See Annexure.

10. The Board would, however, submit that the Bill might be made far more useful by rendering it applicable not only to waste land ordered to be sold, but to all waste land with which Government may desire to deal; only providing that in the case of waste land occupied by Government for public purposes, if prior claims shall be advanced and be admitted, the compensation to be paid to the claimant shall, should he so desire, be determined by arbitration under the provisions of Act VI. of 1857.

11. Very slight additions* to the Bill would render it effective for this purpose, and the Board need scarcely enlarge on the advantage which would result from the provision of a summary process for this purpose.

"If in the case of waste land occupied on behalf of Government for public purposes, the Collector or Court be of opinion that the claim of the claimant is established, compensation shall be awarded to the claimant by payment of the value of the land according to its condition at the time it was first occupied, which value shall be either determined by the Collector or, at the option of the claimant, by arbitration, as provided in Act VI. of 1857, and the land shall be retained by Government."

ORDERED that the following Letter be despatched.

(No. 166.)

From T. Pycroft, Esq., Chief Secretary to the Government of Fort St. George, to the Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department; dated 13 October 1862 (No. 2203).

Sir,

1. I AM directed by the Governor in Council to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th ultimo, forwarding for the opinion of this Government a copy of a Draft Bill "to provide for the adjudication of claims to waste lands, and for the investment of the proceeds arising from the sale of such lands, and of other Government lands, and from the redemption of land revenue."

2. In reply I have to inform you that the Draft Bill was on its receipt sent to the Board of Revenue for their remarks. In transmitting the answer just received from the Board I am desired to accompany it with the following observations.

3. Board's letter, paragraph 2. The Government do not perceive any omission or uncertainty in the case alluded to in this paragraph. They presume that if the claim be persisted in, and the Government do not order a suit to be brought under Section III. of the Act, their abstaining from such a course will be equivalent to an admission of the claim, and the sale of the land will be stopped.

4. The above observation will apply to the further remarks of the Board in paragraphs 3-5 of their Secretary's letter, and it will not be necessary to make further provision for the case of parties whose claims may have been rejected by the Collector, but against whom no suit has been instituted by Government. Section XIV. of the Draft the Government conceive to have been intended to meet cases where claimants, from absence, minority, or other

cause,

cause, had no opportunity of preferring their claims until after the land had been sold.

5. Board's letter, paragraphs 6-8. In reference to the view taken in these paragraphs, I am instructed to forward a copy of the orders which were issued by this Government in regard to the sale of lands on the Neilgherries on receipt of your previous letter, 15th August last, No. 4244, and under the discretion allowed to this Government in the letter from the Government of India (letter 20th June, Home Department, No. 3053). The Government consider that these rules should not be disturbed, and that the lands on the Neilgherries should be treated as exceptional. They think that the course prescribed in paragraphs 8 to 14 of the Proceedings of 24th ultimo, Revenue Department, No. 2080, is that best suited to these peculiar localities. If, however, it be indispensable that the waste lands on the Neilgherries should be sold in freehold, it is evident that the upset price of 5 rupees or 2 rupees per acre must be much enhanced.

6. In the concluding paragraph of their letter the Board submit that the Bill might be made far more useful by rendering it applicable not only to waste land ordered to be sold, but to all waste lands with which Government may desire to deal, only providing that in the case of waste land occupied by Government for public purposes, if prior claims shall be advanced and be admitted, the compensation to be paid to the claimant shall, should he so desire, be determined by arbitration under the provisions of Act VI. of 1857. The Government deem this suggestion to be very valuable. In the annexure to their letter the Board have noticed the slight additions to the preamble and certain sections of the Bill, which will be requisite to give it effect.

7. This Government, I am desired to state, have no further observations to make on the Draft Bill.

MINUTE by His Excellency the President.

1. WITH reference to the Bill to provide for the adjudication of land claims, &c., but few remarks appear to me to be necessary. A doubt may exist whether it is necessary or desirable to withdraw the adjudication upon claims for land from the ordinary courts, and to place the important questions which may arise in the hands of a court of whose constitution but little is said.

2. Clause XV. says, that if a claimant, after the land has been sold, establishes his claim to it, he is not to get the land back, but only the sum for which the land was purchased and the costs of suit.

3. This may and certainly would be but a scanty redress for the injury sustained, the price paid for the land being by no means the measure of its value.

4. Clause XVI. seems to me to give the Government an undue amount of which may power be open to abuse.

5. Clause XVII. is the most important enactment in the Bill; it provides that land shall be sold in fee simple, should be subject to no assessment for the future.

