The Province and the Nizams Salute.

308. Amraoti is the headquarters of the Commissioner, Berar Division; also of the Conservator of Forests, Berar Circle, the Inspector of Schools, the Chaplain of Berar and other Divisional officers. In some Departments, notably the Judicial, the Public Works and the Post Office, the Province is divided into two parts, East and West, having headquarters at Amraoti and Akola respectively. Previous to the amalgamation with the Central Provinces in 1903, Amraoti contained in addition to the present staff a Judicial Commissioner, a Sanitary Commissioner, and Inspectors-General of Police, and Excise, etc., but these appointments have now been merged in the Central Provinces cadre. The Hyderabad Assigned Districts (to use the old name) are, however, still foreign territory, not a part of British India, though held on a lease in perpetuity. Legislation for Berar is still carried on by orders of the Executive Council; and Acts of Parliament and of the Indian Legislature have no force in the Province unless applied to it by special notification. His Highness the Nizam receives a yearly rent of twenty-five lakhs of rupees; and his sovereignty is solemnly recognised every year on his birthday, his salute of twenty-one guns being fired at Amraoti and his flag flown from sunrise to sunset.

Staff.

309. The head of the District is the Deputy Commissioner, who is also District Magistrate. He is assisted by a Subdivisional Officer and Magistrate at Ellichpur, and at headquarters by three assistants, usually members of the Provincial Service. Amraoti has also for several years past been a training ground for a newly joined member of the Indian Civil Service, and then is now an Extra Assistant Commissioner for Excise. One of the three ordinary Extra Assistants is Treasury Officer, and the post of District Registrar is also held by an Assistant. The Treasury banks with the local branch of the Bank of Bombay for currency, but there is a very large stamp store under the direct control of the Treasury officer. The subdivisional system has been introduced and the six taluks are at present arranged as follows:

(a) Amraoti Subdivision (headquarters Amraoti) Amraoti,

(b) Chandur Subdivision (headquarters Amraoti), Chandur, Morsi,

(c) Ellichpur Subdivision (headquarters Ellichpur) Ellichpur, Daryapur, Melghat,

Previous to the 1st September 1905 the Murtizapur taluk now joined to Akola was part of Amraoti, and the Ellichpur Subdivision was a separate District. Each taluk is under a Tahsildar aided by a Naib Tahsildar. The former, in addition to his revenue powers, is a 2nd or 3rd class magistrate and sub-treasury officer, and a few of the latter have been invested with 3rd class magisterial powers.

There is an Honorary Magistrate of the 2nd class at Daryapur, and benches (3rd class) at:—

Amraoti city, Kholapur, (Amraoti taluk),

Ellichpur city and Chandur Bazar, (Ellichpur taluk),

Dhamangaon, (Chandur taluk),

Warud, (Morsi taluk),

Anjangaon Surji, (Daryapur taluk).

Two members of the Ellichpur bench have 2nd class powers; and when they sit the court has second class jurisdiction. The District Superintendent of Police has an Assistant and a Deputy Superintendent at headquarters; and either an Assistant or a Deputy Superintendent at Ellichpur. The District and Sessions Judge, and the additional District and Sessions Judge have jurisdiction also in the adjoining District of Yeotmal. There are 4 Subordinate Judges at Amraoti, one of whom has charge of the Small Cause Court, and one each at Ellichpur, Daryapur, and Morsi. There are also Munsiffs' courts at these three places as well as in Amraoti. The District comprises two forest divisions, Melghat (with head-quarters at Chikalda,) and Amraoti. There is a Civil Surgeon of the Indian Medical Service with Assistant Surgeons at Amraoti and Ellichpur; and the Executive Engineer, East Berar Division, has his headquarters at Amraoti with Sub-divisional officers at Amraoti, Ellichpur and Murtizapur, the last-named having the Daryapur taluk in his charge There are Deputy Educational Inspectors at Amraoti and Ellichpur.

Village administration.

