10. ["The most curious proof that the natives do not necessarily prefer the separate to the joint system, is found in the fact,published in some of the official papers of the Madras Presidency, that in that country villages were found which for halt acentury had submitted to the farce of a Government assessment on each individual, but had year by year lumped theindividual assessments together, and redivided the total in their own way among the members of the community." Systems ofLand Tenure , p. 197, note.]
11. A remarkable increase of population and property has been shewn: thus, in the district of Bhimturi, between 1841 and1871, the population increased 39?per cent, the number of ploughs 22?per cent, and the number of oxen 19 per cent. Inthe Chandur district, the population increased 100 per cent; the number of oxen from 8602 to 13,988. See Markham, Statement of Moral and Material Progress of India for 1878 , p. 27; and Thornton, Public Works in India , p. 209.
12. In The Examiner , of January 11, 1873.
13. The amount of rent collected by the State in India amounts to ?1,000,000 out of a total revenue of ?0,000,000; and,as Sir Richard Temple said in his statement on the Indian budget, this revenue is constantly increasing, notwithstanding thereductions granted from time to lime. Indian Financial Statement, 1878-4.In 1793, the revenue of the provinces of Bengal,Behar and Orissa was about ?,400,000, of which ?00,000 was retained by the Zemindars. Lord Cornwallis having by thepermanent settlement surrendered this rent to the Zemindars, the latter are now receiving some seven or eight millionssterling, while the State to which this increase ought to accrue, has hardly made any increase in the land-tax.See Thornton, Indian Public Works , p. 222.
14. See Fortnightly Review , December 1872. The Nationalization of the Land , by H. Fawcett, M.P.
15. Shortly before his death he wrote to Mr John Ross of Melbourne: "I am very glad to see the progress of the LandTenure move in Victoria. Now is the time to stop the alienation of public lands, before the great mass of them is grantedaway."Mr W. Gresham, of Sandridge (Victoria), who was at the head of this movement, was unfortunately drowned in aboat accident in May 1875. The league had published seven tracts, which are worth reading.
16. L'Eglise et le peuple par M. Edmond Préveraud, Paris, 1872.
17. The town of Groningen in Holland has transformed a vast bog into fertile fields by applying to it, in a scientific manner,the sewage, so generally wasted. See the author's Economie rurale de la Néerlande , p. 238.It is an example which cannotbe too distinctly commended to other countries.
18. In Java, State cultivation attains enormous proportions. In 1873, sugar occupied 27,460 hectares, and coffee about176,252 hectares. In 1872, the sugar demanded the labour of 220.706 persons; and the coffee that of 708,980 families, orabout 2,000,000 persons.The cultivation of sugar brought the State an income of 4,318,982 forms; that of coffee in 1871,40,488,422 forms in Java and Menado, and 6,674,159 florins in Sumatra: in all a total of 47,162,581 florins, deducting15,240,108 as the cost of production.The rent of land gives the State a further revenue of 15,000,000 Some, and the tinmines of Banca, also worked by the State, 5,992,869 forms in 1871. It is estimated, that the rent of land does not exceed 10per cent. of the gross produce, which is extremely little.The net surplus, paid into the exchequer of the Mother Country,amounted in 1871 to 25,688,951 florins. In Java, the population increases more rapidly than anywhere elseit amounted to17,298,300 at the end of 1872and its condition improves at the same time, which is a proof that the production of wealthdoes not suffer by State monopoly.The author owes the preceding data to the kindness of M. Fraussen Van de Putte,colonial minister of the Netherlands.
In Belgium, France, and most other countries, hospitals have various properties, which they manage perfectly. It would notbe more difficult to administer all the lands of the commune. In Russia, the State receives the revenue of all the Crown lands,which comprise a great part of the territory. England presents another example of a department administering vast landedestates in the board which administers the church property, coming from the fusion of particular ecclesiastical foundations.
The income amounted in 1872, to ?,253,245.See Twenty-fifth Report from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners forEngland .
Another very interesting example of a vast territory managed by a collective administration, is that of the Sociétéautrschienne , the Staats-Bahn , which received from the State in Austria an area of 130,000 hectares, with 135,000inhabitants.The Society has improved the agriculture of the district, has opened coal and iron mines, regulated themanagement of forest, created manufactures and so considerably increased the general production. It is not thereforeimpossible for a collective corporation to perform the part of a great landowner, with advantage to all concerned. On thissubject see the article by M. Bailleux de Marisy, Revue des Deux Mondes , April, 1874.
19. An Act for Leasing Crown Lands in the Province of Nelson, New Zealand, anno tricesimo primo Victoriae reginae , No.
51.
CHAPTER XXV.
LANDED PROPERTY IN EGYPT AND TURKEY.
Landed property has undergone many vicissitudes in Egypt; (1) and yet the cultivation has hardly altered under the varioussystems. Under the Pharaohs, (2) the soil seems to have belonged to the sovereign. The Koran sanctions the same principle:
