The British.

The sixty-four years of British rule may be divided into four periods. Sixteen years of depression 1818-1834; twenty years of improvement 1834-1854; twelve years during which the revenue survey was being introduced 1854-1866; and sixteen years since the introduction of the revenue survey.

1884.

As Kolaba was not formed into a separate collectorate till 1869, the materials for its revenue history are scanty. The available records seem to show that the district passed through changes similar to those which can be clearly traced in Thana and Ratnagiri The first sixteen years (1818-1834) began with some seasons of good harvests and fair prices, [In Alibag, for the three years ending 1819-20, the khandi price of best rice averaged nearly Rs. 19. Mr. Hearn, Bom, Gov. Sel. VII. 12.] marred by much suffering from cholera and small-pox and depredations of hill robbers. A year of scarcity in 1823-24 was followed by a year almost of famine, [Mr. Davies in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 344.] the khandi of rice rising in price from £2 1s. 6d. (Rs. 20¾) in 1822-23 to £3 10s. (Rs. 35) in 1824-25. [Bom. Gov. Sel. VII. 12.] Next came seven years of increased tillage, large outturn of grain and no exports, ending in a collapse of produce prices, the khandi of rice falling from £2 7s. 6d. (Rs. 23¾) in 1826-27 to £1 5s. 4½d. (Rs. 12-11) in 1828-29. [Bom. Gov. Sel. VII, 12. The widespread depression and poverty that marked the years between 1826 and 1834 was attributed to the ignorance of the higher officers, the fraud of the lower officers, and the profligacy of the peasantry. These evils may have increased the distress. But the cause of the distress seems to have been the collapse in produce prices. The land revenue figures (Bom. Gov. Sel. VII. 19) of the present sub-division of Alibag which then formed part of Angria's state, show, with no change in the government, in the state machinery, or in the peasantry, the same series of bad years. In the six years ending 1826-27 the land revenue of the present Alibag varied from £20,672 (Rs. 2,06,720) in 1822-23 to £26,996 (Rs. 2,69,960) in 1825-26 and averaged £24,082 (Rs. 2,40,820); in the six years ending 1832-33 the land revenue varied from £16,163 (Rs. 1,61,630) in 1830-31 to £19,716 (Rs. 1,97,160) in 1827-28 and averaged £17,468 (Rs. 1,74,680); and in the six years ending 1838-39 the land revenue varied from £21,578 (Rs. 2,15,780) in 1835-36 to £29,625 (Rs. 2,96,250) in 1838-39 and averaged £25,085 (Rs. 2,60,850). As the Alibag revenue was carefully managed and represented almost the whole margin of profit, the difference between these averages may be taken as an index to the effect which the fall of produce prices had on the prosperity of the British districts.] The practice of paying in grain, instead of in cash, seems to have brought the district through this time of depression with less suffering than was felt in Thana. Except in 1823-24 when one-tenth, and in 1824-25 when one-third of the revenue were remitted, remissions were seldom granted. [Mr. Davies in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 344.]

1854.

The next period of twenty years (1834-1854), during which the district was increased by the lapse of the Kolaba state, was a time of better prices and less depression. [The price of a khandi of the best rice averaged about £1 14s. (Rs. 17). The details are not complete. Bom, Gov. Sel. VII. 12.] The robber bands were put down, and there were no serious epidemics. Population increased rapidly and in Pen and Nagothna, in the north of the district, great reductions (about 26 per cent) were made in the Government demand. Even in the south, the half-peopled villages and large stretches of arable waste, of which complaint was made in 1824, [See Mr. Reid, 26th August 1828, in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828, 162, and Mr. Dunlop, 15th August 1824 in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec, 121 of 1820, 40-41.] had by 1837 given place to an excessive population and a keen competition for the arable land. [Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 268, 356.] This change gave rise to a new difficulty. The upper holders who could formerly hardly secure tenants now had the poorer classes at their mercy, and levied the most crushing rents from customary tenants as well as from yearly tenants.

1854-1866.

'The twelve years of survey operations (1854-1866) was a time of abnormal prosperity, high produce prices, and, where' there was arable waste, a rapid spread of tillage. The survey rates were on the whole lower than those previously in force, particularly in the sub-divisions of A'libag, Pen, and Roha, and in the petty division of Nizampur in Mangaon. In these portions of the district the survey settlement was introduced in and before 1860-61, when produce prices had not reached an abnormal pitch. On the other hand, the settlement of Mahad and the Tala and Goregaon petty divisions of Mangaon was not completed till 1866, and therefore the years of abnormal prices were included in the period on which the price calculations were based. With rice selling at £2 10s. (Rs. 25) a khandi and upwards these rates are not excessively high. Since 1867, except in 1873-74 when it was £2 4s. 9d. (Rs. 22-6) the price of rice has ruled from £2 8s. to £3 17s. 9d. (Rs. 24-Rs. 38-14) a khandi; but during the present season (1881-82) it has fallen to £2 3s. 3d. (Rs. 21-10). The new settlement introduced the important provision of preventing revenue farmers from levying from customary tenants more than a fixed increase on the Government rental.

1866-1882.

The sixteen years since the revenue survey have, on the whole, been years of good harvests and high prices. The revenue has risen from £72,392 (Rs. 7,23,920) in 1866-67 to £73,899 (Rs. 7,38,990) in 1880-81, and the tillage area from 465,090 to 476,693 acres. This increase of revenue has been chiefly due to the revision of the Alibag salt rice lands in 1872-73, which gave an increase of £1100 (Rs. 11,000). The revenue farmers of the southern sub-divisions, who, principally on account of the provisions limiting their power of taxing their customary tenants, at first refused to manage their villages, gradually accepted the survey settlement. The northern sub-divisions are prosperous; but the south, partly from an excess of population and partly from the higher rates of assessment, is somewhat depressed. In 1866 when the survey assessment was introduced in Mahad and in the Tala and Goregaon petty divisions of Mangaon, produce prices were abnormally high (£3 2s. or Rs. 31 a khandi of rice in husk), and from the system then in force of commuting the grain rates into a money payment on the basis of existing prices, the rents had risen far above their former level. [The increase was from £55,700 (Rs. 5,57,000) in 1854-55 to £72,400 (Rs. 7,24,000) in 1866-67.] Care was taken to inquire into former rents, and the effect of the survey was a reduction of about 30 per cent on the existing demand. It was known at the time that produce prices were inflated. But it was thought, that, though a fall was to be expected, produce prices had reached a permanently higher level. It was not expected that within six years there would be a drop in the price of a khandi of rice from £3 2s. 3d. to £2 8s. (Rs. 31¹/8-Rs. 24). During the years between 1872 and 1876, when low prices prevailed, the condition of the smaller landholders was somewhat depressed. Since then a series of good harvests, except a partial failure of crops in 1876, has been accompanied by the very high produce prices that have ruled during and since the 1873 and 1877 famine. During the last two years there has again been a fall from £3 7s. 6d. (Rs. 33¾) in 1879-80 to £2 Rs. 3d. (Rs. 25-10) in 1880-81 and to £2 3s. 3d. (Rs. 21-10) the khandi in 1881-82.

1818-1837.

In the early years of British rule much inconvenience was caused by the division of jurisdiction among the British, the Pant Sachiv or Bhorchief, and Angria. [At the time of British accession Kolaba consisted of four sub-divisions, Sankshi, Avchitgad, Rajpuri, and Raygad. Of these Avchitgad was incorporated in Sankshi on the list of May 1825.] The Nagothna villages were heldhalf by the Bhor chief and half by Angria, and the north Roha or Avchitgad villages half by the British representing the Peshwa, and half by Angria. This was partly remedied in 1830 by the transfer of villages to the Bhor chief, in return for which he handed over to the British his half share of Nagothna, and three years later (1833) the British control of Nagothna was completed by the transfer of Angria's share in Nagothna in return for the cession of the British share in Avchitgad. There still remained in north Pen and south Panvel isolated groups of Angria's villages, which did not come under British control till the lapse of Kolaba in 1840. [See for the Pant Sachiv, Mr. Reid in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828,158-160, 917; and for Angria's villages, Act XVII. of 1844]

One notable point in the district was the absence of district and village hereditary officers. In Sankshi or Pen the hereditary district officers had either disappeared or become revenue farmers. There were village headmen, but they were little superior in wealth, to the ordinary cultivators and there do not seem to have been village accountants. In the south of the district most of the district hereditary officers had become hereditary farmers of revenue or khots, who managed their village without the help either of a headman or of an accountant. [Mr. Dunlop, 15th August 1824, and Mr. Harrison, 10th July 1824, in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec 121 of 1826, 30,32, 47,130,132-134. Mr. Dunlop, 31st Dec 1822, in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec 64 of 1823, 248.]

Of hereditary district officers the only notices that have been traced in the early English reports are of two Prabhu families of deshkulkarnis or district accountants in Rajpuri and in Avchitgad. At the beginning of British rule the allowances of both of these families, though under attachment, were kept separate in the accounts. In 1824 Mr. Dunlop recommended, as their duties were laborious, that their allowances which amounted to £180 (Rs. 1800) should be restored to them, and that those of them who could not find employment as district accountants should be made village accountants. [Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 121 of 1826, 36.37. In the Alibag salt-rice villages two families of accountants, or kulkarnis, had charge of large groups of villages. Bom. Gov. Set CXLIV. 30, 31]

In the north of the district in Sankshi or Pen, there were only one or two families of khots. [In Pen in 1828 there were only five khoti villages, four held by the representatives of Lakshmanrav Kolhatkar, the mamlatdar who introduced the light cash rate or nagdi shirasla system, and one by the minister of Angria. Mr. Reid, 26th August 1828, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828, 149, 150.] In the southern sub-divisions, including a number of Nagothna villages, almost all of the villages were in the hands of revenue farmers or khots. The general and apparently the correct view of the position of these revenue farmers was that they represented old hereditary district officers, deshmukhs or district superintendents, adhikaris or village superintendents, and deshpandes or district accountants, who had undertaken to farm the village revenues apparently at first without any hereditary or proprietary right in the village. [Mr. Dunlop, 31st December 1822, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 64 of 1823, 248. Mr. Danlop mentions gar or head khots of Raygad and Rajpuri. If a man got the management of a village for one year, says Mr. Dunlop, he called himself a khot. 31st December 1822, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 64 of 1823, 248. Mr. Lestock Reid, the sub-collector, wrote in 1856: ' The Kolaba khots seem to have risen during the state of anarchy which followed the revolt of these provinces from the authority of the Emperors of Delhi, and to have been the corrupt dependants of the different mamlatdars who held office in those days, whose favour they obtained by assisting in their exactions till they were enabled by degrees to become themselves responsible for the revenue of one or more villages. These they managed to retain so long as they could meet the fresh impositions exacted by each new mamlatdar, whose term of office seldom extended over three or fouryears and whose object was confessedly to realize as large a sum as he possibly could under any pretence whatever.' Mr. Reid, 7th July 1856, in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 20, part 4 of 1856, 1416-1417. For other opinions as to the position of the Kolaba or north Konkan revenue farmers, see above, p. 172.] Most of the appointments of these revenue farmers seem to date from the eighteenth century. When the khots were appointed a large proportion of the villagers seem to have been landholders, or dharekaris, but in times of exaction, failing to meet the Government demands, the small landholders abandoned their lands or became so indebted to the khots, that they fell to the position of tenants. [See Mr. Dunlop, 31st December 1822, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec, 64 of 1823, 248, 250.] At the beginning of British rule, except a few who held only for a term of years and were called maktavala or contract khots, the revenue farmers were considered to have an hereditary right to the management of their villages. [Mr. Giberne, 5th April 1837, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837,265-267. Mr. Giberne held that some of the Kolaba khots held grants from Bijapur as far back as the sixteenth century. But the land north of the Savitri was at that time under Ahmadnagar. See above, p. 172.] Under the khots the dharekaris or landholders paid a fixed rent which the khot could not increase, and, so long as they paid the rent, the khot could not oust them from their holdings. In the case of the customary or yearly tenants who tilled the khot's or khotnisbat land, there would seem to have been no check on the khot's demands, except the fear that if too hard pressed they would leave the village. [Mr. Dunlop, 31st December 1822, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 64 of 1823, 248-250. Mr. Dunlop says, ' the yearly tenants are subject to all the oppressions of the same class in other places.'] At the beginning of British rule this seems to have been a practical check on over-exaction, as people were scarce and arable waste was abundant. [See Mr. Dunlop, 15th August 1824. Bom, Gov. Rev. Rec. 121 of 1825, 39-41. Mr. Reid, 26th August 1828, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828, 160-163.]

In 1824 (10th July) Mr. Harrison, the second assistant collector, described the northern part of the district, Vansi, Hamrapur, and Pen, all in the present Pen, as highly cultivated and exceedingly productive. [The British lands of north Pen were, at this time and apparently until 1840, mixed with Angria's villages. Three of the petty divisions, Chimankhal, Durg-Haveli, and Vakrul had only one British village each. Mr. Harrison, Bom. Gov. Rev, Rec, 121 of 1825,127-128.] To the north and east of Sankshi or Pen the land was more wooded and barren, and much crossed by ravines and rocky hills. Even among the hills were nooks tilled with care and yielding good crops of rice. Though the land was highly cultivated the people were extremely poor. The husbandmen lived in the meanest hovels, bamboo frames plastered with mud, a miserable picture of poverty. In the petty division of Vansi, in the extreme north-west of the sub-division, there was scarcely a house which had a brick or a piece of timber. The number of liquor-shops had increased since the beginning of British rule, otherwise there were no signs of greater comfort. As a body the people were the idlest, most drunken, profligate, and quarrelsome class in the district. [Mr. Harrison, 10th July 1824, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 121 of 1825, 128, 140.]

