§ MR. SAMUEL SMITH (Flintshire)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he can state the number of evictions for non-payment of land assessment in the Presidency of Madras during the last ten years and the previous ten years, and the amount realised by the sale of the personal and real property respectively of the defaulters; Whether he is aware that Mr. Clark, Deputy Commissioner of Settlement in Madras, reported in 1894 that, in consequence of the inequalities he had found in the mode of assessment, he recommended that the whole of the soils in the delta should be reclassified; whether the classification of soils for land assessment in the Madras Presidency is made on the same principles as in the Bombay Presidency; and, if not, what are the differences and the grounds for such differences; whether this matter has been brought under the notice of the Madras Government repeatedly during the last six years; and, if so, what was their reply; and, whether he can state the quantity of arable land lying waste and available for cultivation in the Madras Presidency were due encouragement afforded by low rates of assessment for the agricultural population to take it up?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingIf the hon. Gentleman will allow me, I will send him a memorandum on the subject of the many Questions he has put to me, as it is difficult to compress the necessary information within the limits of a reply to a Parliamentary Question.