310. The unit of government in Berar is the ryotwari village, the representative of which in all its dealings with the various departments is the patel. ' He represents,' says Sir Frederic Lely, ' both government to the people and the people to government. If he loses his influence, both suffer.' He is a watandar, or hereditary officer, and his chief business is to collect the land revenue of his village and to take it to the tahsil where he is remunerated by a percentage. He also collects and is similarly remunerated for all other Government and District Board dues, including income tax from any villagers who may be liable to it, and the revenue arising from forest lands if there be any in his village. It is incumbent on him to report to the Tahsildar any discontent or ill-feeling of which he may have knowledge, to control the village watch, and in general to assist the police in the detection and preven-tion of crime. His varied duties also include the maintenance of the fair-weather roads and of village sanitation and statistics of births and deaths. He is bound to report an outbreak of plague or other epidemic, to help travellers in distress, and to render information or assistance to any officer who may require it. Thus patels were recently, in the interests of plague prevention, instructed to make a census of cats in their villages. The great majority of these officers are Marathas or Kunbis, though there are also Malis and members of other cultivating castes, and a few Musalmans. Their appointment, duties and control are regulated by the Berar Patels and Patwaris Law and the rules thereunder; and in all large villages there are two patels, one for revenue and one for police duties. They are generally among the leading landholders, and the office, the watan or right to which is sometimes confined to a single family (khel) and sometimes shared by several, carries with it the manpan or right of precedence in the village with sundry presents of a ceremonial nature on marriages and festivals. The office is highly valued, not only for its allowances, but for the honours which attach to it and for the power which it gives the holder in his village, a power which as a general rule is well used. It carries with it under orders of the Government of India an official {not personal) exemption under the Arms Act. Both patels and patwaris have an authorised uniform as officers of Government, an angarkha or long coat, for the former of black, and for patwaris of red.

Land Records Staff.

311. The patwaris [Also known as pandyas, a title which should be carefully distinguished from pandewar, v. infra.] are appointed under the same law and rules as the patels. They are village accountants and writers, expected to maintain the various village records in accordance with the model set forth in the Berar Patwari's Manual. They are almost always Deshastha Brahmans, and except in the Melghat and at a few places in the other taluks are watandars. Like the patels, to whom they are loosely subordinate, they are paid by percentages laid down in the rules already referred to. There is ordinarily one patwari for each village, though charges of even four or more are not unknown. In this case, if the number of villages or their distance from the one in which he is expected to reside render the work beyond the powers of one man, the watandar may work through subordinates appointed by the Deputy Commissioner or Subdivisional Officer. Few of the patwaris are at present trained in survey, but a class has recently been established at headquarters and is now attended by them periodically. In the few villages where patwari watans do not exist, appointments are made without regard to claims of inheritance; but the method of appointment, remuneration and duties are the same. In the Melghat taluk there are patwaris only in the C—iii forest area. Of these there are eleven paid by percentages and having each a circle of thirty to forty villages in his charge; their offices are not hereditary and there is no Circle Inspector. The disafforestation and settlement of this tract are in progress, and a revision of the patwari system will probably take place. The work of patwaris is primarily supervised by Circle Inspectors; a District Inspector of Land Records with an Assistant is attached to the Deputy Commissioner's office. Previously the work was done by Munsarims, who, however, differed from Circle Inspectors in being merely assistants of the Tahsildars. There are now four Circle Inspectors each in the Amraoti, Chandur and Morsi taluks and three each in Ellichpur and Daryapur; one Circle Inspector has on an average, about thirty-nine patwaris to supervise. The duties of the Land Records Staff are contained in the rules framed under section 17 of the Berar Land Revenue Code.

Registration.