In the south of the district there was much arable waste, and the people were even poorer than in the north. The half empty villages were scenes of disease and poverty. This state of wretchedness was due to high and uneven assessment, added to the heat and unhealthiness of the country and to a serious scarcity of water.[Mr. Dunlop, 15th August 1824, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 121 of 1825, 40-41; Mr. Reid, 26th August 1828, Bom. Gov. Rev. Reo. 211 of 1828, 162.] The early years of British rule seem to have been a time of little prosperity. Owing to the poverty of the people, the ravages of cholera and small-pox, and the negligence of mamlatdars a large portion of the revenne remained outstanding, and in 1828 was considered irrecoverable. [Mr. Reid, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828, 187. The chief years of outstanding balances were, 1819-20 with Rs. 13,395, 1822-23 with Rs. 12,229, 1823-24 with Rs. 22,379, 1825-26 with Rs. 29,602, and 1826-27 with Rs. 23,763. After this, outstandings were never higher than Rs, 7400, and after the transfer of Kolaba to Thana they fell to about Rs. 3000. In 1837, of a total of Rs. 1,52,000, it was expected that Rs. 84,000 would be realised. Mr. Giberne's statements, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 262-263. These figures are for the whole British Kolaba of that time, that is the three sub-divisions, Sankshi, Rajpuri, and Raygad.]

As in Thana and Ratnagiri, the rates and system of collecting the revenue were allowed to remain unaltered, until a trustworthy knowledge of the resources of the country could be gamed. The chief administrative change was, in 1824 and the following years, the appointment of stipendiary village accountants or talatis to villages managed direct with the peasant proprietors. The result of this change was not at first satisfactory. In 1828, though in Mr. Reid's opinion they were a useful check on the demands of village farmers and headmen, village accountants were of no use in villages whose lands were entirely under Government management. In such cases the accountant took the place of the revenue farmer and arranged yearly with the landholder for the cultivation of the land, on payment of half or a fixed portion of the crop in kind or of a fixed sum of money or quantity of grain. He thus acted in the twofold capacity of manager and accountant The mahalkari and Government clerks might exercise some trifling control, but the actual management of the village rested with the accountant. This was especially the case in the Kolaba villages, an the headman was only arnominal officer whose functions had fallen into disuse, and who in point of intelligence or capital was not above the humblest Kunbi. The rental of directly-managed villages had been falling for several years. For this there were two causes, the dishonesty of the accountants and the scarcity of tenants. There was no control over the accountant. Lands not tilled by hereditary tenants were let out by the accountant, and there was no security that he entered in the accounts the whole of the sum he received. Again, as the terms for yearly tenants were not more favourable in directly-managed than in farmed villages, and as in farmed villages the tenants received advances of seed and money, which could not be attempted by a Government agent, it was most difficult to get yearly tenants in directly-managed villages. Another source of loss was in the disposal of the grain rents. This grain was delivered by the landholders to the accountant in the village and was sold by public auction. The buyer had to bear the cost of carrying it to the nearest place of export, and the price was usually trifling and much below the established rate at which the rental was calculated. As a remedy for these evils, Mr. Reid suggested that these villages should be farmed for a certain period at a yearly increasing rent, until the rent reached the higher; point which the state of the land and the condition of the country allowed. Mr. Reid had little doubt that in five or six years the villages whose revenues had been declining would, if leased, yield their full rental, while the people would be better off under a farmer whose profits depended on his conduct to his tenants than under a Government agent who had little personal interest in the prosperity of the village.[Mr. Reid, 26th August 1828, in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828, 163-158.] Mr. Reid's proposal which applied to the whole of the Konkan was carried out in a few villages in Salsette.[Mr. Reid, 12th August 1830, MS. Sel 160, 881.] The result was not altogether satisfactory, and partly for this reason partly apparently from the difficulty of finding any one willing to take villages in lease, the scheme for several years (1833) made little progress. It was afterwards considerably extended, as by 1836 there were as many as 20¼ leased villages in Pen and eighty-seven in Rajpuri.

During these years, in the Sankshi or Pen villages, except that revenue farming had been stopped, the rates and system of collecting the land revenue were unchanged. In 1828 in Sankshi or Pen the regular assessment was calculated at a certain quantity of grain on the bigha, and was paid partly in grain partly in money. This was the custom throughout the district. [Mr. Reid, 26th August 1828, in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828, 144-145. According to another report (6th December 1828, Lithographed Paper, 6-8), in Pen commutation was unknown and the revenue was received in kind. The part mentioned in the text as taken in cash was probably from the Avchitgad villages of Pen.] The special reduced cash rates which had been introduced by Lakshmanrav Kolhatkar and others of the Peshwa's revenue farmers in Pen, though never formally sanctioned by the Peshwa's government, had been continued. [Mr. Reid, 26th August 1828, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828, 145-149.] The system under which the salt rice lands were surveyed every year was open to fraud. But as the tillage area varied from year to year according to the rainfall, and as the landholders had not capital enough to pay an average revenue in a bad season, no other arrangement but a yearly survey seemed possible. In the fair season the holders of the salt rice lands found work in the Pen salt pans. But this double employment seemed to profit them little. Their way of living and their home comforts were little different from those of the same class elsewhere. [Mr. Reid, 26th August 1828, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828, 150-151.] Under the former government, in part of Pen, some Marwar and Gujarat Vanis had bought the right to supply the villagers with groceries. Besides selling groceries, these men bought grain at prices much below the market rates. The Government profit from this monopoly was only frqm £50 to £60 (Rs. 500-Rs. 600), and Mr. Reid recommended that the monopoly should be abolished. [Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828, 151-152.] Two peculiar practices were in force in the southern districts. The rice lands, instead of being classified, were charged at the uniform bigha rate of 8¾ mans in Rajpuri, and at from eight to ten mans in Raygad. This practice had the effect of throwing much of the poorer lands out of tillage. Formerly, as has already been noticed, in Rajpuri or Roha and in Raygad or Mahad, when a landholder moved from one part of the district to another, his rent payments were taken from the rental of his old and added to the rontal of his new village. This practice, which was known as dharabad or rent deduction, ceased at the close of the eighteenth century, but the great inequality in assessment which it had caused remained. Many of the villages that were burdened with the extra rental were thrown on the hands of Government, while the farmers of those villages from which the assessment had been deducted realized specially large profits. The only remedy was a new survey and assessment. [Mr. Reid, 26th August 1828, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828,172-174.] In the south, though the khoti system was general, there were a large number of small proprietors or dharekaris. [Mr. Reid, 26th August 1828, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828, 160-161.] All over the south of the district in Roha, Mangaon, and Mahad, many khoti villages were managed by Government accountants, either because of some dispute in the farmer's family or because the khot had failed to pay the rental. In some of these Government-managed villages the whole village was under the Khot, in others the village was mixed, part of the land being held by the khot and part by peasent proprietors.[Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 211 of 1828,152-153.] On the transfer of these sub-divisions to Thana in 1830 more attention seems to have been paid to their improvement. The outstanding balances which had been considerable were reduced to about £300 (Rs. 3000) a year,[The details were, 1830-31 Rs. 2048, 1831-32 Rs. 3004, 1832-33 Rs. 2768, 1833-34 Rs. 2161, and 1834-35 Rs. 2164. Bom. Gov, Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 263.] and the rise in produce prices, and in 1836 the abolition of transit duties, seem to have been accompanied by a considerable increase of population and spread of tillage.[The change between the half empty villages in 1824 and the abundant population and scanty rice lands of 1837 seems to imply some influx of husbandmen. The abolition of transit dues represented in some of the inland parts a reduction of about thirty per cent on a husbandman's payment. See Thana Statistical Account, XIII. Part II. 581, 592. The khandi price of the best rice rose from Rs. 12-11-0 in 1828-29 to Rs. 16 in 1834-35 and to Rs. 18-5-4 in 1836-37. Bom. Gov. Sel. VII. 12.] Still much of the country was waste and wild. The hilly tracts north of Janjira, writes Major Jervis in 1835, though rich are so overrun with forest, brushwood, bamboos and lemon grass, and the ripening crops are so exposed to the attacks of locusts, deer, bears, and wild hogs, water is so scarce and the population so reduced by former wars, mismanagement, and oppression, that there is little tillage. [Konkan, 98. Major Jervis' remarks seem to apply only to the hilly parts of the northern districts.]

Assessment Revision, 1836.

In 1836, in consequence of the discovery that the Thana assessment stood in urgent need of reduction, Mr. J. M. Davies, who had conducted the Thana inquiries, was appointed to examine the system of land revenue in Sankshi or Pen, Rajpuri that is Roha and part of Mangaon, and Ray'gad that is Mahad and part of Mangaon.

Sankshi 1837.

In the Sankshi or Pen sub-division of 107 villages; 57¾ were held by hereditary khots, [Almost all of these khoti villages were in Nagothna, which by village transfers had became British property partly in 1830 and partly in 1833. ' Most of the khots of this taluka reside in Nagothna mahal. In this mahal most of the villages are farmed and there is a considerable number of dharekaris.' Mr. Davies, 4th March 1837, in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 316.] 20¼ were leased for short periods, nineteen were alienated, and seventy were managed direct by Government officers. [Mr. Davies, 18th January 1837, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 351.] The land in alienated and cash rent villages was measured by the acre or full bigha of twenty-five pands, and in farmed and peasant-held villages by the short or kacha bigha of twenty pands or four-fifths of an acre. The measurements seem to have been fairly accurate. The cash acre rates, which as already noticed were a partial alienation, were moderate varying from 6s. to 15s. (Rs. 3-Rs. 7½).[Of 2604 full bighas held under these specially light cash rates, 1½ paid Rs. 7-8 the bigha, twenty-seven Rs. 6,1863 Rs. 5, four Rs. 4-8, 232 Rs. 4, 40½ Rs. 3-8, and 436 Rs. 3. Mr. Davies, 18th January 1837, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 351.] Besides these cash payments, extra levies to hereditary district officers or jamadars amounted to about 7½d. (5 as.) in cash and 7¼ paylis of rice on each bigha.

The regular rates in kind were with few exceptions 12 mans 2 paylis on the full bigha of 25 pands, and 13 mans 3 paylis on the smaller bigha.[The reason of this seeming anomaly is that the cesses or babtis on the standard or kacha bigha, were much heavier than on the paka bigha. Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 352.] Of this whole amount about two-thirds seem to, have been original assessment and one-third additional cesses.[The details in one example are, net assessment 8 man, babtis 4 mans, vartala 6 paylis, deshmukh's and deshpande's claim 7½ paylis, chaudhri's claim 2 paylis, total 13 mans 3½ paylis. Mr. Davies, 18th January 1837, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 776 of 1837, 352. In one case the total or a full bigha was 14 mans 3½ paylis. Ditto, 353-354.] The holders were supposed to be able to pay these extremely high rates, because they held extra upland and rice land. But in Mr. Davies' opinion, in some parts of the sub-division there were no such offsets and in no part were the offsets of any importance. In farmed or khoti villages the yearly tenants paid the farmer three-fifths of the produce. There were no outstandings, but this was due to the pressure of population on the small area of good rice land. The population was abundant and good land was scanty. Peasant proprietors or dharekaris were forced to pay the heavy rents or lose their holdings. Of the 57¾ villages held by hereditary khots, 16¾ were alienated in pawn or mortgage and managed by moneylenders, and 1⁷/8 of two others had been sold. [Mr. Davies, 18th January 1837, Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 354-356.] On the whole, Mr. Davies thought the rates higher in Sankshi than in any other of the three Kolaba sub-divisions. No cultivators could pay them unless the land was very good, and no cultivators could pay them in any case and thrive. [In the Sankshi sub-division accounts were settled on actual measurement in every case, such as taking in new land, throwing up land, and claiming abatements. The assessment, therefore, together with extra cesses amounted to 12¹/6 mans the bigha in Pen, 13 mans in Hamrapur, and 13¹/6 mans in Chatisi. Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837,314-315.]

In the Chatisi petty division the people were wretchedly poor, naked, and totally without comforts. They derived no profit from the varkas land which was yearly surveyed and paid for. Much land was waste. Of the whole produce probably two-thirds came to Government. It was distressing to think what the people suffered in a bad year. [The land in the neighbourhood of Pen was good, but the produce was certainly not equal to paying so heavy an assessment as 12 1/6 mans the bigha, and even if it was, nothing was left to the cultivator as a profit. In the Hamrapur petty division there was every reason to believe that if the land was surveyed a considerable efficiency would be the result. The only reason why the people could afford to pay the heavy assessment of 13 mans the bigha, was that the petty division contained but a small quantity of land capable of cultivation, and, heavy as the land tax was, the people were unwilling to throw up the land. The people of Hamrapur were very badly off. In the Government villages of Chatisi, Pen, and Hamrapur, the land once cultivated and now (1837) waste, amounted to 498 bigas. In the Nagothna petty division where most of the Mots resided, most of the villages were farmed and there was a considerable number of dharekaris. The assessment paid by the dhareharis was very heavy. It was 13 mans on a full bigha of 25 pands. In this petty division also the land was very little more than was actually paid for by the dharekaris. These circumstances led Mr. Davies to recommend that a speedy and liberal reduction should be made in Pen, Hamrapur, and Chatisi; that the crop-share or abhavni system of Nagothna be changed into a bighoti system; and that dharekaris should have the option of having their rice land or suti surveyed and assessed, rather than adopt the only alternative of throwing up the land and flying the country. Mr. Davies, 4th March 1837, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1887, 315-319.]

Rajpuri, 1837.

