MR. HERBERT ROBERTSI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the Bombay Land Revenue Bill recently introduced in the Bombay Legislative Council; whether he is aware that this Bill will empower the Government to resettle the holdings of cultivators, without the rights of sale or mortgage, in tracts of the country where tenants have possessed those rights for the last fifty years; whether it is the intention of the Government, under this Bill, to sell the holdings now in arrear on account of the recent famine, and to resettle their holdings without the rights at present enjoyed by them; whether he is aware that this Bill is opposed by the native members on the 1150 Select Committee of the Bombay Legislative Council, and by associations in Bombay; and is he aware of the feeling it has created in the province; and whether, in view of the principle hitherto followed in Bombay and other provinces with regard to the preservation of the tenant-rights of cultivators, he will give an assurance that this House will have an opportunity of further considering the subject before the measure is passed into law.
§ *LORD G. HAMILTONI am aware that a Bill is before the Bombay Legislative Council for the amendment of the Land Revenue Code of the Presidency, though I cannot accept the hon. Member's description of it as altogether correct. I am also aware that some misapprehension exists in India as to its objects and provisions. The whole subject is being very carefully considered, both by the Bombay Government and the the Government of India, and will be further considered by myself in Council, if the measure in question becomes law. I can give no assurance that I will take any steps to interfere with the constitutional methods of legislation for India.