312. The Judge of the Small Cause Court was formerly District Registrar, but the office is now held by one of the Deputy Commissioner's Assistants. Partly owing to the ryotwari tenure of Berar, and partly to the very high value of land in the District, the business of registration is very much larger than in any other District in these Provinces, though in the Melghat taluk, especially since the commencement of the settlement, it is almost a negligible quantity for in that tract the holder of land has no right to alienate. There are sixteen sub-registrars with offices at the following places:—

Of these all except the two last are special salaried sub-registrars. The Assegaon office is held by a rural Sub-registrar, and that at Chikalda is in charge of the Tahsildar ex officio. Towards the end of 1906 two sub-offices, Khallar and Ritpur, were abolished. In the year 1896-97, in the area now included in the Amraoti District and Murtizapur taluk 14,373 documents, value (so far as stated) Rs. 47,79,592, were registered; the income was Rs. 38,136 and the expenditure Rs. 16,124. The figures for the present District in 1907 were 10,359 documents value Rs. 72,10,112, Rs. 39,459 income and Rs. 12,573 expenditure.

Excise.

313. The District cannot be said to be a temperate one, the average consumption of the various excisable articles, except ganja, being among the highest in the Provinces. A belief in the efficacy of opium as a protection against ague and fever is prevalent among the Kunbis, and it is therefore very largely consumed except in the Melghat, where the sales are almost nil, for the population, being Korkus, prefer a more exhilarating febrifuge. Both there and in the other taluks the liquor traffic is excessive, and the excise revenue for 1906-07 surpassed that of any other District. Owing to the alteration of the District a comparison with previous years has become difficult, but in that year the excise licences and revenue were as follows:—

The Madras Contract Distillery System is in force, having been introduced on 1st April 1899. The liquor, which is invariably that distilled from mahua, is supplied from the distilleries at Akola and Ellichpur to the warehouses. Of these there is one for each taluk, that for the Melghat being at Dharni and the others at taluk headquarters. The distillers pay a fee of Rs. 100 per annum to Government for each distillery; and the retail vendors buy at the Depots, paying the price of liquor to the distillers, and Government duty. There is a Distillery Inspector in charge of the Ellichpur distillery and sixteen Sub-Inspectors, one at each of the six warehouses and the remainder on inspection circles. These are under the Excise Extra Assistant Commissioner already mentioned. The distillers (Messrs. Umrigar) also make their own arrangements at distillery and warehouses. Annual auction sales of the liquor contracts have in the past been characterised by internecine competition due to local jealousies of competitors; and the excise revenue has thus been increased much beyond its natural limits. Recent temperance agitation, however, and years of high rates, tend and will tend to make bidders more cautious and to reduce the sales to figures more nearly representing the actual value of the contracts; and consequently to curtail the revenue. But the present liquor contract system is a popular one and the scale of shops appears t9 supply a real demand. Cases of smuggling are very rare. The Central Provinces rules are now in force with regard to opium and ganja which are therefore imported from Ghazipur and Khandwa respectively: but until 1906 Malwa and Indore opiums were sold. Previous to 1898 ganja was grown locally and at the date of the Berar Gazetteer 1870, opium was largely cultivated round Badnera. The sindi or tari traffic (the names are used indifferently, though the former is the correct one) is small. As in the case of other excisable articles, licenses for retail vend are disposed of by annual auction: but the licensees are left to make their own arrangements with the owners of the trees. Trees growing in A and B class forest cannot be tapped without the consent of the Conservator, and a fee is charged: but those in C class and other Government waste land may be freely used. It is now proposed to introduce a tree tax. Sindi trees are not common except in a few parts of the District. The following table gives statistics of consumption:—

Police.

314. The District Superintendent of Police has under his orders, besides the Gazetted Officers already mentioned, one European Reserve Inspector and one Sergeant, one Court Inspector, a City Inspector for Amraoti Town and Camp, and a Circle Inspector for each of the five taluks of the plains, Melghat, where the work is light, forming part of the Ellichpur circle. Previous to 1st October 1907 the force under these consisted of 823 head-constables and men, with 36 Sub-Inspectors, or Chief constables. On that day one Station-house, Badnera Railway, with a Sub-Inspector and 30 men, was transferred to the Superintendent of Railway Police, and various changes including the abolition of beat duties, have followed. At present there are 37 Sub-Inspectors and' 115 head-constables and 630 men, this total being distributed besides the Reserve among twenty-seven first-class Station-houses, each under one or more Sub-Inspectors. The location of these and of three smaller units known as " Road Posts " is as follows:—