In Rajpuri, of 826 villages 219 were held by hereditary Mots, eighty- seven were leased on short periods, and twenty were managed by the mamlatdar. In the 219 farmed villages the rental was supposed to be as high as could possibly be paid. One-fourth of it was payable at an old commutation rate, known as the bheriki bhav, which had for about ten years been Rs. 2 a khandi above the average commutation or tasar rate. Except in very bad years, as in 1824 and 1825, remissions were seldom granted. In 1836 a nominal abatement had been allowed to make up in the crop for the great rise of prices. [Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 343-344. Both village farmers and peasant-holders seem to have been allowed to choose between the grain and the commuted cash payments. Bom. Gov, Rev. Rec. 696 of 1836, 43.] In the eighty-seven villages which were let on short leases, one-fourth of the rental was made payable at the same old commutation rate (Rs. 15 a khandi) as in the farmed villages. In many of these villages the lessees paid the full amount levied from the people, their entire margin of profit being unpaid labour and other irregular cesses. [Mr. Davies mentions two cases in support of this statement. Farmers offered to take five villages in lease, though the whole rental from authorised sources was not more than one khandi a village in excess of what they were willing to pay. In the other case a farmer threw up a village, because the unpaid labour cess had been abolished. This cess had been worth Rs. 600 on one village. Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 344-345, 348.] The khots took from their yearly tenants three-fifths of the whole crop. Of the 219 hereditary farmed villages 59¼ were managed by professional moneylenders and corn dealers. In the twenty villages managed by the mamlatdar the land was partly held by permanent holders and partly by yearly tenants. The permanent holders, or dharekaris, seldom paid less than eleven or twelve mans the acre or full bigha of twenty-five pands. Of this rental, as in Sankshi, about two-thirds were the original rent and one-third was additional cesses. [In Ashtami the details were: Original assessment 8 mans 6 paylis, ten per cent dahiza on half of this 5¼ paylis, sahotra or 6½ per cent 3¼ paylis, mushahira 1¼ paylis, deshmukhi 5 paylis, excess of commutation 7 paylis, vartala 4 paylis, total 10 mans 7¾ paylis. In Tala Gosala and Nizampur the assessment was, original 8 mans 9 paylis, haks 8 paylis, vartala 3¾ paylis, total 9 mans 8¾ paylis. Besides there was the commutation excess and the money gallapatti. Mr. Davies in Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 346-347.] Besides this rental, all of which seems to have been taken in grain, there was apparently a money cess or gallapatti equal to about 3s. (Rs. 1½) a full bigha or 6s. (Rs. 3) the khandi. [The practice at this time (1835) was to pay in grain. Mr. Pitt, 25th September 1835, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 696 of 1836, 43.] Yearly tenants in villages managed by Government officers paid one-half of the crop. The estimate was made while the crop was standing. If the husbandman agreed to pay the commutation price of the season the matter was settled. If the husbandman did not agree, his share of the crop was sold by auction and the highest bidder went round and gathered the grain. In farmed villages, besides his one-half share, the farmer claimed an extra allowance as landlord and a measure fee called faski, or a grain payment instead of unpaid labour or veth. Altogether the farmer got about sixty per cent of the whole outturn. When the division was made the tenant was allowed to take away as large an armful of grain as he could carry. [The extra allowance was one man the khandi and the fee was ¾ man, amounting together with the half share to 11¾ mans the khandi of 20 mans. The armful of grain amounted on an average to one-third of a man. Bom. Gov. Rev. Reo. 775 of 1887. 3;0 312 347.] In Rajpuri the varkas land, when included in fixed tenancies, was held in the same indefinite manner as in Raygad, Otherwise the custom was to fix the rental by abhavni that is an estimate based on inspection. One-third and even one-fourth on bad lands was the rate taken by Government. The khots made their own agreements with their tenants-at-will. The bigha rate for hemp was below 14s. (Rs. 7). [Mr. Davies, 4th March 1837, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec.775 of 1837, 313-314.]

In the 305 villages of Raygad, now Mahad and part of Mangaon, [There were eight petty divisions, Govela with 26 villages, Venir with 18, Turel with 24, Nathe with 30, Kondvi with 46, Goregaon with 36, Birvadi with 86, and Mahad with 39. Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 322-323.] 251 were held by revenue farmers, of which 61¹/8 had been mortgaged or sold to moneylenders and grain dealers. [ See Mr. Davies' Report of 4th March 1837, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 304. The details for Raygad are not given separately; they are the margin between those for Rajpuri and Sankshi and the total.

Kolaba Villages, 1837.

Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 304, 343-344, 346, 351, 356. ] The average bigha rate on rice land varied from 14s. 11¼d. (Rs. 7-7-6) in Govela to £1 5s. 10³/8d. (Rs. 12-14-11) in Kondvi. The rental was entered in commutation rates, but the bulk of it was paid in kind. The rental was partly the original assessment and partly extra cesses. The extra cesses, which like the original assessment seem to have been taken in kind, varied from about 33 to 98 per cent. [

Raygad Assessment, 1837.

Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 290-292, 294, 337-338.] These extra charges had apparently been added to realise the rent of land that had been brought under tillage since the last survey. Mr. Davies was of opinion; that it was an unrecorded spread of tillage that enabled the people to go on paying such crushing rates. At first he seems to have thought that the actual tillage area was in rice lands twice as great as the recorded area, and in uplands three times as great. But he afterwards found that much of the tillage area had been lately measured, and that the relief must have been much less than he had supposed. That the rents were very high was proved by the fact that, when land was let to yearly tenants, Government claimed half of the produce besides the straw, and that in farmed villages the yearly tenant got only twelve mans out of thirty or eight out of twenty. [Mr. Davies, 5th January 1837, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 340. The assessment in Raygad and Rajpuri was heavy. But, unlike some parts of Sankahi, the holdings in these sub-divisions contained more land than was paid for, which helped the cultivator to pay the rental. Mr. Davies, 4th March 1837, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 773 of 1837, 308.]

In Raygad, as in other parts of the district, the yearly tenants in Government villages generally paid half the crop. The division was made by the village accountant when the crop was standing. If the landholder did not agree to the accountant's estimate, the grain was cut and thrashed and an equal division made, after deducting the amount required for seed which was given back to the cultivator. It was in the husbandman's choices, by paying a little over the estimated half, to cut and thrash his crop at his leisure. This system known as abhavni or grain-estimate was attended with two evils. Too much power was left with the accountant, and, when, the accountant had a large charge, the husbandmen of some villages suffered by not being able to cut their rice till it was over-ripe. [Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 305,312.] Several considerations seemed to show that many of the husbandmen were suffering from excessive rates. In Mahad and Mangaon the general condition of the lower classes, the considerable quantity of land under attachment, and the frequency of distraints showed that the present state of the assessment was not satisfactory.

Survey,1837.

On the whole, looking at the information collected for the three sub-divisions (Sankshi or Pen, Rajpuri or Roha and Mangaon, and Ryagad or Mangaon and Mahad), it seemed that the peasant-holder was taxed very heavily, and that the state of the yearly tenant both of the peasant-holder and of the farmer was still more wretched. They seldom received more than two-fifths of the crop, and in many cases these rates were levied in fields which the tenant had turned from dry-crop into rice land. Among the extortions practised by the khot were the demand of an extra share instead of the unpaid labour tax, the exaction of twenty-five per cent interest on all money loans, and of fifty per cent on all grain advances. The existing state of things was one of extreme tyranny. It might in Mr. Davies' opinion be amended either by a fresh survey or by allowing the yearly tenants to become permanent tenants, on their promise to pay the assessment which the land was deemed capable of bearing.[ Mr. Davies, 4th March 1837, Bom. Gov. Rev, Rec. 775 of 1837, 297-304.]

In forwarding Mr. Davies' reports Mr. Giberne, the Collector of Thana, stated that in his opinion Mr. Davies had proved that the power of the revenue farmers to oppress and rackrent their tenants was much greater than it had been under the Peshwa. Mr. Giberne thought that this was the result of the much greater respect shown to rights by the British than by the former Government. Peasant proprietors sublet their lands at rents from one-quarter to one-half as much again as the Government demand. And in many cases the first tenant sublet the land to an under-tenant. The cause of this was the abundance of the population and the scantiness of the rice land. The yearly tenants or maktavalas held either from the revenue farmer or from the peasant proprietor. They made the best bargain they could, but it was always a bad bargain. Under the most favourable circumstances they kept about one-half of the crop, but many of them did not realize more than a few mans from each bigha. They generally helped each other at the sowing season, working together in bands and so leaving time to engage in wood and grass cutting and other forms of labour. Mr. Giberne did not agree with Mr. Davies that the very high rates in Mahad were neutralised by the possession of land not entered in the Government books. He thought that the area of unrecorded land was small, and that most of the profit came from the tillage of uplands. The variety in the rates of assessment in different parts of the sub-division was due to the fact that the rates had been fixed by mamlatdars acting each on his own opinion.

Mr. Giberne was convinced that correct measurements, would show that the existing rates were excessive. A fresh survey would be costly and would leave openings for fraud. But reduction was loudly called for and he could suggest no other plan. That a peasant-holder was able to sublet his land at a profit did not prove that the Government demand was not too high. At the present Government rates the farmers had to tax their tenants exorbitantly to enable them to meet the Government demand; and these extra charges Government had no means of controling. Mr. Giberne proposed that the three sub-divisions should be measured, extra cesses abolished, and the rates reduced.[Mr. Giberne's Report, 421 of 5th April 1837. The cesses Mr. Giberne proposed to abolish yielded a total revenue of Rs. 74,796, Rs. 20,180 in Sankshi or Pen, Rs. 27,632 in Rajpuri or Roha, and Rs. 26,984 in Raygad or Mahad. The details are, in Pen babti Rs. 1149; savdi Rs. 3285; sar patil Rs. 518; kharedi Rs. 959; map vartala Rs. 3865; utatni Rs. 172; kasar nagdi Rs. 311; dyaja Rs. 1908; sar deshmukhi Rs. 1948; sahotra Rs. 1180; kote vartala Rs. 45; galhipatti Rs. 4193; potaari Rs. 70; bersal and mhaispatti Rs.' 79; tasar adhori Rs. 22; tasarjuti Rs. 12; tur taka Rs. 5: bhat bandi Rs. 19; bhada or rent for dastans Rs. 365; kasar about Rs. 60; gadgadi map vartala about Rs. 15; total Rs. 20,180. In Rajpuri, gallapatti Rs. 24,051; vajani patti Rs. 55; map vartala estimated Rs. 3240; kumbhar shikar Rs. 31; Angrias sar deshmukhi ain jama Rs. 56; babra estimated Rs. 19; mhaispatti Rs. 174; chand rat Rs. 3; sab rat Rs. 3; total Rs. 27,632. In Raygad or Mahad gallapatti Rs. 22,887; vajani patti Rs. 74; map vartala Rs. 1582; mukadami Rs. 1868; kharedi tup Rs.411; tut faski Rs. 162; total Rs 26,984. Mr. Giberne, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 259-260.] After reductions had been made the farmers might be forced to keep their demands within certain limits. [Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 277, 282.] All uplands without distinction of crop should, he thought, be taxed at an uniform bigha rate of 3s. (Rs. 1½). Mr. Giberne was of opinion that no interference was required between peasant holders and their tenants. If the Government demand was lowered and the revenue farmer's demands were limited, the tenants would get better terms and the peasant proprietors would be forced to reduce their demands. As regards unpaid labour or veth, it was originally levied from peasant proprietors as well as from customary and yearly tenants, but peasant proprietors had been freed from it in 1825-26. In the case of a revenue farmer s tenants in some villages one man from each house was required one day a week and a plough one day in the year. The tenant was fed when he was working for the farmer. In other villages the actual service was commuted into a yearly cash levy of from 1s. to 5s. (8 as.-Rs. 2½). Mr. Giberne estimated that the unpaid labour cess was worth £1500 (Rs. 15,000) to the khots of the three sub-divisions.[ Sankshi Rs. 2000, Rajpuri Rs. 7000, and Raygad RS. 6000. Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 280.] He thought that unless the Government demand was lowered, the levy could not be abolished without compensation.[Born. Gov. Rev. Rec. 775 of 1837, 280.] Mr. Giberne doubted if Pen was more heavily taxed than other parts of the district. The people of Pen were in a wretehed state. But this was greatly due to their love of liquor on which they spent all their savings. He agreed with Mr. Davies that liberal reductions were required, and that the crop share or abhavni system should be changed to an acre rate or bighoti [Bom. Gov. Rev. Reo. 775 of 1837, 283-284.]

In submitting the papers to Government Mr. Williamson, the Revenue Commissioner, considered that they proved that the district was oppressively assessed; that under the existing system British subjects were placed beyond the pale of British protection; that, the Government was in a great measure ignorant of the resources of the country; and that a class of middlemen had gained an excessive power of taxation. The regulations which restrained and directed Government in collecting the revenue did not restrain or direct the Konkan revenue farmers. He agreed with Mr. Giberne that this abuse had arisen from the deference which the British Government showed to rights, however hurtful to the public interest. He agreed with Mr. Giberne that a remedy was required and that if an enactment was wanted, it ought to be passed. A survey should be made and an inquiry instituted into extra cesses. After the survey the revenue farmers should be prevented from levying more than the survey rates. At the time of survey the practice of demanding unpaid labour might be stopped. Some of the cesses the Collector recommended for repeal were unconnected with the land revenue and might, Mr. Williamson thought, be at once abolished. The rest, he thought, had better remain till the survey was introduced. [Mr. Williamson, 583 of l0th Apri 837.Bom.Gov. Rev. Ree. 775 of 1837,211-217.]

