§ MR. MACNEILLI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether the attention of the Secretary of State has been drawn to the serious discontent prevailing among the registering officers, chiefly among the sub-Registrars, and among their clerks, of the Registration Department of the Madras Presidency, due to the reduced scale of remuneration sanctioned by the Madras Government in 1882 and 1885, respectively; (2) whether the Secretary of State is aware of the large amount of surplus that is being accumulated and absorbed into the general revenues from the registration fees, intended, originally, an intention recently re-affirmed by the Government of India, for the sole maintenance of the Department and the pensionary charges of its officers, and not as a source of profit to Government; (3) whether the Secretary of State is aware that the Government of India have, in their review of the Triennial Reports for the period ending 1889-90 of the several Local Governments and Administrations on the working of the Administration Department, expressed their opinion condemning the large surplus that has been accumulated year by year from registration fee's, and have, accordingly, directed Local Authorities to take steps to reduce the surplus; and (4) whether he will take the present opportunity to press upon the Madras Government the urgent necessity that has arisen to sanction increased expenditure in order to allay the discontent of a Department composed of Indians by a re-organisation of the grades of sub-Registrars and Registrars, and of their clerks?
SIR J. GORSTThe answer to the first paragraph of the question of the hon. Member is in the negative. The answer to the second and third paragraphs is that the view taken by the Government of India as to the surplus is that it shall be devoted to providing facilities for registration wherever experience shows them to be necessary. This policy was re-affirmed in the review of the Triennial Reports referred to by the hon. Member. The answer to the fourth paragraph of the question is that the Secretary of State, as at present advised, 673 would not urge the Government of India to raise the salaries or increase expenditure in the Registration or any other Department.