§ MR. REES (Montgomery Boroughs)To ask the Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that the Madras Estates Land Bill, now before the Legislative Council of the Governor of Madras, provides that every ryot now in possession, or who shall hereafter be admitted to possession, of public cultivable land shall be deemed to have a permanent right of occupancy in his holding; whether Lord Hartington and Lord Kimberley vetoed a similar provision when proposed for Bengal; and, if so, whether he will take steps to ensure that the distinction between resident or permanent, and nonresident or temporary, cultivator is duly considered before the Bill in its present shape is passed into Law.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Morley.) The Bill, since its introduction into the Madras 208 Legislative Council in March 1905, has undergone very full consideration and extensive revision by a Select Committee, and before proceeding further with it the Madras Government are submitting it for opinion to the High Court. I must reserve my opinion on the subject for the present. The circumstances of Bengal, I am advised, are not completely analogous to those of Madras.