The total cost of the police in 1907 was Rs. 1,53,928 and the proportion was one to every 6 square miles and 1,023 persons. The men are mostly Pardesis, or inhabitants of the Upper, particularly the United Provinces, though the term, which means "foreign," includes in Berar men from the other Divisions of the Central Provinces. There is no noticeable predominance of any one caste, Brahmans, Rajputs, Chhatris and Muhammadans being equally common. They are as a rule recruited in the District, whither they come in search of a living; but the wages of labour being locally high, it is often found difficult to obtaid sufficient men; and drafts had recently to be brought in from Jubbulpore and Nimar to complete the strength. The men are armed with smooth bore muskets, and the old pattern bayonet, but there is a Special Reserve 25 strong who carry the Martini-Henry Rifle and the sword bayonet. A small band has been started with the object of smartening the drill in the Reserve.

Crime.

315. Among the twenty-two Districts of the Provinces, Amraoti is surpassed only by Nagpur in the amount of work dealt with by the courts, showing 5504 persons accused during the year 1907 as against 7991 of the latter, while in the volume of important crime it is unsurpassed even by Nagpur. Perhaps the most interesting figures in that year's report are those giving the number of cases compounded (2001, a total only surpassed by Nagpur and Akola); and those for the numbers proceeded against under the security sections of the Criminal Procedure Code, no less than 256 persons having either furnished such security or been sent to jail in default of it. This total, which is only sixty less than that for the whole of the Central Provinces, is no doubt abnormal. There was a large influx of nomadic criminal tribes from Hyderabad and elsewhere during the year. Many such tribes, [ No less than thirteen different thieves' jargons are known to be in common use among criminal tribes in Berar.] however, are indigenous to Berar, and the wealth of its peaceable inhabitants must always prove a tempting bait. It is probable, therefore, that such action will remain frequent. Of more specific charges, cases of dacoity, cattle-theft, and house-breaking fluctuate much in numbers with the state of the season. The high value of land and the lack of a record of rights, such as exists in other Provinces, combine to make both preventive and punitive action against rioting and similar agricultural offences extremely frequent. The Melghat, despite its enormous yearly drink bill, is a peaceful area, providing but little occupation for either criminal or civil courts.

Village Servants. A.-Jaglias.

316. The village watch and ward is in the hands of jaglias and mahars. The former, known also and perhaps more commonly as havildars or chaukidars, are a force appointed by Government, the 'village police' of older records: and the chaukidari is probably the only post in the village which is not hereditary. Their numbers vary from village to village according to a scale laid down in Rule 413 Berar Land Revenue Manual: they are appointed by the patel, subject to confirmation by the Tahsildar: and they are paid quarterly at a rate which varies at present between Rs. 3-2-8 and Rs. 5 per mensem, and may be determined from time to time by the Chief Commissioner. Their principal duty, it is laid down, is the maintenance of the peace in their villages: but they are also in practice the patel's chuprassis and servants in the multitude of different duties he is called upon to perform. They are under his orders in collecting the revenue; they attend on him at the chawri and when he comes to headquarters or goes to meet an officer arriving in his village: they carry District officers' post and purvey their supplies when on tour. The uniform supplied to them—a belt and badge, blue pagri and coat edged with yellow—bears a distant resemblance to a police constable's: and a jaglia vain of his personal appearance will sometimes try to heighten the likeness by adding breeches and gaiters of the same colour.

B.-The Mahar.