6. To this clause I very much object. The effect will probably be either to induce jobbing in land to a very great extent, should the price be fixed too low, or to put a stop to the sale of land, should the minimum price approximate at all to the value of the land in this Presidency; but little land will be sold but such as is adapted to the cultivation of crops such as coffee and tea, the assessment upon which bears but a very small proportion to the value of the gross produce, not in fact more than one to two hundred, the average value of such gross produce being 400 rupees per acre.

7. If then a minimum price of 24 or 5 rupees be placed on this land, it is evident that most of it would fall into the hands of speculative capitalists, who would not attempt to cultivate it, but would derive their profit from the enhanced price at which they would be able to retail the land to bond fide cultivators. That this would be the case we may infer from what takes place elsewhere; but we have also positive direct evidence to the same effect from what took place here on the proclamation of the Governor General's Regulations.

8. Land of this quality has been sold lately on the Neilgherries by private parties, subject to an assessment of 2 rupees per acre, for 30 rupees per acre; and were the Government to put a minimum value of 5 rupees on it, it would lose not only the difference between this amount and the market value of the land, but also the 25 years' purchase of the assessment.

9. It may be said that the sale by auction would be sure to run the price up to its full market value; but my experience of the result of the system of auction sales, of which I have had a good deal, tends to confirm the opinion that in nine cases out of ten the land would be sold at the upset price.

10. If again the minimum price be made to approximate to 25 years' purchase of the assessment, few or no persons would be found to invest money at 4 per cent. or thereabouts, for which the ordinary interest is 10 or 12.

11. I think, therefore, that it would be advisable to leave to the different Governments the power of selling the land either subject or not to the land assessment, as may seem to them, under the special circumstances of each case, to be advisable.

12. Clauses XVIII., XIX., XX. It seems to me that the local and general Government are mixed up in these clauses in an objectionable manner.

13. Clause XIX. provides for the investment of the money arising from the sale of land in public securities and for the receipt of interest upon such securities. Would it not be better to relieve the country from the payment of interest by cancelling the promissory notes when purchased?

14. Having said thus much with reference to the Bill itself, I will now deal with the rules submitted by the Revenue Board.

Rule II. places the maximum too high. In South Australia 80 acres or one-eighth of a square mile is the standard quantity; here 500 would be amply sufficient instead of 3,000.

Rule III.-If any excess of land should be found within the established boundaries, it should be paid for at the price per acre paid for the lot. Rule V.-Price of land. See remarks on Bill.

Rule X.-I object to the practice of partial payment; it has been found to answer badly in Australia. Unless the whole of the purchase-money be paid, the deed should not issue, and the man should be considered merely as lessee of the land, at a rent of 10 per cent. upon the unpaid portion of the cost.

Rule XIII. The land should be marked out by the Government and the cost paid by the purchaser before he enters upon the land.

Clause XVII. altered; the man must pay the whole of the purchasemoney, and he should pay it within one month.

Clause XVIII.-The upset price must be determined by Government with reference to the particular district and quality of soil, &c. It will depend of course upon the decision of the Government as to the sale with or without assessment; in fact, it would be as well to have the two prices, and to leave to the choice of the proposed purchaser whether he will pay with or without assessment.

Clause XXIII.- Omit.

(signed)

W. T. Denison.

(No 364.)

From J. D. Sim, Esq., Secretary to the Government of Fort Saint George, to

the Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department; dated 29 November 1862 (No. 2509).

Sir,

1. IN continuation of the letter marginally noted, on the subject of the Draft 13 October 1862, Bill for the "Adjudication of claims to waste land, and for the investment of No. 2203. the proceeds arising from the sale of waste lands and of other Government lands, and from the redemption of land revenue," I am directed to request the particular attention of the Supreme Government to Section XII. of the Bill.

2. By this section the decisions and orders of the Special Courts are final, and not even open to revision.

3. Where the question at issue is merely one of fact, this provision is unobjectionable, but in several parts of this Presidency the operation of the new law will raise questions involving important rights of the Government and of individuals. For instance, in the Madras District the merassidars claim all waste land. The Government have consistently denied this claim and have for years exercised the right of proprietorship over such land, have used it for public purposes, and granted it to private individuals.

