The total number of schools was 461 with a daily attendance of 25,280. The expenditure on education was Rs. 31 lakhs. 3. SAVANUR (DHARWAR AGENCY) Meherban Abdul Majidkhan Ruling Chief Captain (Honorary) Meherban Abdul The population of the State consists mostly of agriculturists. The rainfall was sufficient. Paddy crops were exceptionally good. The price of the fodder was lower than in the last year. The labouring classes were well-off as they got sufficient work and wages in gardens and fields. The stock of fodder was sufficient and the supply of drinking water was adequate. The total expenditure amounted to Rs. 24 lakhs, the principal. items being Police Rs. 9,400 (the total strength of the police force: being 48); Prisons Rs. 1,800; Public Works Rs. 40,000 and Medical Relief Rs. 3,300. The total number of schools was 14 and the expenditure Rs. 13,100. VII. Sind KHAIRPUR Ruling Prince with a salute of 15 guns and, within State limits, of 17 gunsHis Highness Mir Ali Nawaz Khan Talpur, Mir of Khairpur; Residence— Kot-Diji; Tribe and religion-Talpur, Baluch, Musulman; Age-41; Educated-Aitchison Chiefs' College, Lahore. Area-6,050 square miles; Population (1921)—193,152; Gross revenue based on five years' average-Rs. 28,70,292; Military force according to the re-organisation scheme-352; Principal articles of productionFuller's earth, carbonate of soda, cotton, wool, ghee, hides, tobacco and indigo; Manufactures-Cloth, leather, ivory work, metal work, cutlery, cotton, silk and woollen goods, ivory, metal and lacquer wood work, glazed pottery and carpets. The season was fair. The total area under cultivation was 200,000. The total expenditure amounted to Rs. 291⁄2 lakhs, the principal items being Police Rs. 64,000 (the total strength of the police force being 259); Prisons Rs. 14,000; Public Works about Rs. 3 lakhs and Medical Relief Rs. 36,000. The total number of schools was 150 with an average daily attendance of 4,761.91. VIII. Aden Area (including Perim)-80 square miles; Population (1921)—56,500; Gross revenue based on five years' average-Rs. 1,27,56,701. The Political Resident at Aden administers the Settlement of Aden and the Island of Perim. The Settlement of Aden comprises the following divisions: (1) The Peninsula and Isthmus or Aden proper, (2) Sheikh Othman and (3) Little Aden. Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Scott, K.C.B., C.I.E., D.S.O., held charge of the Residency from 1st April to 28th May 1924, and again from 14th September 1924 to 18th February 1925. Major C. C. J. Barrett, C.S.I., C.I.E., acted as Resident from 29th May to 13th September 1924 and Major-General J. H. K. Stewart, C.B., D.S.O., from the 19th February to 31st March 1925. The total expenditure amounted to Rs. 903 lakhs, the principal items being Police Rs. 2 lakhs; Prisons Rs. 25,000 and Public Works Rs. 78,000. The total number of Government schools was 5 and the number of pupils 411. The number of private schools was 48 and the number of pupils 2,140. The total expenditure on education was Rs. 15,000. Condition of the People The year was, on the whole, favourable, and the rainfall was sufficient in almost all the States. The outturn of crops was good and the prices of staple food-grains were lower than those of last year, but high wages continued during the year. The fodder and water supply was adequate and the condition of the agricultural stock was good, though Rinderpest broke out in the Jawhar, Savanur and Dangs States. There was no serious epidemic during the year except that Plague, Cholera and Small-pox prevailed in a mild form in a few villages of the States of Kolhapur, Jawhar and Akalkot. The health of the people was generally good. CHAPTER II ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAND TH LAND RECORDS HE functions of the Land Records Department are to provide statistics necessary for sound administration in all matters connected with the land, to reduce, simplify and cheapen litigation in the Revenue and Civil Courts, to provide a Record of Rights for the protection of all who hold interests in land and lastly to simplify and cheapen periodical settlement operations. The Land Records staff consists of a Director of Land Records, who is also Settlement Commissioner, four Superintendents of Land Records, District Inspectors and Circle Inspectors. The function of the Director of Land Records has been limited to inspection and advice, and he has been expressly excluded from control over the district establishments, which are subordinated to the Collectors. A complete record of rights and interests in lands has been prepared for all unalienated villages throughout the Presidency and steps are being taken to prepare it for alienated villages also. The record has proved of very great value to the land revenue administration and to the public at large who were not slow in realising its importance as an authentic record of their titles. City surveys form an important part of land records. Such surveys have now been introduced in Bombay City and in most of the important cities and towns in the Presidency. The progress of this work is being maintained. Suitable arrangements have also been made for the maintenance of city survey records after completion. In Bombay a special office, viz., the Bombay City Survey and Land Records Office, does this work under the control of the Collector of Bombay. On account of the close connection which necessarily exists between the record of rights and the deed registration which is the business of the Registration Department, the offices of the Director of Land Records and Inspector General of Registration are placed under the control of one officer who holds both appointments. This officer also exercises general control over the work of the Photozincographic Press at Poona. REVENUE SURVEYS The following extract from a Government Resolution reviewing the last progress report of