317. The jaglia is the servant of the patel; the mahar is, through the patel, the hereditary servant of whole village. The former is an orderly, the latter a menial: the one is usually an impecunious member of one of the higher castes in his village—a Kunbi or a Musalman: the other belongs to the outcaste race known as Dheds: the very name mahar, indeed, is strictly that of the caste, and the village servants should be distinguished as the kamdar mahars or pandewars from other Mahar families who may happen to reside there. Their duties are to be found enumerated in Rule 437 of the Land Revenue Manual; and include not only all those to which the jaglia is liable but the less honourable duties as well. They are the village scavengers: they remove dead cattle from the houses: repair fair weather roads and are supposed to keep clean the public buildings of the village, the chawri, musafir khana, and so forth. They are the village undertakers and remove corpses under the orders of the police for inquest. They are also incidentally the village band, and their music is in great request at marriages and other festivals. The mahars are appointed by the patel subject to the approval of the Tahsildar. Their pay is given in kind by the cultivators at harvest, and varies according to the custom of the village: certain crops, e.g. cotton are frequently exempt, and the rate of the haks may be altered by the Deputy Commissioner or Subdivisional Officer, if a change in the village crops necessitates this course. As a matter of custom, the mahars also get the skins and carcases of dead animals. In alienated villages the jagirdar is responsible for the up-keep both of the jaglia force and the menials, and in the Melghat jaglias are appointed on a different system and the Mahars replaced by Balahis, Nihals, Pardhans and other low caste tribes, and even occasionally by Korkus themselves. From the point of view of police, the effectiveness of the village watch and ward has recently been the subject of much criticism and discussion and the reorganisation of the jaglia force is now being considered. Without entering upon debatable ground it may be said to be generally admitted that the excuse is to be found in the extreme smallness of the pay of jaglias and the mahars' haks. The latter, moreover, are in the first instance village servants, not watchmen, in which capacity they are merely auxiliary to the jaglias. As watandars too they have in the past been admitted to office without much inquiry into their characters. However this may be, there are some matters is which their probity is universally admitted. Neither jaglia nor pandewar draws more than the barest living wage, sometimes they draw considerably less. Both are most frequently landless men who would have no difficulty in disappearing. Yet they are daily trusted with hundreds and even thousands of rupees, sums amounting to many times their yearly pay, to take to the tahsilis; and it is almost if not quite an unknown thing in the history of Berar for them to fail in their trust.

Civil justice and litigation.

318. The Civil District of East Berar is second only to Nagpur for the dubious distinction of being the most litigious in the Provinces. According to the latest figures 9749 suits were filed in 1907 as compared with 11,660 in the latter District. The District Court, however, considered 659 appeals in that year, while that of Nagpur had only 390; figures which suggest that the amount spent in litigation must be higher in Berar. The commonest suits are those connected directly or indirectly with land; with questions of the right to be considered a member of Deshmukh or Deshpande, Patelki or Patwari families; and with cotton, which is the staple industry of the District. Land is held under the ryotwari tenure and as it is of very great value and fertility, suits regarding it are taken to the highest courts regardless of expense; mortgages with a condition of foreclosure are common, those with a condition of sale rare; and the right of pre-emption is also a frequent source of discord. Further, as the revenue law makes no provision for a compulsory mutation of names in village registers when a field changes hands, it commonly happens that the khatedar or registered occupant is a person with no tangible right in the soil save that of paying the revenue on it: and thus many suits are filed for a declaration in favour of mutation. The titles of the village and ex-pargana officers are used in Berar as family surnames conveying a certain amount of distinction. The allowance, (rusarn or lawazima) made to the latter is a matter to be divided among members of the family. Hence there are always a number of claimants to be declared members of Deshmukh or Deshpande families. Suits for partition of ancestral property are also not uncommon, while a decree of the civil court in favour of an applicant's claim to patel or patwari family has always this additional attraction, that it may some day be found useful when the revenue court is deciding the right to the office itself. Finally, the ginning and pressing of cotton in partnership leads to suits for dissolution of partnership and rendition of account; and the satta system of speculation on the coming crop gives rise to suits upon losses so incurred which provide the courts with a considerable amount of work. There are two barristers-at-law, both Europeans, practising in this District, seven advocates of the High Court and 60 District vakils: this does not include those resident in Yeotmal.

Guardians and Wards.

319. The Court of Wards does not exist in Berar, the system in force in its place being that of the Guardians and Wards Act VIII of 1890. Responsible persons are appointed by the District Judge to be guardians of minors' estates: they give substantial security for the proper performance of their duties: and in important matters they cannot act without first consulting the court. The system is believed to work satisfactorily. In 1907 there were 63 estates so managed in this District with a total value, though many of them were small in size, of over eight lakhs of rupees.