4. The merassy question, however, is one that has long engaged general attention, and on which opinions differ greatly. It might so happen that the majority of the Special Court already held views adverse to the rights of Government, and the important questions might be finally decided without that full and unbiassed consideration which the extensive and important interests at stake render absolutely necessary. An adverse decision would involve serious consequences to Government and also to private individuals, who on the faith of the title given by Government, have built upon and otherwise improved lands which would by such a decision be declared to belong to the merassidars. It may also happen that conflicting decisions may be given. by different Special Courts and much embarrassment will ensue if the decrees on such questions are not open even to revision.

5. For these reasons this Government would earnestly recommend that Section XII. should be modified so as to admit of an appeal to the high court when the question at issue involves a general principle of importance, such as the tenure of land and the rights of the State in waste.

6. Advantage is taken of the present opportunity to forward the accompanying extract from a Minute recorded by his Excellency the Governor, who was absent on a tour when the Draft Bill for the adjudication of claims to waste land came under the consideration of this Government.

No. 26.

EXTRACT Madras Revenue Proceedings, December 1862.

(No. 93.)

LETTER from W. Hudleston, Esq., Secretary to the Poard of Revenue, to Honourable T. Pycroft, Chief Secretary to Government; dated Madras, 14 October 1862 (No. 6882 B).

Sir,

No. 6147.

1. WITH reference to para. 2 of the Government Order, dated 24th September In Cons., 25 Sep1862 (No. 2080), Revenue Department, I am directed by the Board of Revenue tember 1862, to submit the accompanying Draft Rules for the sale of waste land in this Presidency, which appear to them to contain all that is necessary for the information of the public, and the publication of which will in their opinion answer all purposes without any further notification, save a short heading to state that, under the sanction of the Supreme Government, they are prescribed by the .64.

Local Government for the guidance of all public officers and intending applicants.

2. In the Draft Rules submitted by this Government to the Government of India, under date 25th February last, and which were communicated to the Board as the groundwork of those to be now published, and many provisions with which the public has little concern, and on these the Board would propose that separate instructions be issued to the Collectors.

3. The points in question relate mainly to the registration of reserved tracts, to the registry of grants and transfers of grants, and to the procedure in regard to rejected claims to land sought for purchase. The Draft Bill on the subject provides for this last matter, but it will be well to notice it to the district officers in anticipation of the enactment.

4. The draft which the Board now submit is mainly based on the published Rules of the Bengal Government, and the Board would request attention to the terms of para. 23, regarding registered applications under the Resolution of October 1861, which they have retained unaltered, but which is not consistent with the recent decision of Government in the case of the Messrs. Burgess in Ganjam. The Board would submit for the consideration of Government the expediency of one uniform course being adopted in this matter in all the Presidencies alike, to remove ground for dissatisfaction. The Board would also point out that these general Rules cannot be applied to the Neilgherries, if the recent orders of Government regarding land there situated be maintained. The provisions for realising all Government dues connected with this system of sale of waste land, by the summary process provided for the realisation of arrears of Land Revenue, will need to be supported, if approved, by a short Act of the Legislature, or the necessary powers might, if thought proper, be included in the Draft Bill for the adjudication of claims to waste, and for the investment of the sale proceeds.

(No. 94.)

ORDER thereon, 6 December 1862 (No. 2553).

1. WITH this letter the Board of Revenue submit a draft of Rules for the sale of unassessed waste land in this Presidency. The Board, in their draft, follow very closely the Rules published for Bengal, and explain that such instructions as may be necessary for the guidance of the officers of Government in matters of routine, will be separately issued.

2. The Governor in Council has carefully perused the Board's draft, and considers that in several respects it may be improved, while in some it is opposed to the views of Government. A fresh draft has therefore been prepared, and is appended to these orders.

3. For the guidance of the Board in the application of the Rules, the Government will briefly notice such of them as need special remark.

4. Rule III.-The Government consider the proposed maximum of 3,000 acres far too large in this Presidency. The object of having a maximum is to secure the interests of the State, and to prevent the monopoly of land to the injury of the public. It is obvious, that if land is put up in blocks of 3,000 acres, the competition at the auction sales will be limited. Persons of moderate means will be debarred from bidding, and in self-defence the Government must fix a higher minimum price than would otherwise be necessary. The Government consider that the proper course is to prescribe a reasonable limit to the size of lots, but to allow intending purchasers to apply for as many lots, each not beyond that limit, as they please. The Government also consider that a lower maximum should be fixed for building lots in towns than for lots required elsewhere for agricultural purposes. The Government accordingly fix on 500 acres as the maximum for agricultural, and 10 acres as the maximum for town allotments.

5. Rule VIII.-The "excess" here mentioned means some material extent beyond the maximum limit. The Collectors will be allowed some discretion