ADMINISTRATION 81
gation Company ply six days a week between English Bazdr and
Sultanganj ; a service between Rajmahal and Damukdia Ghdt stops at
various stations on the Malda side of the Ganges, and during the rains
a ferry steamer runs from Rajmahal to English Bdzdr and back three
days a week.
Some scarcity in 1885 and 1897 necessitated Government relief
on a small scale, but no actual famine has occurred in recent years.
The Magistrate-Collector is assisted at ENGLISH BAznx, the head-
quarters, by a staff of three Deputy-Collectors and Administration.
one Sub-deputy-Collector. There are no subdi-
visions in the District.
The civil courts subordinate to the District judge are those of three
Munsifs, of whom two sit at English Bdzdr and one at Nawabganj.
The District and Sessions judge, who is also judge of Rajshahi, has
his head-quarters at Rampur Bodlia in that District. Crime is on the
whole light, and the commonest offences are of a petty character or are
due to disputes about land.
The District, as already stated, is a recent creation from the Districts
of Purnea and Dinajpur, and its land revenue history cannot be stated
separately. In 1903-4 there were 655 estates, with a revenue demand
of 4.36 lakhs. The whole of the District is permanently settled, with
the exception of 40 estates with a total demand of Rs. 35,000, which
are temporarily settled or managed direct by Government. Little is
peculiar in the land tenures of the District, except the existence of
several large revenue-free estates granted as endowments to Muham-
madan fakirs. Under the hdlhdsili tenure the annual rent varies both
according to the amount of land under cultivation and the nature of
the crop raised. This tenure is most common in the backward parts
of the District, and one of its incidents is that it allows a certain pro-
portion of the village lands always to lie fallow. Rent rates vary
largely for different kinds of land, being usually much lower in the case
of old holdings. Land yielding two or three crops brings in about
Rs. 1-14 per acre in the case of old holdings, and from Rs. 3 to
Rs. 4-8 per acre in the case of land newly brought under cultivation.
Low lands for winter rice yield from about Rs. 1-8 to Rs. z-4 per
acre; spring rice lands from Rs. 3-12 to Rs. 6 and Rs. 12, and occa-
sionally even Rs. 18 and Rs. 24 per acre; mulberry lands from Rs. 3
to Rs. 3-la for unraised land and from Rs. 4-8 to Rs. 6 for well-raised
plots; mango orchards from Rs. 4-8 to Rs. 6 ; and garden lands from
Rs. 6 to Rs. 15 per acre. The average holding of a tenant, as esti-
mated from certain typical estates in various parts of the District, is
12 acres.
The following table shows the collections of land revenue and total
revenue (principal heads only), in thousands of rupees ;-
|
![[Digital South Asia Library]](/graphics/thirdlevel.gif)