Government [ No. 2314 of 1st Aug. 1837, Bom. Gov. REV. Rec. 775 of 1837, 367-380.] agreed that the lands in question were over-assessed and required a new survey and settlement. At the same time Government were not prepared to admit that the revenue farming system was altogether evil. In theory it was in some respects inferior to a settlement direct with peasant-proprietors; in practice it appeared at least equally good. In the years that had passed since the last survey many abuses had crept in and gathered head. One of these abuses was that the farmers had come to exercise an arbitrary power over their tenants which they had not originally enjoyed. That the revenue farmers should have the power of indefinitely increasing their demands on their tenants was not part of the system but an abuse of it. Many of the tenants, though their position was undefined by written law, were as old settlers in the village as the revenue farmer. Though these tenants had not the well-marked position of peasant proprietors, there was a scarcely less certain customary standard which was known as the fair and legitimate rate of demand by the revenue farmer. The existence of this customary rate should be inquired into and the revenue farmers forced to conform to it. This interference of Government could be exercised only in the case of customary tenants. It could not be exercised in the case of chance tenants. Even in the case of customary tenants, where they were poor and dependent on the revenue farmer for money and grain advances, Government interference would do no good. The farming system was disfigured by serious abuses. At the same time the system was not without advantages. The farmers helped their tenants and improved their villages in a way that was unknown in villages held by peasant proprietors. The demands of the revenue farmers were no doubt exorbitant. But was Government in a position to put a stop to or even to object to excessive demands so long as they showed no moderation in their claims on the revenue farmers? If a survey were made and a moderate land tax fixed, Government might prevent the revenue farmers from demanding from their tenants more than custom showed they had a right to demand. Government were not inclined to attach much importance to the abolition of unpaid labour. The custom was old and suited to the people's habits. If it was stopped some money cess would take its place, which the poorer tenants would find a heavier burden. Government did not agree that, when the survey was finished and a new assessment introduced, the revenue farmer should be barred from levying from his tenants anything more than the Government assessment. In many cases besides rent, the revenue farmer had a right to claim from his tenant payment for advances made and help given in the way of seed and plough cattle, and for these favours he was entitled, within certain limits, to recover an increased demand. As regards the yearly tenants Government were satisfied that they could not with advantage interfere between them and the overholders, whether peasant proprietors or revenue iarmers. Government approved of the proposal to introduce a survey, and ordered that it should begin in Sankshi or Pen.

Sankshi,1837-1844.

The proposed survey does not seem to have been carried out,  and the revision of assessment seems to have been confined to Sankshi or Pen. [In Rajpuri and Raygad no revision seems to have been made until the introduction of the 1864 survey. Only some lands in Raygad, thrown up by the original occupants owing to heavy assessment, were given to new holders at lower rates.] In 1837-38 Mr. Davies revised the rates in Pen, lowering the total rental from £9045 (Rs. 90,450) to £6652 (Rs. 66,520) or a reduction of 25 per cent. He seems not to have explained the system on which his reductions were based, and as his successors thought the reductions in some respects excessive, a revision was sanctioned. The revision was carried out by Mr. Sirason, the Revenue Commissioner, and Mr. Law, the Collector, and was introduced in 1843-44. The amended rates raised the revenue from £6494 to £7377 (Rs. (54,940-Rs. 73,770).[Capt Francis, 136 of 31st March 1858, Bom. Gov. Sel XCVI. 207.]

Alibag,1840-1852.

On the 9th April 1840, by the death of Raghoji Angria without legitimate issue, the district received the important addition of the territories of the Kolaba state. This state, besides several village groups now in Panvel and Pen, included the sub-divisions of Underi and Revdanda which together form the present Alibag. On the death of Raghoji Angria Mr. Davies was appointed Political Superintendent of Kolaba. And in 1844 the outlying village groups were embodied in Pen and Panvel, and the sub-divisions of Underi and Revdanda were brought under the British laws.[The Act was XVII. of 1844. The petty divisions that became part of Thana were Aurvalit, Tungartan, Karnala, Chimankhal, Vakrul, Durg, Haveli, and Antora.]

In 1840 when Angria's state came under British management the land revenue was paid in grain and the settlement was direct with the peasant-holders. The territory was small and compact enough to be-kept directly under the chiefs management. A system of repeated surveys had brought to light all sources of revenue. No margin of profit was left for revenue farmers or middlemen, and the rates were so high and the management so strict that the people of the British villages, which from time to time had been transferred to Angria, always loudly complained of being handed over to so grasping a master. [Capt. Francis, 88 of 24th February 1857, Bom. Gov. Sel. XCVI. 144.]

At the close of the first year of British management (1841), the grain rental was changed into cash rates to be fixed from year to year according to the market price of grain in January and February. [Mr. J. M. Davies, 260 of 20th November 1845, Jamabandi Report for 1844-45, para 16, in Bom. Gov. Sel. VII. 13, 14.] By degrees a large number of cesses, including house and tobacco cesses, were abolished, the change representing the remission of over £3500 (Rs. 35,000) or one-twelfth of the whole revenue. In other respects the old complicated revenue system remained unchanged for several years. In Government villages; so long as they paid the Government demand, the husbandmen held permanent possession of their lands and had the right of transfer by mortgage or sale. There were only two exceptions to this rule. Some small scattered areas known as the special or yearly contract land, kherij makta jamin or eksali makta jamin, which Government had the power of letting yearly to the highest bidder; and uplands in which, as they could be tilled for only two or three years at a time, occupancy rights ceased when they passed out of tillage.

The arable land was divided into dry crop or jirayat, and garden or bagayat. Of dry crop or jirayat the leading variety was rice land, which was divided into sweet or uthlapat, and salt or kharapat. The assessment on sweet rice lands consisted of two parts, the original rate and extra cesses, the whole being known as usnai. The original rates, ain dast, varied from 1¼ to 10½ mans the full bigha or acre; the extra cesses, which were additions to the original rate known as savdi vartala, babti, and mushahira, together represented an increase of about five-eighths. There were 215 rice rates in use, 200 of them in which the rent was taken in kind and fifteen in which the rent was taken in cash. The bigha rates in kind varied from 1¼ to 17¼ mans, and the money rates from 4s. 8d. to 11s. 2³/8 d.(Rs. 2-5-4 to Rs. 5-9-7). The whole assessment averaged about fifteen mans the full bigha or acre, or about three-eighths of the whole produce. These rates had been fixed by a survey called sanchni makta. In the sweet rice land they were considered to be in force for twenty-one years. When, in any season, part of a field failed, the barren patches were measured, and the rental was reduced or remitted. Salt rice, or kharapat, lands had two modes of tillage, painu where the sprouted seed was sown broadcast and avnu where the seed was sown in nurseries and the seedlings planted as in sweet rice fields. In salt rice lands the whole field seldom yielded. Patches were almost sure to dry and be scorched. To lighten the husbandman's losses the Salt rice fields were surveyed every year and the parts that yielded a crop were assessed, in broadcast fields on the basis of an acre rate of one to ten mans and in planted fields on a corresponding basis of from six to eleven mans. As regards the cost and profit of rice tillage the estimates showed, for an acre of first class sweet rice land, a total rental of 16 mans and 5¾ paylis, or at the average commutation rate of £1 8s. (Rs.14) the khandi, £1 3s. ⁷/8d. (Rs. 11-8-7), a cost of tillage amounting to £1 18s. 6¾d. (Rs. 19-4-6), and a crop return worth £4 2s. 7½d. (Rs. 41-5), that is a balance of £1 0s. 11⁷/8d. (Rs. 10-7-11). Corresponding estimates showed for second class sweet rice land. an acre balance of 14s. 1⁵/8d. (Rs. 7-1-1), and of 8s. 3¹/8d. (Rs. 4-2-1) in third class sweet rice land. The estimated balance in salt riceland was 4s. 6³/8d. (Rs. 2-4-3). [ The details are:

Cost and Profit of Alibag Rice village, 1840.

continued..

Bom. Gov. Sel. VII. 16-17.] Besides sweet and salt rice, under the head of dry or jirayat crops came the uplands and late crops chiefly pulse, hemp, and vegetables. These lands, which were of no great extent, were surveyed every year by the village accountants and assessed at fixed acre rates. For uplands there were three rates varying from 2s. to 3s. (Re. 1-Re, 1½); for late or pulse crops there was an uniform rate of one man, and eight cash rates varying from 2s. to 4s. 4½d. (Re. 1 - Rs. 2-3); for hemp there was an uniform rate of 2½ mans and two cash rates, one of 10s. (Rs. 5) and the other of 17s. 5⁷/8d. (Rs. 8-11-11); for vegetables there were three cash rates varying from 2s. to 10s. (Re. 1 - Rs. 5).

The rates on garden lands had formerly been in force for seven years. There were three forms of garden assessment, a tree rate bud dena, an acre rate, and a fruit rate kalit. There were eight varieties of tree rates varying from 6d. to 3s. (as. 4-Re. 1½), and three varieties of acre rate varying from 1s. to 3s. (as.8 -Re. 1½). When the state lapsed to the British, the produce rate on fruit trees was nominally two-thirds to the state and one-third to the grower. But extra cesses had raised the suate share to about 30 per cent, leaving only 17½ per cent to the grower.[Of 300 cocoanuts, the state share was 200 and the grower's share 100. The money value of the state share at a fixed rate of Re. 1-14 per 100 was Ra. 3-12, and extra cesses amounting to Re. 1-2-3 raised the total payable on 300 nuts to Rs. 4-14-3. The market value on the spot of 300 nuts at Rs. 2-4 a hundred amounted to Rs. 6-12; deducting from this the state demand (Rs. 4-14-3) and the loss (Re. 0-10-9) to the grower on 300 nuts at 10 per cent, as the state took 110 nuts for every hundred credited, the grower's profit amounted only to Re. 1-3: Bom. Gov. Sel. VII. 18.] Under this system many palm gardens were falling into decay and their cultivation would have been abandoned, had it not been for the hope of a change in the assessment. Between 1841 and 1851 a reduction of one-third of the state demand, placed this branch of garden cultivation on a satisfactory footing.

The right to graze in the Government grass lands was yearly sold by auction.

The effect on the land revenue of the changes and reductions of cesses introduced by the British was to lower the average receipts from £22,494 (Rs. 2,24,940) in the ten years ending 1839-40, to £18,353 (Rs. 1,83,530) in the nine years ending 1849-50. [The details are between 1830 and 1840:1830-31 Rs. 1,61,623,1831-32 Rs. 1,89,837, 1832-33 Rs. 1,64,932, 1833-34 Rs. 2,45,895, 1834-35 Rs. 2,46,645, 1835-36 Rs. 2,15,783, 1836-37 Rs. 2,53,509, 1837-38 Rs. 2,47,012,. 1838-39 Rs. 2,96,250, and 1839-40 Rs. 2,27,925. Between 1841 and 1850: 1841-42 Rs. 1,70,641, 1842-43 Rs. 1,73,694, 1843-44 Rs. 1,64,018, 1844-45 Rs. 1,66,052,1845-46 Rs. 1,80,669,1846-47 Rs. 2,07,915, 1847-48 Rs. 1,92,442, 1848-49 Rs. 1,82,903, 1849-50 Ks. 2,13,437. Bom. Gov. Sel. VIL 19.] The sayar or miscellaneous revenue consisted chiefly of liquor contracts and ferry farms. These were yearly let to the highest bidder. The average yearly revenue under this head showed a fall from £13,067 (Rs. 1,30,670) during the ten years ending 1839-40 to £4689 (Rs. 46,890) during the nine years ending 1849-50. [Bom. Gov. Sel. VII. 23.]

The survey and re-assessment of some of the lands of the district was sanctioned in 1848. [Gov. Letter 6100, 9th October 1848, Bom. Gov. Sel. CXLIV. 18, and Rev. Rec. 21 of 1848, 85.] In 1851 the work of revision was begun in the garden lands of Revdanda. With the help of committees or panchayats, Mr. Law, the Political Agent, arranged the lands into three classes at £1 4s., £1, and 16s. (Rs. 12, Rs. 10, and Rs. 8) a bigha. A special cess of 4s. (Rs. 2) was levied on all trees tapped for liquor. The rates were introduced only over an area of 54½ bighas yielding a rental of £58 (Rs. 580). In 1857, when the revenue survey was introduced into the neighbouring lands, Mr. Law's, settlement was found to have worked successfully. [Capt, Francis, 88 of 24th February 1857, Bom. Gov. Sel. XCVI. 155.] In 1852 the revision of rates was extended to the Alibag kharapat, on salt belt, a narrow tract on the west or left bank of the Nagothna creek. This tract contained the lands of fifty-six villages or khars, but as in many parts there was no fresh water only twenty-seven were inhabited villages. These lands were surveyed and assessed by the Political Agent, Mr. Jones, in 1852-53, and the rates guaranteed for twenty years.

With the Nagothna creek on the east and the Alibag hills on the west, this salt tract was seventeen miles long and from a quarter to three and a half miles broad. Almost the whole area is said to have been gained from the sea during the 300 years before the survey and much of it was some three or four feet below the level of spring tides.[Bom. Gov. Sel. CXLIV. 3.] Except near the village sites on the inland side it was entirely without trees. During the greater part of the year the climate was much the same as in the rest of Alibag, but in the hot weather the temperature was much higher, as the hills in the west stopped the sea breeze. There was no great variety of soil. Near the creeks it was mostly dark brown, and when dry extremely hard. It was strongly charged with salt and in some places had a considerable mixture of limestone. Under the surface soil was a stratum of semi-liquid mud. Near the hills the soil was lighter in colour, more crumbly, and sweetened by the hill drainage. White and red rice were the only produce. The land was never ploughed, but here and there a few clods of earth were turned with a pickaxe. The chief labour and expense were the making and mending of the dams. Every field was surrounded by dams from two to four feet high according to the distance from the creek. These dams had to be renewed every year and kept in repair as long as the crop was on the ground. In addition the main embankment along the creek had to be kept in order, and during spring tides had to be watched day and night.

