Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 16th April 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 502, Untitled Article

Page 502
Page 22
22 of 32

On this page

  • Departments (1)
    • INDIA AKD INDIAN PROGRESS.
  • Text (4)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      INDIAN FINANCE . Sl xiRGE proportion of ' tne Indian revenue , or about 17 , 000 , 000 / . out . of 30 , 000 , OQ ( W . —following Blr . F . Heridriks' fixtures in Ms paper on Indian Revenue and Taxation— -is derived from tne land revenue ; and of this above 10 , 000 , 000 ? . is drawn from the northern Presidencies of Bengal , the North-West , and the Punjab . A great many calculations have been , put forward to show that this land revenue , rent , or tax , is so light in money value , and in proportion to the gross produce of the land , that it cannot be regarded as a burthen on the population . Into these calculations it is needless to enter ; it matters not Tvhat is the fractional sum per head , per acre , per beegah , on rubbee or other crops ; the real test is the condition of the population , and this proves , without denial , that the land tax of the Indian Government is more oppressive than the burthens imposed in European countries , as in England and ^ France for instance , where rent , land tax or fonder , local rates , tithes , and all other charges , leave the population in a better condition than the lightlytaxed natives of India . Many of the tests and calculations put forward are fallacious , as they do not show what remains to the cultivator for his subsistence . In England , or in any country where labour is effectually economised in agriculture , there is a greater surplus after the subsistence of the cultivator has been provided for than in a country in a low economical state like India , where the mechanical appliances ' are less effective , and where more labor is employed , and consequently a larger provision must be made for the consumption of the cultivator . The Indian land tax system , when tested , is found to press on the subsistence and comforts of the population , and the more severely because it represses industry . Thus cultivation is effectually retarded , and the improvement of agriculture discouraged ; for though we find new lands cleared , and taken under cultivation in some districts , and a wider surface irrigated , still , whenever assessments in Bombay , Madras , or the North-West come to be re-surveyed , the cultivator is found to be oppressed , and the assessments have to be reduced . The remedy for this is one which will strike at the whole basis of the present financethe 17 , 000 , 000 Z . of taxation out of 30 , 000 , 0002 . — which niust be got rid of , so far as its present operation is concerned . If the tinkering system of resurvey is gone on with , successive abatements ¦ w ill be made , which will tend to reduce the revenue in the older districts as fast as new revenue is created by new cultivation , and no resource therefore remains but to sweep away the Indian exchequer system b y the sale of the land rent , giving thereby a freehold title or title in fee simple . True it is , some zemindars will obtain very good bargains , and for a time ryots will be as much oppressed as heretofore , but throughout India there mil be a clear title to land , and any man will be able to undertake operations without fear of the collector depriving him of his property . Twenty-five years ' purchase for 1 ^ 000 , 000 ^ . constitutes a sum of 423 , 000 , OdOZ .: —a sum eo enormous that it appeai-3 monstrous to suppose tfcat such a sxun can be contributed by poor India , but it would not constitute a positive contribution ¦ of gold or silver to such amount , but a more transfer of figures , and wlxich a few year ^ would effeot . The test of the opoi-ation is very simple . Could the whole landed property of a country be sold within twenty-five years P Could a national debt to the extent of five hundred millions bo lent to a Government within fifteen years , from 1800 to 1815 , for instance ? These are economical operations , which have been oarried out , and which wo know * o be practicable ; and they are practicable in India , if correct principles of government are allowed to be applied . The result of such an operation would foe to leave India free . for the exertions of industry , to afford largo means for reproductive works , greatly to extonupx'oduotion , to afford means for supplying iQoal taxation and local wants , as police , education , roads , bridges , poor relief , &o ., and to constitute a now taxable basia for the imposition of iuoomo ,

      property and succession duties , and the expansion of the Customs revenue . At the same time the existing debt will be paid off , the yearly deficit be provided for , and the country , being in a healthier moral condition , the military and extra police force would be reduced , and , thereby , the expenses of the general government . If such a financial operation were carried out in connexion with the imperial exchequer the imperial credit might be made available in the early stages of the process , and the imperial revenues be made participators in the ultimate proceeds . India would profit by the higher credit of the imperial government—would have the requisite funds readil y raised for internal improvements , and would be able to contribute for the military , naval , and diplomatic protection afforded by the empire at large . There is no doctrine so fallacious and so mischievous as the favorite one of the civil service , that the revenues of India should be solely disbursed on India . India is at this period profiting by the introduction of our civilisation , and she should pay for it ; she has the protection of . external and internal peace by the strength of the empire ; she is saved from invasion by great powers , which would allow no development .. of independence or of free institutions , and she should pay for this protection . The liberation of the soil of India from the thraldom of the Indian exchequer and its myrmidons will assist the reclamation of the waste lands in the hills and in the plains , and thereby create further resources for the Government . . In . consequence of the present defective administration wild land is in some districts sought because , it can be had tax-free , and the collectors have to keep a watchful eye lest old land should be abandoned in favour of new land . Thus further restrictions are devised ; but under a reasonable system the value of reclaimed land will gradually rise , and a greater demand for old land be created , and thus , either as wild land or as old settled land , the fee-simple will be sold by the Government , and the price be realised . The sum which is to be z'eeeived from the sale of the wild lands of India will be enormous , and will afford another fund for public improvements , and for imperial purposes . There is no more reason why the produce of the uncultivated lands of the Punjab or the North-West should be appropriated to the Bengalees , Canarese , or Sattarese , than there is for consigning to them the land revenues of Australia , or , indeed , for making a present of any part of the revenues of India to the Hessians or the Turks . The Punjab has been annexed by England , the empire has been built up by England , and the fruits England has the right to dispose of . If England desires to give a shai e to Bengal , to the Madras collectorates , or the Bombay collectorates , it is a favor emanating from England - » -a right to be conceded by England , and not to bo demanded . What ai'e the rights of Bengal , Bahar , Orissa , or any other district , it would indeed be difficult to tell ; the 'right of sharing in the prosperity of the empire is certainly ample compensation for any former rights , or rather disabilities . What right can Oude , Suttava , or Nagporo , newly annexed , have in Bengal ; what right can Bengal have in the countries now named ^ and yet we hear the cry , India for the Hindoos , and wo find a policy advocated whioh forbids Englishmen to have any share with Bengalees or Madrasseos in India P Upon the development of agriculture , grazing , forest produote , and mining in India , must depend the Customs revenue of India . Funds must bo supplied to enable Indian produce to bo consumed in India , and to be shipped to Europe and 1 America , and the railways , roads , rivers , and canals so opened will lot in manufactured produce into India . How , indeed , can it bo expected that English goods shall be consumed in India , when tbew are many regions of that country ,, whore , incase of famine , the produce of India itself cannot bo distributed ? How , too , can the miserable ryot of India , or its miserable artijsan aflbrd to pay fbr proper tools and implements at the present rate of remuneration P The cheap tools and machinery of England and the United States , which oan bo sent to nil parts of the world , are denied to

