Subia.—A long despatch has been published, in which the Governor-
General pledges the Government of India to sell waste lands in fee simple for 5s. an acre. The terms are :
"8. I.-1s to the sale of unassessed waste lands, in which no right of proprietorship or of exclusive occupancy is known to exist at present, or to have existed in former times, and to be capable of revivaL " 9. In any case of application for such lands they shall be granted in perpetuity, under the rules which will be presently laid down, as an heritable and transferrable property, subject to no enhancement of land revenue assessment.
" 10. All prospective land revenue will be redeemable, at the grantee's option, by a payment in full when the grant is made, and the land granted will thenceforward be permanently free of all demand on account of land revenue."
Or, at the grantee's option, a fixed annual sum may be paid at the rate of ten per cent. on any unpaid portion of the price of the grant, which will then be under hypothecation till the price is paid in full. No restrictions are imposed as to clearances, or, indeed, of any kind ; but a lot sold to one purchaser cannot exceed three thousand acres. The land will not be put up to auction except when two or more persons apply for one plot.
Further : " II. As to the redemption of the laud revenue. " 3S. Great caution is necessary in dealing with what has always formed so large a part of the revenues of the Government of India. The Governor-General in Council proposes therefore, in the first in- stance, to limit the permission of redemption in any one district to such a number of estates as shall, in their aggregate assessment, not exceed ten per cent. of the total land-tax of the Collectorate, or cor- responding fiscal division of the country. " 11. The price to be paid is fixed at twenty years' purchase of the existing assessment." We have explained the effect of the measure in another place.
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