Before 1852 almost the whole of the Government rental was taken in grain. There were no fewer than fifty-nine bigha rates varying from 1s. 6d. to 19s. 9¼d. (as. 12 - Rs.9-14-2). [The bigha was twenty pands or four-fifths of an acre. In every year the revenue depended-on the area of rent-paying land which an inquiry at harvest time showed to-be under tillage. Mr. Jones, 850 of 13th Decr. 1851, Bom. Gov. Sel. CXLIV. 19.] Mr. Jones survey was carried out on a system in some respects the same as the Deccan survey. The measurements showed 11,977½ acres or an increase of 1577½ acres over the former estimate. [The whole area of this salt-rice tract was according to the records 13,000 bighas or 10,400 acres. (Bom. Gov. Sel. CXLIV. 21). In the Underi survey report (1858) these kharapat villages are said to be fifty-seven in number and their area is returned at 19,244 acres. In the 1872 revision report of this tract, the villages number fifty-six and their area amounts to 13,269 acres.] The rice land of each village was divided into plots called khots, or lumps, ancient divisions whose limits were known to the people. [The Alibag kharapat is composed of 56 khars, which are described as portions of land successively wrested from the sea and surrounded with earthen embankments. The khars are again divided into khots and the khots into fields or numbers, which are the lowest sub-divisions recognised by the survey. Khot is probably the original allotment made when the land was recovered from the sea.' Mr. Wingate, 173 of 14th June 1852, Bom. Gov, Sel, CXIIV. 33.] The soils were arranged into four classes by a committee of clerks, accountants, and headmen acquainted with the land and the modes of tillage. Their work was superintended and tested by a superior committee, composed of the Agent's secretary or daftardar, the mamlatdar, and Mr. W. Hearn the Agent's head clerk, who was his chief assistant in carrying out the survey. Of the four classes of soil the first included soils not liable to be flooded by salt water and which had a sweet surface stratum of considerable depth. On these lands sweet rice and the white or best salt rice were alone grown. The second class soil was exposed to salt water and suffered from a salt subsoil close to the surface. It yielded red rice with an occasional crop of white. The third class soil was frequently injured by salt water and was mixed with gravel; it grew red rice only. The fourth lay close to the outside embankment, was constantly flooded, and had never been brought under tillage. The fifty-six villages or khars were arranged in four groups, according to their productiveness as ascertained from the average of the ten previous years. The first group included twenty-two villages with ¹²/10ths and upwards (12 pands the bigha) of their entire area under tillage; the second group included twenty-seven villages with from ⁷/20ths to ¹²/10ths (7-12 pands the bigha) under tillage; the third group included four villages with from ⁴/20ths to ⁷/20ths (4-7 pands the bigha) under tillage; and the fourth group included three villages, of which not more than one-fifth (4 pands the bigha) was under tillage. The following statement shows that, though there were nominally sixteen varieties of soil, there were practically only seven rates:

Alibag Salt Land Survey Rates, 1852.

In introducing the settlement five points called for special consideration, the pay of village headmen and accountants, the inspection of damaged crops, field marks, repairs of embankments, and the superintendence of embankments. Mr. Jones was of opinion that the headmen's pay should not be reduced in proportion to the reduction in assessment. An average of the income enjoyed in each village for ten years should, he thought, be struck, and the emoluments either fixed once for all or calculated at the proportion the average bore to the year's Government revenue. The accountant's duties extended over a group of villages called tappa, corresponding with the deshpande's taraf in the Deccan. In the whole belt of salt land there were only two of these charges, Under in the north and Shrigaon in the south. Under Angria's management the accountants had the entire charge of the yearly rent settlement, from the estimating of damaged crops and calculating what each holder had to pay to the preparation of the general village rent roll or taleband. The accounts and general records of every village were in their keeping. They had nothing to do with the actual collection of the revenue. Their pay was calculated on the net land rental at the rate of 2½ per cent (½ man the khandi) on the Government revenue. For many years before the lapse of Angria's state, half of their share was under confiscation, and since the introduction of British rule the whole had been equally divided between the Government and the accountants. Under British management the duties of the two families of accountants were to help the mamlatdar's establishment by paying for a clerk out of their share of the revenue. They had also to send a man to help the regular clerks at the yearly inspection of damaged crops. The members of the two families considered that the attachment of half of their income was an act of injustice, and expected that the whole would be restored to them. In their present state, they were of little use to Government, though, from their long possession of the revenue records, they had considerable local knowledge and power. Mr. Jones recommended that if the confiscated share of their pay was not restored, the members of the two families should have a preference for vacant posts of village accountants. As regards the' yearly inspection of crops, Mr. Jones was of opinion that it should cease except in the case of a total failure of crop in any particular field. In a country with no trees and few stones it was not easy to have good field marks. Mud banks seemed the only feasible way of marking the fields. But mud banks were easily injured or removed, and some special provision was required to prevent their being tampered with. To keep the dams in order every landholder was bound, on the summons of the headman of the village, to attend and help to repair any gap in the banks. At high tides; as soon as any burst in the dams was noticed, the villagers were called and standing in the mud formed a line from the gap twenty or thirty yards to the nearest raised plot of land. From this plot long clods of mud were dug with wooden spades, and passed rapidly from man to man and piled in the gap. The work was hard but seldom lasted for more than two hours. Any one who did not attend was fined, and the workers were paid by a draught of liquor. This system worked well and should, Mr. Jones thought, be continued. The practice of paying in liquor might seem open to objection. But the cost was small, and, if the men were paid in money, the expense would be greatly increased and most of the money would be spent on liquor. In salt lands which had been reclaimed by Government, the expense of keeping the dams in repair was met by a special levy of one man of rice from every bigha. In lands reclaimed by private persons the reclaimer or shilotridar met the cost from a special allowance of one man of rice from each bigha. [Bom. Gov. Sel, CXLIV. 30-32.] In Mr. Jones' opinion the existing arrangements in private reclamations should be continued, and the reclaimer be allowed to levy his special man of rice. In Government reclamations, he thought that the special embankment demand might be included in the rental and Government undertake to keep the dams in repair. Mr. Wingate thought that, if part of the expense of repairing the embankments was left to the landholders, they would be, more alert in seeing that the repairs were properly carried out. In this opinion Government agreed, and the practice of getting repairs made through village authorities and of paying the workers by a draught of liquor was continued.

The new rates worked well. In 1856 Mr. Reid notices that under the low rates of assessment the people had become so independent that they took it much, to heart, being obliged to pay their revenue by instalments instead of being allowed to pay the whole at once. [Mr. Reid, Sub-Collector, 7th July 1856, in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 20, part 4 of 1856,1414-1415.]

Kolaba Sub-Collectorate,1852-53.

On the 1st of October 1852 the Kolaba Agency was abolished, and Underi and Revdanda together with the three subdivisions of Sankshi, Rajpuri, and Raygad, with a total area of about 1400 square miles, were formed into a separate charge under the name of the Sub- Collectorate of Kolaba. This district contained 880½ villagesand 602 hamlets, and a population of about 278,500 souls or an average density of about 200 to the square mile. The staple products were rice and timber. The rice was chiefly grown for export as the people lived on nachni, vari, and other hill grains, for the growth of which the hill tops and sides were peculiarly suited. Of 180,500 bighas of arable land about 2200 were devoted to garden crops, 1900 to salt, 22,000 to hill grains, and the rest 104,400 to rice. [Mr. Reid, Sub-Collector, 7th July 1856, in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 20, part 4 of 1856, 1395-1396,1410-1411. Act VIII. of 1853, Notification Bom. Gov. Gaz, 18th May 1853.]

1837-1857.

Of the state of Pen, Roha, Mangaon, and Mahad, between Mr. Davies' inquiry in 1836 and the beginning of the survey in 1854, few details have been discovered. Though the survey which was ordered in 1837 seems never to have been carried out, several cesses, among them the house-tax, were abolished, [Gov. Letter, 16th July 1838, Rev. Rec. 867 of 1838, 354-355.] In 1841 the revenue showed an increase and the outstandings were very small. [Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 1348 of 1842,14, 188.] In 1844, under Act XIX several taxes were abolished, among them a craft tax mohtarfa, a fisher's or Koli tax, and a honey farm. [Thana Collector's File of Taxes, II.] In 1846-47 and 1847-48 the salt rice lands on the Nagothna creek suffered so severely from high tides, that the Collector thought that special measures would have to be taken to secure the outer embankments.[Mr. Law, Collector, 9th January 1849, Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 34 of 1851,47-50.] The latter rains of 1853-54 failed and caused a considerable loss of revenue, the tillage area declined, and the commutation rates had to be reduced.[Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 26 of 1858, part 9, 2877-2879.] Except for a hurricane in November, the season of 1854-55 was prosperous with an increase in tillage from 117,159 to 118,479 bighas[Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 16 of 1859, part 3, 1100, 1119.] In 1855-56 there was a,.considerable increase in land revenue owing to an average harvest, high prices of grain, and consequent increase in the commutation rates. There was throughout the season an unusual demand for grain chiefly rice, most of which was exported. to ports along the Malabar coast. The district had lately largely benefited by the opening of several new lines of roads and the building of three excellent paved landing-places on the Nagothha creek.[Mr. Reid, Sub-Collector, 7th July 1856, in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 20, part 4 of 1886, 1407-1408, 1419-1420.] In 1857-58 the rains were abundant and timely, and the harvest was much over the average. [Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 22 of 1861, 160-162.]

1865.

Of the state of the district at the close of this period Mr. Reid  wrote in 1856: 'Since the introduction of British rule, the khots have been allowed to remain in possession of their villages paying according to the tasar rates on a fixed assessment to Government. They make what terms they please with the general body of landholders, whom, through their degradation and the help of the munsifs' courts, the khots have reduced to the most abject dependence and poverty. Nothing can well exceed their poverty and the inefficiency of their means of cultivation. The khots exact a labour as well as a produce rent, and this demand is often excessive and the source of grievous oppression. When the people refuse to meet the khots' demands, the civil courts provide a remedy by allowing the khot to commute his labour and rent demands, and his claim for fowls, rice straw, and firewood, to a money payment [Mr. Reid, Sub-Collector, 7th July 1856, in Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 20, part 4 of 1856,1417-1419]

Revenue. 1837-1853.

The following statement shows the land revenue, the remissions,  the outstandings, and the collections during the sixteen years ending 1852-58, in the three sub-divisions of Sankshi, Rajpuri, and Raygad. It appears from these details that the Government demand varied little during this period, the highest amount being £49,578 (Rs. 4,95,780) in 1838-39, the lowest £38,026 (Rs. 3,80,260) in 1841-42, and the average £43,128 (Rs. 4,31,280). Similarly there was little change in the collections, the amount varying from £36,230) (Rs. 3,62,300) in 1841-42 to £46,169 (Rs. 4,61,690) in 1840-41, and averaging £40,619 (Rs. 4,06,190). Remissions varied from £165 (Rs. 1650) in 1840-41 to £8967 (Rs. 89,670) in 1838-39, and averaged £2039 (Rs. 20,390). Outstandings varied from £23 (Rs.230) in 1843-44 to £114 (Rs. 17,140) in 1850-51 and averaged £470 (Rs. 4700).

Kolaba Land Revenue, 1837-38 to 1852-53.

Survey.

The revenue survey was introduced into Kolaba between 1854 and 1866. The first of the new measurements and assessments were in 1857 and 1858 in the petty divisions of Revdanda and Underi, the present Alibag. The next was Sankshi or Pen in 1858, then Rajpuri or Roha and Mangaon in 1803, and lastly Raygad or Maha and Mangaon in 1866.

Revdanda,1857.

Revdanda, the southern half of the present Alibag, was surveyed between 1854 and 1856, and assessed in 1850-57. At the time of the survey Revdanda was bounded on the north by the Underi sub-division, on the east by the Sagargad hills, on the south by the Kundalika river or Revdanda creek, and on the west by the sea. The sea frontage stretched nearly fifteen miles from a small creek about three miles north of the town of Alibag to the large tidal Revdanda river. Along the coast was an almost unbroken belt of cocoanut and betelnut palms about half a mile broad. Behind the belt of palms lay a wide stretch of flat rice land, and beyond the rice fields rose the Sagargad hills. At the time of the survey, Revdanda had an area of 54,235 acres, and seventy-seven villages of which three were alienated. Of the whole area, 53,502 acres belonged to the seventy-four Government villages. Of these 24,223 acres were arable and 29,279 acres were hill or unarable land, including village sites and river beds. Of the arable area 13,075 acres were rice land, 2392 garden land, 496 rabi or late-crop land, and 8260 varkas or upland. The rates previously in force included two parts, the original assessment and additional cesses. The whole rental was taken in cash, the grain being commuted to cash according to the market price of grain in January and February of each year. [Capt. Francis, 24th February 1857, Bom. Gov. Sel. XCVI. 144.] The original bigha cess varied from 1¼ to 10½ mans, and with extra cesses rose in some cases as high as 16¼ or even 17½ mans. But these cases were exceptional; the average collections after deducting remissions were much smaller. Under the former system the revenue had fluctuated greatly, as remissions had varied from £62 (Rs. 620) in 1844-45 to £1614 (Rs. 16,140) in 1853-54.