      India , because large machinery cannot be transported , and for common'tools no one is wealthy enough to pay . True , we are told of an ancient civilisation which exists there , more ancient than our ' own and widely developed , when our English forefathers grazed their herds in Jutland , and when the British were painted savages ; but the commentary on this declamation is the nearly naked Hindoo scratching the ground with his wooden plough , arid carting his crop on a truck with solid timber wheels dragged by buffaloes . Such men , indeed , want clothing ami tlio necessary implements , but they have not wherewithal to pay for them .

      Untitled Article

      NOTES OJST INDIAN PROGRESS . One of the most important events among the many which we have had lately to chronicle , is the further introduction of English as the language of law . This has been successfully tried in some of the smallnonregulation districts , and has now been applied by the Government of the Punjaub . Some of the Indian papers call this a bold experiment , though there is little "boldness , arid no danger in it , and it will confer great advantages on the suitors . Thespian was tried in the Punjaub for three months as an experiment , arid was confined to civil suits under 10 Z . and to petty criminal cases , but it has now been introduced into all the courts . One great benefit of this measure is that justice will be rendered directly to the suitors , without that complication of papers which now attends every process , and without that opportunity . fur"the amlahto acquire influence and cultivate bribery . We hope soon to hear of the establishment of a supreme court in the Punjaub , and the appointment of English and native recorders , chairmen of quarter sessions , coroners , and justices of the peace , so as to extend the local administration of justice . In Miirree and the other hill stations it is imperative that these functionaries should be at once appointed , and that English citizens should be protected by trial by jury . A very high authority in India , who has done much for the exploration of the districts suitable for English occupation , has said truly that without the jury ,, and English law , English settlement cannot rabidly extend in India , and it is desirable the attention of Government should early be directed . to this subject . In Darjeeling , Simla , Mussoorie , Landour , Dehra , Nynee Tal , Murree , Dlmrmsala , Mount Aboo , Matheran , Mahabuleshwar , the Nei-Ujhernes , Bangalore , Wynaad , Mysore , and Coorg , there are now quite enough English to supply magistrates and jurors , and there is no ground for our fellow countrymen being deprived of that protection winch they enjoy elsewhere throughouttho empire , except in a portion of the territories of the Hudson s JJay ° At Mussoorie they have had but two falls of snow up to the I lth of February . In January they hod more summer days than cloudy days . \ ° }™ & of Capt . OhUcott , on tho road loading to Kiypore , was , on the 2 nd of February , set flra to and ^ destroyed , in consequence of lightning having 8 truck 1 Simla expects to be very gay , on acooiint of the arrival of Lord Clyde and his stair . -Ho will bei able to get up some of his paper work in this tigieeawe and congenial climate . , „ . t Z-oavo for the Ne % herrios lias boon given to Brcvot-Major » . H . Miles , to Major II . J . / ™ son , and to Lieut . W . M . X > . Wrig ht , of tho ' Artillery . Capfc . Brydon , IJ . M . ' s 74 th , has rosjg-nod tho command of Jackatalla depot . . , Oapt . G . F . Taylor had his loavo extended for ^^ SSfSSt ^ -Ui N . V . B . ha * flftcon month *' leave to Bangalore and Mysore , f . The Itov . II . H . Broroton ia appointed chaplain qi Dharwar . , . v-ninin Tho Rev . E . N . Dickonson is nPl > olnl 0 ? , ? W tS of tfapooleo and Rutuaghorry , res d ng ati thelatter place cluring the monsoon . Tho lull station * « r ° a great relief to tho clergy . . fc of At Roorkee . thoro has boon a wo « Mlng--that o » Mr . Alexander II , Bramloy , Iato I 3 . N . I ., to BoiftJJ . daughter of Sir Willitvin O'Shnuglinossy . , The Darjoollng pooplo ara in grout oxpoa i « on tho Northern Bengal Hallway being now xindor tjo consideration of tho Government of ¦ r »! . ' ( n l ^ vZ . for an early and favourable decision , ior '""" JfJSJ , able country Is , as it wore , shut out from llio w « rig and tho largo English population ot Calcutta »

      India Akd Indian Progress.

      INDIA AKD INDIAN PROGRESS .

      Untitled Article

      502 THE LEADER . [ No . 473 , April 16 , 185 ft .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 16, 1859, page 502, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2290/page/22/