INDIA'S LAND REVENUE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 171, 12 August 1909, Page 2

INDIA'S LAND REVENUE.

From time immemorial a share .of the produce of the land lias been the chief source of public revenue in India, and land revenue is still thy mainstay of the Government, constituting, last, year, nearly forty per cent of tin; total siet revenue that accrues to the Indian Exchequer. Owing to ib' far-reaching boJal and political eireutH, the proper administration of Tin! laud revenue has ul way.* been one of the Miief problems of the (lovernment, and the best method? of assessment have been tily debated. The policy of long term settlements is beii% extended, and under the system <»f periodical revisions'of the land assessment the Statu secures a share in the increased rental value arising from the general progress of the community. Of late years measures have been "taken to exeippt improvement* from assessment, and generally to. make .enforcement of the. rights of the State a* little burdensome ah is possible to the revenue-payer. Periodical provision also all'ords the opportunity of mllK'iug the assessment in villages or tracts which have fallen of! in prosperity and of correcting inequalities arising from any cause. At present about 47 per cent, of the total area of 013.523,000 acres is held by peasant proprietors, while 20 per cent, is held by permanently settled, and 33 per cent, i by temporarily settled proprietors. The land revenue receipts last year, though there was a wide-spread shortage of crops, totalled eighteen and three-quar-ter millions sterling, a figure which had only been exceeded during the previous two years. The general increase in land revenue, according to the Blut; Book, is attributed to a variety of causes—to the inclusion of new territory, to the bringing of new land tindc? cultivation, but principally to the progress of settlements, which, owing to the generally enhanced values of land, usually result in additions to the land revenue; whilst irrigation canals have enabled the cultivated area to be greatly extended.