Under the new settlement extra cesses were abolished, and an assessment of ten mans in place of ten and a half was fixed as the standard maximum rate. [Mr. Hearn estimated the acre yield of the best Revdanda rice lands at fifty mans. The survey maximum grain rates were in the proportion of about one-fifth of the gross produce, while the former rates at seventeen mans including cesses represented about one-third of the whole outturn. Bom. Gov. Sel. XCVI. 146.] The commutation rate by which the rseney payment was to be calculated was fixed at £1 8s. (Rs. 14) the khandi of twenty mans. [ In 1865-56 the commutation rate was fixed at £1 10s. (Rs. 15). The average of the past ten years showed that this rate amounted to a little under £1 6s. (Rs. 13). In 1852 and 1853 it was only £1 3s and £1 1s. (Rs. 11½ and Rs. 10½ respectively, which was a stoat reduction on the market pries of the day, and in 1854-55 it was fixed at £1 2s. (Rs. 11). Bom. Gov. Sel. XCVI. 146.] On this basis the highest acre rate was fixed at 14s. (Rs. 7), subject to an addition of 3d. (as. 2) in every 2s. (Re. 1) in the case of lands that yielded second crops. In seven outlying villages, some of them near the Sagargad hills and others in the extreme south-east of the sub-division, the highest acre rate was reduced to 12s. (Rs. 6). For salt lands or kharapats, some of which were better than those of Panvel, the highest acre rate was 10s. (Rs. 5) in place of 9s. (Rs. 4½) in Panvel. In the few salt plots near the Roha creek, which were much exposed to tidal flooding, the highest acre rata was reduced to 9s. (Rs. 4½). In Captain Francis' opinion, the small area of late crop or raba land was in no way more valuable than in other sub-divisions. For this land the Nasrapur and Panvel maximum rate of 3s. (Rs.1½) was fixed.

As regards garden lands, cocoa-palm were considered to produce two crops, the nut and the juice. For these three acre rates ware proposed £1 4s., £1, and 16s. (Rs. 12, Rs. 10, and Rs. 8). The last rate was confined to one village whose palm gardens were fast going out of cultivation. Trees kept for tapping were charged an extra tax of 4s. (Rs. 2). This system had been in force in the Revdanda gardens since 1852, and had worked well. If it was extended existing taxes on stills and distillers would have to be abolished. [The existing taxes were a liquor trade cess, or dhareba, a fee of 4s. (Rs. 2) levied from all Bhandiria who sold unfermented toddy, and a license fee of 2s. (Rs.1) on all Bhadaris who sold fermented liquor. There were two taxes on stills called markai bhatti sad kalam bhatti. The rnarkai was levied from those Bhandaris only who distilled and sold liquor. The kalam, bhatti was levied from distillers who lived in villages where no toddy was produced. The Bhandaris of Alibag town paid special license tax called rendh. varying from 2s. to 4s. Re. 1-Rs.2) and cess called post-, literally largess or drinking money, which had been commuted to a money payment of 3d. to 3s. (as. 2 - Rs. ½). Bom. Gov. Sel. XOVI. 157.]

The garden revenue in 1855-56 amounted to £1635, (Rs. 16,350). Of this £1431 (Rs. 14,310) were credited to land revenue and £204 (Rs. 2040) on account of dhareba or liquor trade and other taxes, were credited to excise. The survey rental under this head showed an increase of 85 per cent. The following statement gives the details:

Revdanda Garden Land Settlement, 1857.

The upland or varkas was of small extent. It was separately assessed by fields marked off by means of the map. As the land was valuable for grass and leaf manure, it was charged from 2¼d. to 6d. (as. 1½ - as. 4) an acre.

The new rates showed an increase of £416 (Rs. 4160) or 4½ per cent above the land revenue (£9211) of the preceding year (1855-56); of £2053 (Rs. 20,530) or 27 per cent above the average receipts (£7574) of the ten years ending 1855-56; and of £1816 (Rs. 18,160) or 23 per cent above the average (£7811) of the past twenty-one years.

The following statement shows the effect of the surrey:

Revdanda Settlement, 1857.

Underi,1858

The Underi sub-division, now the northern half of Alibag, was surveyed between 1854. and 1856 and assessed in 1857-58. At the time of the survey, Underi, with an area of 113 square miles or 73,281 acres, contained 130 villages, of which four were entirely and two were partly alienated. Of the whole area 2390 acres belonged to the four alienated villages. Of the 124 Government villages fifty-seven, with an area of 19,244 acres, were the salt rice villages which had been surveyed in 1852-53 and whose lease of twenty years was still running. These were re-measured and the large plots or lumps, khots, some of which were as much as 100 acres in area, were broken into ordinary survey numbers and their limits marked with stones. Of the rest 10,675 acres were Government sweet rice land, 830 acres were late or pulse, 876 garden, 25,976 upland, 13,189 unarable, and 101 alienated. Of the sixty-nine unsurveyed villages, sixty-seven were Government and two partly alienated. During the last five years of Angria's government (1836 to 1840), the yearly collections averaged a little over £5000 (Rs. 50,000). During the seventeen years of British management, chiefly from changes in the commutation rates, the revenue varied from£3224 (Rs.32,240) in 1841-42 to £6000 (Rs.60,000) in 1856-57. [The commutation rates ranged from £1 1s, (Rs. 10½) in 1841 to £1 10s. (Rs. 15) in 1857. Bom. Gov. Sel. XCVI, 183,] The existing settlement was based on a survey of Angria's. The areas were measured in bighas of about 34,844 square feet. But either the measuring had been carelessly done or unregistered additions had been made to the arable area, as instead of 7786 bighds of 34,844 square feet the survey showed 9273 acres of 43,560 square feet.

The existing rates were uneven and in many villages excessive. Though in some villages the bigha rates were as low as 8s. (Rs. 4), in others they were as high as 16¼ mans, which, at the commutation price of £1 10s. (Rs. 15) the khandi, represented a cash bigha rate of £1 4s. 4½d. (Rs. 12-3-0). While the survey was in progress (1855-1857), probably from the considerable rise in produce prices, much waste land was taken for cultivation.

The sixty-nine villages settled in 1858 were arranged in four groups. The first group included twelve villages with a highest acre rate of 15s. (Rs.7½) for rice or 17s. (Rs. 8½) including the second crop. These were the Saral villages in the north, which were famous for their richness, yielding on each bigha from 2 to 2½ khandis of thrashed grain worth from £4 to £5 (Rs. 40-Rs. 50), and-by means of the Revas and Mandva ports in easy communication with Bombay. For these reasons a special acre rate of 15s. (Rs.' 7½) was imposed. The second class included a group of forty-three villages charged at 14s. (Rs. 7) an acre. Eight villages bordering on the Sagargad hills and not within easy reach of water were placed in the third group and charged 12s. (Rs. 6) an acre. To the south of this third group, scattered among the spurs of the Sagargad. hills, were six outlying villages most of them unreachable by carts. They were placed in the fourth group with an acre rate of 10s. (Rs.5).

'The assessment from these rates amounted to £5631 (Rs. 56,310) of which £5394 (Rs. 53,940) fell to the lands under cultivation in 1857 and £237 (Rs. 2370) to the waste. The average collections in the twenty-two years before the survey were £4798 (Rs. 47,980), and in the ten years before £4865 (Rs. 48,650). Compared with the collections of 1857 the new rates showed a reduction of £688 (Rs. 6880) or eleven per cent, and compared with the average of the ten years before the survey, an increase of £529 (Rs. 5290) or ten per cent.

The area of garden lands was small, and, as a rule, the gardens were neither so well stocked with cocoa palms, nor so fertile as those of Revdanda. A maximum garden acre rate of £1 (Rs. 10) was proposed. The assessment at the new rates amounted to £322 (Rs. 3220) against £391 (Rs. 3910) in 1857-58 and £380 (Rs. 3800) the average of the past ten years. Besides this a tax of 4s. (Rs. 2) was proposed for every tree tapped for liquor.

The following statement shows the effect of the survey:

Underi Settlement, 1858.

Sankshi 1858.

Sankshi, including the present Pen and Nagothna, was surveyed , in 1855 and 1856 and assessed in 1857-58. At the time of the survey Sankshi contained 178 Government and twenty alienated villages. Of the Government villages fifty-five were salt rice villages. The survey showed an area of 176,920 acres of which 14,533 were alienated. Of the rest 32,926 acres were arable rice land, 218 were cold weather or pulse land, 5 were garden land, 110,489 were upland, and 18,749 unarable. In the mahalkari's charge the rent of the sweet rice lands vas based upon a grain rate, annually converted into a money rental at a certain fixed commutation price. But, except in a few villages, fixed money rates had been introduced into the mamlatdar's sub-division before the beginning of British rule. [Bom. Gov. Sel. XCVL 207.]

Though the increased rates which Mr. Law had introduced in 1843-44 are said not to have been excessive, they were accompanied with considerable remissions rising as high as £2500 (Rs. 25,000) in 1845-46 and £1700 (Rs. 17,000) in 1848-49 and 1852-53, and in the ten years ending 1857 averaging £717 (Rs. 7170). These large remissions were to some extent due to the special uncertainty of the salt-rice cultivation.

In Captain Francis' opinion Pen could pay a higher rent than it had been paying for the ten previous years. Much of the land was in the hands of Brahmans and moneylenders who lived in Pen, the actual husbandmen being their tenants. Both the upper and the under-holders seemed to make good profits. This was partly due to the help given by the large salt works which yielded a yearly revenue of about £20,000 (Rs. 2,00,000) from places where 110 rice could grow, and supplied a well-paid form of labour to the husbandmen when their field work was slack. Except in some of the farmed villages where there seemed to be a good deal of poverty, the husbandmen were fairly off, living comfortably and considering a supply of liquor a daily necessary.

Exclusive of the fifty-five salt rice villages the 123 Government villages were arranged in five groups. The first group with thirty-six Nagothna villages, some of them near the creek and others within an easy distance of Nagothna, were charged a highest acre rate of 14s. (Rs. 7). The second group, with a highest acre rate of 12s. (Rs. 6), included forty-nine villages some round the town of Pen and a few near the Apta creek. Of these thirteen in Nagothna were inland, and the rice lands of some of the rest about Pen were not so rich as those of Nagothna and Underi. The remaining thirty-eight villages were divided into three lower classes. A maximum rate of 10s. (Rs. 5) was levied on six villages on the borders of the Tungartan petty division of Panvel, where the same rate had been introduced in 1857. A highest acre rats of 9s. (Rs. 4½) was levied on twenty-three villages in the Chatisi petty division from fifteen to eighteen miles north-east of Pen. And a highest acre rate of 8s. (Rs. 4) was introduced into nine wild villages separated from the rest of the sub-division by a belt of the Pant Sachiv's territory.

In the fifty-five salt rice villages the highest acre rates fixed were 9s. (Rs. 4½) and 8s. (Rs. 4), which seem to have represented a rise of about eight per cent, above the average collections in the ten previous years. [Full details are not available. The villages where Captain Francis made the seventy showed a rise from £4972 to £5358 (Rs. 49,720 - Rs. 53,580). Bom. Gov] A highest acre rate of 3s. (Rs. 1½) was fixed for the small area, 223 acres, of cold weather or pulse lands. A highest acre rate of 6s. (Rs. 3) was fixed for garden land of which there were only five or six acres. All the uplands were measured and classified, and acre rates of 6d. and 4½d. (as. 4 and 3) were fixed.

The following statement shows the effect of the survey:

Sarikshi or Pen Settlement, 1858.

Deducting remissions the average yearly Collections from the seventy-two villages under the mamlatdar, during the ten years ending 1857, was £6966 (Rs. 69,660). Under the rice rates proposed in 1858 the assessment amounted to £7573 (Rs.75, 730), or an increase of about 8 ½ per cent. Since 1854 the rise in produce prices, and partly perhaps the certainty of tenure which the revenue survey promised, had caused a marked increase in tillage accompanied by a steady rise in revenue from £7119 (Rs. 71,190) in 1853-54 to £7475 (Rs. 74,750) in 1854-55, £7496 (Rs. 74,960) in 1855-56, and £7616 (Rs. 76,160) in 1856-57. When the survey was introduced only 284 acres of rice land remained waste. [Bom. Gov. Sel-. XCVI. 208-209.]

Nagothna Khoti System,1860

In Sankshi there were fifty-four khoti or farmed villages, eight of them in the mamlatdar's and forty-six in the mahalkari's charge. It was agreed that the khots should continue as over-holders, taking their villages in lease for thirty years at the survey rates. The grant of these terms was made subject to the following conditions. The Khot was to take from the peasant holders or dharekaris nothing more than the survey rates, and the peasant holder was to bare the same rights of mortgage and sale as peasant holders in Government villages. The khot was to give the tenants or cultivators of his land a lease of their present holdings at rates not more than one-half in excess of the survey assessment. Two-thirds of this amount were to be converted into a grain rent at the rate of one man of rice for every rupee of the survey assessment, the remaining third was to be paid in cash. The khot was to sign an agreement in which these conditions were embodied, and which provided that the manager of the village should furnish security for the payment of the year's revenue, and that in villages where there Were several sharers in the khotship, each sharer on succeeding should furnish the same security. Where there was more than one sharer in a khotship, it was provided that the sharers should, subject to the Collector's approval, choose a manager who should take charge of the affairs of the village for one year The other members were to succeed in yearly turn. If any member was unwilling or unable to. serve in his turn, the rest were to choose a manager.

In the case of all tenants the demands of the khot were limited to fifty per cent over the Government demand. Op to this limit Government engaged to help the khot to recover his claims. The khots strongly opposed this limitation of their profit to fifty per cent. But some limit to their demand was necessary for the well-being of the tenants, fifty per cent was a large margin of profit, and the khot gained greatly by having the help of Government in realising his claims.

