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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 22, p. 127.

f1 DHINISTRA TION 127 the accounts as the kamal or rack rental. In the time of Balaji Baji Rao some villages in Wai, Valva, Khanapur, and Karad were measured, but do not seem to have been assessed. Baji Rao II introduced the farming or contract system, for both revenue and expenditure. The contractors usually had civil and criminal jurisdiction, and treated the landholders with the greatest harshness. The result of the excessive bids made by the contractors to please Baji Rao was that most vil- lages were burdened with a heavy debt incurred on the responsibility of the headman and on behalf of the village. The first step after the establishment of the Satara Raja in 1818 was to abolish the con- tract system and to revert to a strictly personal or ryotzvdr settlement ; but the old and very heavy assessment remained. About 1822 the rates returned for good land varied from Rs. 18 to Rs. 1-2 per acre; for mixed land from Rs. 9 to 132 annas; and for uplands from Rs. 2-4 to 42 annas. The rate for garden land varied from RS. 28 to Rs. 1-2. Between I82 r and 1829 Captain Adams surveyed all the lands of the State. The arable area was divided into numbers or fields, and the areas of all holdings and grants or inams were fixed. When in 1848 the District was resumed by the British Government, the revenue survey was introduced, beginning with Tasgaon in 1852-3, and com- prising the whole of the District before 1883. A revision between 1888 and 1897 disclosed an increase in cultivation Of 7,ooo acres. The revised settlement raised the total land revenue from 112 lakhs to nearly 17 lakhs. Under the current survey settlement the average rate of assessment for `dry' land is 15 annas, for rice land Rs. 3-14, and for garden land Rs. 3-9- Collections on account of land revenue and revenue from all sources have been, in thousands of rupees:- 1880-i. 1890-1. 1900-1. 1903-4. Land revenue 23,82 23,94 22,18 29,43 Total revenue 29,79 29,55 27,50 36,17 There are twelve municipalities in the District: SATARA CITY, WAI, RAHIMATPUR, KARAD, ISLAMPUR, ASHTA, TASGAON, VITA, MAYNI, MHASVAD, MALCOLMPETH, and SATARA SUBURBAN, with an aggregate income of I2 lakhs. Local affairs outside these are managed by the District board and i i local boards. The total receipts of these boards in 1903-4 was more than 22 lakhs, the principal source of in- come being the local fund cess ; and the expenditure was a little less than that sum. Of the total expenditure, nearly one lakh, or 40 per cent., was laid out on roads and buildings in 1903-4. The District Superintendent of police is assisted by an Assistant