
•ho may purchase, but for his proportion of 
and between the sum obtained from sales 
dpon "mount necessary to pay 41 per cent, interest 
national v®"*' ®I scheme, and of the 
for Work "'’'*'’ ““J’ 'vl'mli feeds it, after providing 
this is th expenses. What he gets in return fnr 
in the fi. of voting for or against a scheme 
meet his shaping it afterwards ‘o 
of managing present neeossilies with the riglit 
justice foe 5 ** economicftlly and so ss to insure 
i’inallv if those who live near him. 
ohlicailV,.. his sinking lund long enough, the 
extincui.i, V**®® I'm lat'd for interest will be entirely 
propeff. , '.and 'he whole scheme will become the 
levies to “ .children who will bo liable only for 
criticism wi"* u 'voe't'ng expenses. Tim means of 
not as a tr t enjej' attaches to him, it is true, 
communitv '"v af " citizen of a free 
make his ce't- ** ®* would not have the p wer to 
constituenev'*'-!.''™ effective, as the mere unit of one 
ansthiuc lit« tn branch of the Legislaluic, in 
titnent of a on n degree that he enjoja as thocons- 
can ho dirietiv*** oody in which his personal icflacnce 
fail to he mnr exercised. Lr-cal control can aoaroely 
control from “ effective, aa well as cheaper, than 
The irriBBtion *’!' political agencies 
expenditure oI the British GovGru*- 
ment may be viewed in several ways. Thus, regard- 
ing works which are almost wholly new, the figures 
would run 
Ajmere 
Bombay 
Bind 
Bengal 
North-west 
Madras 
Punjab 
Expenditure. 
£100,000 
2,600,000 
1,180,000 
6,000,000 
8,000,(X)0 
5,300,000 
0,500,000 
Acres irrigated 
annually. 
36.000 
85.000 
160,000 
550,000 
2,000,0110 
2,400,000 
3,000,000 
The fact that native works have been more largely 
utilised in Madras than elsewhere partly explaina the 
relative cheapness of its schemes. Roughly it may 
be concluded that British canals have cost £4 per acre 
irrigated and pay 3J per cent, on the outlay. Adding 
native canals utilised in Governmeno schemes the 
table would be iiioreased by— Burmah, 200,000a ; Sind, 
an extra 1 , 000 . 000 a. j and Madras another 2,600 000a 
making about 13,000,000s. for £33,000,000, 3 iolding 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,COO,OOtla. watered, reckoning twice cropped land 
twice, fo that in reality the actual surface onltivatod 
18 considerably less. To this total has to be added the 
immense extent of country everywhere, but especially 
m tbe uoKth'West and in ATftdrafi, Bupplied from well, 
and tanka 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 
than double the land irrigated from the canals of tbe 
British Govtrnment. There are therelore over 
EO.OOO OOOa. watered every year within the Empire, 
with a constant tendency to increase the arose 
Nowadays this increase is limited by the fact that 
almost all the acoessible supplies have been utilised, 
and, as in tlie Punjali, largo schemes are required 
to command new territory. Neitlier in Bombay nor 
in Bengal does irrigation pay the State, but major 
works pay 6 per cent, in the Punjab and in the north- 
west, 7 percent, in Madras and 12 per cent in Sind. 
Hindu everywhere, for without it some 
millions could not live at all, and some millions would 
be decimated by famine every few years. Reckoning 
its influence upon the railways, commerce and good 
government of the country, its value is simply ines- 
timahle. 
The State in India means the Government in a deeper 
sense than in Australia, for in that country tbo citizens 
are unable to mould the Government to their wishes, 
having practically no political opinions, snd no 
po'itical privileges whatever. Instead of projects 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 same responaibility for interest 
upon the capital expanded in providing him with an 
artificial water supply, is never consulted in anv way 
or at any stage in the coiistruotion. Onvernment 
initiates, desians and executes the work, offering him 
the water if he likes to take it, and relying only upon 
his scK interest to induce him to become a purchaser. 
In the Panjab a system of oomiiulsory labor prevails, 
and in Ooylon the sanction of the natives concerned is 
required before Governtuoiit advances are made, but 
in each case this has regard to minor works, in which 
the State is little more than a sleeping partner. Upon 
all “ major" schemes the Government acts upon its 
own motion, at its own responsibility, and acknow- 
ledges no tit'e in those who me the water to criticise 
its proposals. In an equally peremptory way it ignores 
riparian rights, or makes but small oompensstion for 
actual injury doue or laud taken ; not that this 
involves injnstice, but because the tenure of land is 
less absolute, and the property affected far less valu- 
able than in Australia. The advantages of a despotic rule 
ate exhibited in such cases as these, where the officers 
of the department are perfectly free to choose tho 
best scheme possible, and to execute it without 
regard to the individnal wishes of interests of their 