Nagottna Khoti Village Settlement, 1860.

Rajpuri,1865

Rajpuri, corresponding to the present Roha and part of Mangaon, was surveyed between 1855 and 1858 and assessed in 1862-63. Besides the petty eastern division of Nizampur, which was separately surveyed and settled in 1862, it had 238 villages of which six were wholly and one was partly alienated. Of the Government villages, about two-fifths of the 132 in the mamlatdar's charge and all but nine of the 100 in the Tala mahalkari's charge were held by revenue farmers or khots. Under the previous system all were assessed (1862) at a grain rent commuted into a cash payment at a rate fixed from year to year according to the market price of grain. Though not so well supplied with markets as the Alibag villages, the Rajpuri rice lands were noted for their fertility. As much as three khandis an acre, were occasionally grown, and two khandis was an ordinary crop. This at the high prices that were ruling at the time of survey (about Rs. 25 a khandi) represented an acre outturn of £5 (Rs. 50). The richness of the Rajpuri rice lands was mainly due to the hills whose drainage furnished an abundant supply of water. The Roha valley was remarkably fertile and well watered, and the town of Roha was an excellent market from which rice went to Bombay and to the Ratnagiri ports. Tala had some rice lands of noted fertility, a market of its own, and boat stations at Mandad on the Janjira creek and at Goregaon in Mangaon. Of the 232 villages settled in 1863, the whole lands of two were submerged, and only the village site of a third remained. Twelve were salt rice villages which were assessed at 10s. and 9s. (Rs. 5 and Rs. 4 ½) the acre. The remaining 217 villages were arranged in five classes. Of thirty villages placed in the first class with a highest acre rate of 15s. (Rs. 7 ½), the rice lands were very fertile, and the villages were within five miles of Roha. The second group included sixty-four villages with a highest acre rate of 14s. (Rs. 7). They had very rich land and lay some of them between six and ten miles of Roha, and others round Tala and along the Revdanda and Janjira creeks. The third group of eighty-one villages, with highest acre rates of 12s. and 13s. (Rs. 6 and Rs. 6 ½), lay east of the second group, for the most part in the centre of the sub-division. The fourth group of forty villages had highest acre rates of 10s and 11s. (Rs. 5 and Rs. 54), and the fifth group of two villages had a highest acre rate of 8s. (Rs. 4). [Major Francis afterwards changed these rates, by the addition of an eighth (as. 2 in the rupee), raising them to the following totals. For the first group Rs. 8-7; for the second group Rs. 7-14; for the third group Rs. 7-5 and Rs. 6-12; and for the fourth group RS. 6-3 and Rs. 5-10. Bom. Gov. Sel, LXXIV. 9.] These forty-two villages of the fourth and fifth groups lay in the wild lands close to Nizampur, far from market and not easy to get at. For late or pulse lands a highest acre rate of 2s. (Re. 1) was proposed. There was a considerable area of upland tillage in some of the hilly southern villages near Janjira. This upland cultivation was of no special value, and, as there was no market for the grass, acre rates of 6d. (as. 4) for ordinary and 4 ½ d. (as. 3) for the wilder villages were proposed.

The following statement shows the effect of the survey:

Rajpuri Settlement, 1863.

continued..

Under the former system, chiefly from changes in the commutation. rates, the revenue had varied greatly from year to rear. In the twenty years ending 1861-62, the highest collections were £20,000 (Rs. 2,00,000) in 1859-60, when the commutation rate was fixed at £2 8s. (Rs. 24) the khandi, while, in 1854-55, only five years before, the collections amounted to £11,600 (Rs. 1,16,000) when the commutation rate seems to have been about £1 (Rs-10). [The rate for Rajpuri has not been found. It was Rs. 11 in Underi and Rs. 9 in Nizampur. Bom. Gov. Sel. XCVI. 183, 353.] Compared with the previous year (1861-62) the effect of the survey settlement was a reduction of £1476 (Rs. 14,760) or 8 per cent; compared with the average of ten years before it was an increase of £444 (Rs. 4440) or 2.9 per cent; and. compared with the average of twenty years before it was an increase of £2144 (Rs. 21,440) or 16 per cent.

Nizampur, 1862.

The petty division of Nizampur in Rajpuri was surveyed in 1856  and assessed in 1861-62. It was bounded on the north by a chain of hills running west from the Sahyadris, on the east by the Sahyadris, on the south by the Raygad sub-division, and on the west by the mamlatdar's division of Rajpuri. Of the eighty-nine villages, eighty-one were Government, and one whole village and half the revenues of seven others were alienated. [At the time of cession (18,18) Nizampur contained 83 villages; three villages received from the. Pant Sachiv were added in 1829-30, and three more were added in 1844-45, after the lapse of Angria's state. Bom. Gov, Sel. XCVI. 345.] The road from Nagothna to Mahabaleshvar, which passed through some of the western villages, was (1862) the only track fit for carts. A branch line was being made joining Nizampur with the main road. Produce could be taken to market along numerous bullock tracks. The town of Roha, about seven miles from some of the western village, was the chief rice market. Part of the rice crop was carried to Goregaon and Mahad from south Nizampur, and a smaller quantity found its way from the villages under the Sahyadri hills up the Pimpri pass to Poona, but the Pimpri road was so bad that this line was seldom used. Little grain was sold at Nizampur; the bulk of theproduce went to the Goregaon, Mahad, and Poona markets.

Compared with the earlier surveyed sub-divisions, Nizampur showed very large fluctuations in revenue during the twenty years endirg 1860-61. These fluctuations were caused by changes in the yearly commutation rates. The years 1852-53 and 1859-60 were striking instances of these fluctuations. From nearly the same area the collections on account of rice land in 1859-60 were £4783 (Rs. 47,830) compared with £2468 (Rs. 24,680) in 1852-53. The commutation rate had risen from 16s. (Rs. 8) the khandi in 1852-53 to £2 4s. (Rs. 22) in 1859-60. [

Nizampur Yearly Commutation Rate, 1851-1861.

The commutation rates of 1859-60 were excessive and did' much mischief by forcing holders to mortgage their land. Major Francis (44 of 21st January 1862) wrote, ' I know that a large number of holdings were mortgaged to raise the money required for the years rent. It is to be feared many of them have passed for ever into the hands of the moneylender, for it is seldom that a husbandman can free himself from debt when once fairly in the lender's books.' Bom. Gov. Sel, XCVI. 849, 353.]

The survey settlement was the first revision of assessment since Nizampur came under British management. The land measurements shown in the accounts were those of a survey said to have been made in 1784-85 by one 'Govindrav, the mamlatdar of Rajpuri. His assessment was originally in grain, and was continued in that form, the payments being fixed by yearly commutation rates." The revenue survey showed a large increase in the area of rice land, caused by the spread of rice tillage since the former survey. "Without roads and with no local market Nizampur was incapable of bearing any high rate of assessment. Some parts were much better than others in regard to distance from market and ease of export. The villages near the Mahabaleshvar road were in the most favourable position. They were generally nearer the Roha market than the rest, and had the advantage of the Mahabaleshvar road for cart traffic. These with Nizampur and a few villages round it formed the first class, with a highest acre rate of 12s. (Rs. 6). Villages bordering on the first class villages formed the second class, with a highest acre rate of 10s. (Rs. 5). Villages between the second group and those under the Sahyadri hills formed the third class, with a highest acre rate of 8s. (Rs. 4). The fourth class, consisting of villages lying under the Sahyadris, were charged a highest acre rate of 6s. (Rs. 3) or 50 per cent less than the rates levied on villages near the Mahabaleshvar road. The rough country, the distance from market, the bad climate, and the injury done to crops by pigs and other wild animals, seriously affected the value of land in this part of the sub-division.

The late or rabi land was scanty and poor, and generally unsuited to the growth of the better cold weather crops. The highest acre rate was fixed at 2s. (Re. 1).

The upland, or varkas, though extensive, was useful only for tillage as there was no market for grass. In three villages whose upland was specially productive, an acre rate of 9d. (6 as.) was fixed; in the rest the rate, was 6d.(as.4).

The following statement shows the effect of the survey:

Nizampur Settlement, 1862.

This statement shows a decrease of over £400 (Rs. 4000) in the assessment. of the cultivated area compared with the average collections during the ten previous years.. But the rental of waste land in villages held by revenue farmers or khots raised the new assessment about £200 (Rs. 2000) over past payments.

Nizampur Khoti Sytem, 1862

Except in a few respects, the villages held by revenue farmers or khots in Nizampur were settled on the same system as in Nagothna. One of the chief differences was that, at the joint request of the revenue farmers and their tenants, the tenants' payments were fixed entirely in cash instead of partly in cash and partly in grain. Major Francis thought that this charge would be of advantage to the people, as it would free them from interference and from possibly unfair grain measurements. Under a system of cash payments the khot was little more than an accountant, collecting rents at fixed periods and having no control over the tenant's grain. A second point of difference was, that, unlike Nagothna where they were allowed an uniform profit of fifty per cent, the Nizdmpur khots were allowed a profit of fifty per cent on rice and of thirty-three per cent on uplands. A lower scale of profit was fixed for uplands, because the crop was uncertain and the return for labour less than in rice land.

Raygad 1866.

Raygad, the present Mahad and part of Mangaon, was surveyed  and settled in 1865-66. It included three divisions, Mahad, Goregaon, and Birvadi. Though abounding in hills and in many parts rough and rocky, Raygad had on the whole fair facilities for transport and export. Mahad and Birvadi were crossed by the high roads to Satara and Mahabaleshvar, and there were branch roads running three miles from Lovara to Goregaon and six miles from Nata to Mahad. There were also several boat stations among them Dasgaon, Goregaon, Mahad, Chimbava, and Varati, which together placed the greater part of Mahad and Goregaon within easy reach of water carriage. Birvadi had the advantage of the Mahabaleshvar and Satara roads, but had no boat station. The petty divisions of Kondvi and Vineri were also without roads, and many of their villages were very distant from a market or boat station. Much of the produce was taken from Latvan and the neighbouring villages to Dapoli in Ratnagiri. The rice -lands were particularly fertile, especially near Mahad, Goregaon, and Birvadi, where most of the land bore a rich second crop of pulse.

During the twenty years ending 1864-65. the land revenue had greatly increased. This increase was specially marked in Mahad where it had risen from £6078 (Rs. 60,780) in 1845-46 to £8603 (Rs. 86,030) in 1864-65, and in Goregaon where the increase was from £4070 (Rs. 40,700) in 1845-46 to £6590 (Rs. 65,900) in 1864-65. In 1865 the Goregaon revenue from rice alone was £470 (Rs. 4700) in excess of the total average payments during the ten previous years (1854-1864). This increase in both the divisions was chiefly on the rice lands. It was due to the extremely high price of rice which had enabled the commutation rates to be fixed as high as £3 (Rs. 30) the khandi.

In Major Waddington's opinion these two divisions, were overtaxed, especially Goregaon where the average acre rates were 11s. 1½ d. (Rs. 5-9) compared with 9s. 7 ½d. (Rs. 4-13) in Mahad. In Birvadi the commutation rate in 1865 was as high as £2 15s. (Rs. 27 ½) the khandi. But this rate applied to only 65 out of the 134 villages. Of the rest 66 had, for many years, paid an unvarying rate of £1 8s. (Rs. 14), and the other three villages were assessed at a fixed payment, ukta tharav. The rice rental varied from £3426 (Rs. 34,260) in 1845-46 to £3558 (Rs. 35,580) in 1854-55 and £4443 (Rs. 44,430) in 1864-65, and the average acre rate for rice land was 6s.10 ½ d. (Rs. 3-7). In 1865, the rental of the Birvadi uplands was only £1264 (Rs. 12,640) on 88,057acres or 3⅜d. (as. 2¼) the acre compared with 7⅜d. (as. 4-11) in Goregaon and 5 ½ d. (as. 3-8) in Mahad. Major Waddington thought that Birvadi could bear an increase of assessment, and proposed an average rice acre rate of 7s.3d. (Rs. 3-10) and an upland rate of 4d. (as. 2-8). Of the 314 villages seventy-five were peasant held, 234 were held by revenue farmers, and five were alienated. Of the khot villages ten were share or sharakati and six were special service or izafat. The following rates were introduced into 310 villages, seventy-five of them peasant held, 234 khoti, and one alienated. Of these 310 villages three had no rice land. The remaining 307 were arranged in seven classes. The first class with a highest acre rate of 18s. (Rs. 9) included six villages round Mahad and Dasgaon, which were close to the creek and whose soil was specially rich. The second class with a highest acre rate of 16s. (Rs. 8) included thirty-three villages whose soil was a little less rich, among them Birvadi and Goregaon and villages within three miles of Goregaon, Mahad, and Dasgaon, and near the creek or highroad. The third class, with a highest acre rate of 14s. (Rs. 7), included fifty-nine villages, some within three miles of Birvadi and on the road, and others from three to six miles from Mahad, Dasgaon, or Goregaon, or from three to five miles of water carriage. The fourth class with a highest, acre rate of 12s. (Rs. 6) included forty-eight villages from six to eight miles from Mahad or Dasgaon, and from five to six miles from Birvadi and Goregaon, and a few better placed villages of inferior soil. The fifth class, with a highest acre rate of 10s. (Rs. 5), included forty-nine villages. They were Poladpur and Vineri and villages within three or four miles of those places; also villages adjoining those of class six but further from the roads or from water carriage. The sixth class, with a highest acre rate of 8s. (Rs. 4), included seventy-six villages within six miles of Vineri and Poladpur, or near the Sahyadris not far from the road and generally close to the villages of class five. The seventh class, with a highest acre rate of 6s. (Rs. 3), included thirty-six wild villages between Vineri and Poladpur, and between the Mahabaleshvar and Satara roads under the Sahyadris, or to the north of the Satara road and below the Sahyadris.

