§ MR. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN (Kent, Faversham)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether the results of the experimental surveys in Behar have induced the Government of Bengal to alter their estimate of eight annas per acre for the total cost of the Behar Cadastral Survey; whether the cost of the Srinagar-Banaili Survey was nearly 11 annas per acre; and whether the results of the survey of the Srinagar-Banaili estate can be laid before Parliament, showing the average size of the holdings as compared with the average size of those in North Behar; the amount of forest and waste land as compared with that in North Behar; the number of petitions filed against the entries made by the Amins; the number of civil suits filed, including fair rent suits and boundary disputes; the number of cases carried to an Appellate Court; the number of cases in which the decision of the settlement officer was reversed or modified by this litigation; and the estimated total cost of the litigation resulting 337 from the survey of the Srinagar-Banaili estate?
* MR. GEORGE RUSSELLNo information has reached the Secretary of State to show that the cost of the Cadastral Survey of North Behar will, on the average, exceed eight annas an acre. According to the latest Reports, the cost of survey on the Srinagar estate was 4⅔ annas per acre, and the cost of settlement was 5⅔ annas per acre. The Secretary of State has not the information necessary for the preparation of the Return asked for. But I shall be glad to place at the hon. Member's disposal the Bengal Land Records and Court of Wards Reports for the two years 1890–1 and 1891–2. I will also, if the hon. Member will move for them, lay on the Table copies of further Correspondence on the Behar Survey in continuation of the Papers laid last year.