the Survey Commissioner in 1901 shows the nature and importance of the survey and the principles upon which Land Revenue assessment is based : 66 The value of the services rendered to the State by the Survey Department can hardly be exaggerated. At the time when the existing system was introduced, that is to say, about 60 years ago, Government were still confronted with the formidable problem of settling upon an equitable and workable basis the revenue demand for a vast number of small holdings. Several modes of settlement, based on pre-existing practice, had been tried, some of them, such as the Pringle settlement, had disastrously failed. Out of the prevailing confusion the principles of the existing system of survey settlement were evolved by the genius of Messrs. Wingate and Goldsmid, the authors of the celebrated Joint Report. Upon the principles laid down in that report has been founded a system of land tenure and assessment admirably adapted to the requirements of the widely varying conditions of the different parts of the Presidency. Under the system of measurement and classification by subordinate agency, subject to the test of technically trained and skilled supervising officers, methods were employed by which the area of every one of these small holdings could be measured, and the relative productive capacity of the soil estimated with scientific accuracy. By the system of grouping the relative economic and climatic advantages of different tracts were duly taken into account. In this manner the equitable distribution of the assessment was secured. The rates charged at the original settlement per acre of land occupied were in many instances extraordinarily low as compared with those previously levied. "But as anticipated by the framers of the system the effect of the fixed tenure and of a certain and moderate assessment was at once seen in a rapid expansion of cultivation, which even at the low rates of assessment sanctioned yielded a large increase of revenue. The extensive areas of waste land existing at the time when the system was introduced have been employed largely for the growth of crops valuable for export purposes. Despite the check occasioned by many bad seasons and several disastrous famines and notwithstanding the heavy burden of indebtedness with which the agricultural population was saddled from the first, the value of land and the prosperity of the country, and with them the revenue have steadily increased. When the first leases of 30 years expired, it was found possible to increase the assessment by very substantial amount; but the enhancements have, with rare exceptions, been borne without difficulty. "The Survey Department has cost the State from first to last many lakhs of rupees. But the outlay has been repaid over and over again. One peculiar merit of the system deserves mention. By the division of the whole culturable area into what may be called units of assessment, the extension of cultivation was made to carry with it an increase of revenue, while the revenue payer was placed in a position to ease his burden by giving up the occupation of lands unprofitable to him. The extensions of cultivation which have occurred have thus been profitable to the State no less than to the individual; whereas under a zemindari or kindred system, the State would have gained nothing however much cultivation had extended throughout the whole of 30 years' leases. "But it has not been only as a revenue producing instrument that the Survey Department has proved its usefulness. The system to which the valuation of soil has been reduced is in many respects unique, and has resulted in a record of that valuation complete for innumerable small parcels of land. Probably no other province or country is possessed of any similar record. Its chief and immediate value for administrative purposes is that it enables field operations to be entirely dispensed with in all future settlements. The change of assessment can be decided for a whole tract on a review of its economic condition and revenue history and the people are saved from all the uncertainty and harassment consequent upon enquiry into the circumstances of individual holdings. The greatest credit attaches to the founders of this system, which has stood the test of experience and practical application in the most satisfactory manner. Developments have been introduced, but in no particular have the principles, and in very few have even the individual rules and directions laid down in the Joint Report been widely departed from." Comparative valuations in the fertility of soils were expressed for convenience of handlings in parts of a rupee, 16 annas representing the valuation of a perfect field, from which deductions were made for faults, such as slope or irregularity of surface, excess of lime or moisture, or inferiority in the character of depth of the soil. This at least was the arrangement introduced under the joint rules. As time went on, experience showed the advisability of making allowances for advantages by making additions to the scale which carried the maximum above 16 annas. An example of this is the advantage that may be derived by land by the deposit on it of fine silt owing to flooding or from proximity to a stream on the bank of which a well can be dug from which the land can be irrigated. THE RECORD OF RIGHTS Two important improvements which have in recent years been introduced into the revenue administration of this Presidency may be described. The first is the Record of Rights. The Record prepared by the Survey Department was necessarily a fiscal record, the object of which was to show from whom the assessment was due and what that assessment was. It was not a record of rights or title. In course of time it was found that a Record of Right based on possession, if not on title, was indispensable for the needs of the administration, more especially |