The garden lands were only a few acres in six villages. The chief produce in some were betel and a few cocoa-palms, and in others plantains and sugarcane. Maximum acre rates of £1 (Rs. 10) for betel and cocoa palms, and 12s. (Rs. 6) for other garden produce were proposed.

There were some very fine cold weather vegetable lands along the Savitri at Mahad and Dasgaon, in which rich crops of pulse and occasionally of gram and tobacco were raised. For this land a special rate of 4s. (Rs. 2) falling according to circumstances to 3s. (Rs. 1 ½) and 2s. (Re. 1) was proposed; for the uplands acre rates of 6d. (as. 4) and 7 ½ d. (as. 5) were fixed.

The following statement shows the effect of the survey:

Raygad Survey Settlement, 1866.

continued..

These details show a fall in the survey assessment of £858, (Rs. 8580) or 4 per cent, compared with the revenue in 1865, and a rise of £2185 (Rs. 21,850) or 12 per cent, compared with the average payment in the ten years ending 1865. [

 Raygad Settlement, 1866.

]

Alibag 1872.

In 1872 the twenty years' lease granted by Mr. Jones to the salt rice or kharapat, villages of Alibag came to an end. These lands had been re-measured in 1856-57, when the former large lumps or plots, khots, were broken into ordinary survey numbers and the limits marked with stones. Of 13,269 acres 12,564 were arable and 705 were unassessed waste. Of the arable land all except 786 acres were under tillage. During the twenty years of Mr. Jones' settlement (1852-1872) the salt villages had prospered. [Mr. Ashburner, 3Oth January 1873. Bom. Gov. Sel. CXLIV. 1.] The value of rice, their staple product, had risen nearlv threefold from 17s. (Rs.8 ½) the khandi in 1852 to £2 10s. (Rs. 25) in 1872. The number of ploughs had fallen from 190 to 128. But under other heads the returns showed a considerable advance. The number of people had risen from 6948 in 1852 to 9200 in 1872 or 32 per cent; houses from 1453 to 1714 or 18 per cent; live stock from 446 to 2390 or 435 per cent; and carts from two to eight. During these twenty years, of a total of £964 (Rs. 9640) of remissions £798 (Rs. 7980) were granted during the first year of the settlement (1852-53). During the ten years ending 1872 the remissions amounted to only £8 (Rs. 80). The area of land paying assessment varied little, and since the year 1854 the yearly increase and decrease had never been more than 200 acres.

The supply of fresh water was still extremely. scanty. Only seven villages had wells or ponds. In many cases drinking water had to be carried two miles. Made roads from the Revas and Dharamtar piers crossed the tract westward to Alibag, and a cart track running north and south, from Revas to Poinad, passed through nearly all the western villages. Roads were hardly required, as the creeks which interlaced the surface were navigable for small boats at high tide. The nearest local market was Alibag about twelve miles to the west. But there was little trade with Alibag, as it was more convenient to send the produce by boat either to Bombay or to Nagothna. A small quantity of salt was made in one village, and in eight villages there were stills for the manufacture of paln liquor. The right of making liquor was sold every year by auction and in 1872 yielded £560 (Rs. 5600). Most of the liquor was for local use.

In 1872 the classification of the soil was revised on the system adopted in the Thana salt lands. The new acre rates were 10s. (Rs. 5) for first class villages, 9s. (Rs. 4 ½) for second, and 8s. (Rs. 4) for third. Villages bordering on sweet rice lands were placed in the first class; those between the first class and the creek were included in the second class; and those near the mouth of the creek and most exposed to salt water in the third class. These rates were the same as had been introduced in the neighbouring salt lands of Uran in Thana. The quality of the soil, the style of tillage, and the products of both were alike, and both districts were almost equally well placed as regards distance from Bombay. [Mr. Gibson, 1872, Bom. Gov. Sel. CXLIV. 7.] The last class included two islands some distance from the mouth of the creek, which were much exposed to flooding during the rains.

The following statement shows the effect of the new rates:

 Alibag Salt Land Settlement, 1852 and 1872.

Including the very small area of arable waste, which if brought under tillage would yield a rental of £24 (Rs. 240), the increase in the total payments was £1100 (Rs. 11,000). The average acre rate was raised from 4s. 6⁵/8d. to 6s. 2⅛d. (Rs. 2-4-6 to Rs. 3-1-5) or an increase of about 35 per cent. The percentage increase in the different classes was 51 per cent in the first, 61 in the second, and 28 in the third.

Survey Result, 1855-1878.

The following statement [Supplied (1880) by Mr. W. G. Harrison of the Rutnagiri Survey.] shows the chief changes in remissions, collections, and outstandings, since the introduction of the revenue survey. It appears from these details that the Government demand rose from £47,309 (Rs. 4,73,090) in 1854-55 to £69,933 (Rs. 6,99,330) in 1877-78, and collections from £46,234 (Rs. 4,62,340) to £69,869 (Rs. 6,98,690). During the same period remissions fell from £1075 (Rs. 10,750) to £64 (Rs. 640) and outstandings from £73 (Rs. 730) to £26 (Rs. 260):

Kolaba Settlement Results, 1855-1878.

continued..

Season Reports.

1868-69.

The following is a summary of the chief available season details daring the thirteen years since Kolaba was made a separate district.

In 1868-69 the rainfall of 64.91 inches was favourable and the rice and other crops were of a full average. Except some cases of cholera in Alibag, brought by Pandharpur pilgrims, public health was good. The land revenue for collection amounted to £72,747 (Rs. 7,27,470), £3 (Rs. 30) were remitted, and £79 (Rs. 790) left outstanding. The khandi of rice (1320 lbs.) rose from £2 8s. to £2 11s. 3d. (Rs. 24- Rs. 25-10).

1869-70.

In 1869-70 the rainfall of 87.82 inches was sufficient and the harvest was on the whole favourable. Except slight outbreaks of cholera in Alibag, Pen, and Roha, public health was good. The tillage area rose from 463,170 to 464,701 acres and the land revenue from £72,747 to £72,763 (Rs. 7,27,470- Rs. 7,27,630), £13 (Rs. 130) were remitted, and £6 (Rs. 60) left outstanding. The khandi of rice rose from £2 11s. 3d. to £2 16s. 9d. (Rs. 25-10 - Rs. 28-6).

1870-71.

In 1870-71 the rainfall of 75.21 inches was seasonable and sufficient. There were several cases of cholera, but the disease did not spread. The tillage area rose from 464,701 to 466,803 acres and the land revenue from £72,763 to £72,997(Rs. 7,27,630-Rs. 7,29,970), £17 (Rs. 170) were remitted, and £85 (Rs.850) left outstanding. The khandi of rice fell from £2 16s. 9d. to £2 14s. 6d. (Rs. 28-6-Rs. 27-4).

1871-72.

In 1871-72 the rainfall of 40.36 inches was short and capricious, and in Alibag and Pen the crops suffered considerably. Cattle disease prevailed in Mangaon and Roha, and there was one bad outbreak of cholera in Mahad. The tillage area fell from 466,803 to 465,334 acres, and the land revenue rose from £72,997 to £74,028 (Rs. 7,29,970 - Rs. 7,40,280), £7 (Rs. 70) were remitted, and £69 (Rs. 690) left outstanding. The khandi of rice rose from £2 14s. 6d. to £2 16s. 6d. (Rs. 27 ¼ - Rs. 28 ¼).

1872-73.

In 1872-73 the rainfall of 72.95 inches was well-timed and abundant. Dengue fever was general, but caused little or no mortality, and in other respects the public health was good and cattle were fairlv free from disease. The tillage area fell from 465,334 to 465,082 acres and the land revenue from £74,028 to £73,209 (Rs. 7,40,280-Rs. 7,32,090), £1048 (Rs. 10,480) were remitted, £1046 (Rs. 10,460) of them on account of the introduction of revised rates in the Alibag salt lands, and £127 (Rs. 1270) left outstanding. The khandi of rice fell from £2 16s. 6d. to £2 8s. (Rs. 28 ¼ - Rs. 24).

1873-74.

In 1873-74 the rainfall of 79.72 inches, though abundant, was irregular and the harvest was short. Public health was good and except in Mangaon cattle were free from disease. The tillage area rose from 465,082 to 465,400 acres and the land revenue from £73,209 to £74,092 (Rs. 7,32,090 Rs. 7,40 920), £14 (Rs. 140) were remitted, and £182 (Rs. 1820) left outstanding. The khandi of rice fell from £2 8s. to £2 4s. 9d. (Rs. 24 - Rs. 22-6).

1874-75.

In 1874-75 the rainfall of 61.74 inches was exeessive in June and July and damaged some of the crops. Public health was good and the loss from cattle disease slight. The tillage area rose from 465,400 to 468,156 acres and the land revenue from £74,092 to £74,796 (Rs. 7,40,920 - Rs. 7,47,960), £96 (Rs. 960) were remitted, and £52 (Rs. 520) left outstanding. The khandi of rice rose from £2 4s. 9d. to £2 8s. (Rs. 22-6 - Rs. 24).

1875-76.

In 1875-76 the rainfall of 107.87 inches, though unusually heavy, was well-timed and the crops were the finest known for seventeen years. In Mahad, in July, floods swept the banks of the Savitri, and early in October in Roha, Mangaon, and Mahad, want of rain slightly injured the late crops. Cholera prevailed throughout the district during the rainy months, and there were a few fatal cases of cattle disease in Pen, Roha, and Mangaon. The tillage area rose from 468,156 to 468,646 acres and the land revenue from £74,796 to £74,826 (Rs. 7,47,960-Rs. 7,48,260), £58 (Rs. 580) were remitted, and £5 (Rs. 50) left outstanding. The khandi of rice rose from £2 8s. to £2 9s. 3d (Rs. 24 - Rs. 24-10).

1876-77.

In 1876-77 the rainfall of 53.36 inches was scanty and unseasonable and the harvest was short. In every sub-division the fall was less than the average, and in Alibag it was more than a fourth less. In July floodsdid damage in Mahad,and want of rain in September and October destroyed about half the upland crops in Mahad and injured those in Mangaon. During the rainy season cholera prevailed at Alibag and in the surrounding villages and small-pox at Mahad. In Alibag and Mangaon there were a few fatal cases of cattle disease. The tillage area rose from 468,646 to 471,005 acres. The land revenue fell from £74,826 to £72,423 (Rs. 7,48,260-Rs. 7,24,230), £2037(Rs. 20,370) were remitted, and £26 (Rs. 260) left outstanding. The khandi of rice rose from £2 9s. 3d. to £3 5s. (Rs. 24-10 -Rs. 32½).

1877-78.

In 1877-78 the rainfall of 63.61 inches was seasonable and sufficient and the harvest was on the-whole good. The public health suffered from somewhat serous epidemics of cholera and small-pox, and a fatal form of cattle disease was prevalent in Mangaon and Mahad. The tillage area rose from 471,005 to 472,413 acres and the land revenue from £72,423 to £74,520 (Rs. 7,24,230-Rs. 7,45,200), £64 (Rs. 640) were remitted, and £28 (Rs. 280) left outstanding. The khandi of rice rose from £3 5s. to £3 17s. 9d. (Rs. 32½ Rs. 38-14)

1878-79.

In 1878-79 the rainfall of 144.87 inches fell seasonably and the rice and other early grains yielded a good harvest. The cold weather crops were much damaged by locusts. Fever was unusually prevalent during the cold weather months and there were two outbreaks of rather mild cholera. The tillage area rose from 472,413 to 473,319 acres. The land revenue fell from £74,520 to £74,314 (Rs. 7,45,200 - Rs. 7,43,140), and £4 (Rs. 40) were remitted. The khandi of rice fell from £3 17s. 9d. to £3 4s. 9d. (Rs. 33-14 - Rs. 32-6).

1879-80.

In 1879-80 the rainfall of 74.52 inches was slightly below the average, but it was timely and well distributed. The monsoon and cold-weather crops were a little below the average. The number of deaths from cholera was 129. Small-pox also prevailed slightly. The season was otherwise healthy. The tillage area rose from 473,319 to 475,135 acres, and the land revenue from £74,314 to £74,685 (Rs. 7,43,140 - Rs. 7,46,850), and £2 (Rs. 20) were remitted. The khandi of rice rose from £3 4s. 9d. to £3 7s, 6d. (Rs. 32-6- Rs. 88¾).

1880-81,

In 1880-81 the rainfall of 79.67 inches was somewhat below the average. Between the 7th of July and the 10th of September very little rain fell. The monsoon and cold-weather crops yielded an average harvest, except rice which suffered from want of rain. These were thirty deaths from cholera. Small-pox also appeared occassionally. Otherwise the season was, on the whole, healthy. The tillage area rose from 475,135 to 476,693 acres. The land revenue fell from £74,685 to £73,900 (Rs. 7,46,850 - Rs. 7,39,000), £95 (Rs. 950) were remitted, and. £1 (Rs. 10) left outstanding. The khandi of rice fell from £3.7s. 6d. to £2 11s. 3d, (Rs. 33¾ Rs. 25-10).

Season Statistics.

1852-1881

The following statement shows in tabular form the available yearly statistics of rainfall, prices, tillage, and land revenue, during the twenty-nine years ending 1880-81:

Kolaba Season Statistics, 1852-1881.

¹ A khandi of rice in husk is equal to 1320 pounds.