Public Works.

320. There are 236 miles of road in charge of the Public Works Department, of which 114½ miles are class 1, or fully metalled. A road from Sembadoh to Dharni (24 miles) is under construction, and it is proposed to make over to the Department the road from Morsi by Chandur Bazar and Ellichpur to Paratwada. The road from Amraoti to Ellichpur has two fine bridges at Balgaon and Assegaon. The total value of buildings under the Department reaches the large figure of Rs. 23,71,159, of which Rs. 19,79,687 is represented by civil buildings, Rs. 2,63,473 by the military buildings formerly belonging to the Hyderabad Contingent, Rs. 49,668 by Ecclesiastical, and Rs. 78,331 by the Postal and Telegraph Departments. The annual cost of upkeep is Rs. 17,929. Among the more notable structures are the Deputy Commissioner's office at Amraoti (Rs. 1,80,993), the Commissioner's office (Rs. 37,213), and the Conservator's (Rs, 27,246): the two latter have been recently built. The Law Courts cost Rs. 1,37,726, the Church, Rs. 14,204, and the District Jail Rs. 4,02,010. There is a fine Circuit House with Officer's Rest House attached (total cost Rs. 57,946) and a Circuit House at Ellichpur (Rs. 16,663). At the latter place, besides the former military quarters, there are the usual buildings of a civil station, the most important being the former Deputy Commissioner's office, now used as a court house (Rs. 1,32,850) and a Church (Rs. 16,197). These high figures are of course partly accounted for by the higher cost of building and especially of labour in Berar as compared with the Central Provinces. The two tanks at Amraoti are under the control of the Department; and the dak bungalows throughout the District have recently been made over to it by the District and Municipal Boards.

Jail.

321. The former District Jail at Ellichpur has been abandoned, the buildings being made over to the Police Department; and the Central Jail at Amraoti was reduced on the 16th April 1908, to the status of a first class District Jail. The building has accommodation for 633 prisoners, including 48 in the women's ward. The daily average number of prisoners for the last five years of its maintenance as a Central Jail were as follows: —

and the cost of maintenance per head was in 1906, Rs. 91-14-10 and in 1907, Rs. 85-50. The chief industries were formerly stone-breaking and lithography, but the latter has now, with the transference of the long-term prisoners, been transferred to the Central Jail at Nagpur. The lithography was done solely for Government departments, and the forms supplied to these in 1907 brought in Rs. 43,630. In the garden attached to the jail and worked by prison labour, vegetables for prison use and aloes. (Agave cantala) are grown. The leaves of the latter are smashed by beating and yield an excellent long fibre, from which coarse rope and twine are prepared: this work is given as an alternative to stone-breaking to some of the prisoners.

Hospitals.

322. The Civil Surgeon of Amraoti has hospitals at Amraoti Camp and Ellichpur Civil Station each in charge of an Assistant Surgeon, and smaller ones (maintained by Government) at Chikalda and Dharni in the Melghat. There are also dispensaries (most of which have wards attached) at the following places. They are supported by subscriptions from private persons and local bodies, and are managed by committees of local residents under the guidance of the Civil Surgeon.

These, together with the two in the Melghat, are in charge of hospital assistants. In the State institutions the total accommodation is for sixty-seven men and eight women, at the dispensaries for forty men and ten women. There is also a Dufferin Hospital in Amraoti City with accommodation for 20 in-patients. This is in charge of a fully qualified Lady practitioner, and is managed by a committee of which the Commissioner is president. At Kotharia, near Ellichpur, an asylum for lepers is maintained by the Korku Mission on behalf of the Mission to Lepers in India. This has recently been accorded a Government grant-in-aid; the buildings include a church and a dispensary and accommodate about twenty-seven lepers. In 1906 the number of outdoor patients treated in the District was 109,776, and in 1907 95,113; such treatment may therefore be looked upon as fairly popular. Indoor patients in these two years have numbered 1371 and 1183; and when Government servants, paupers and cases brought in by the police are deducted from these totals, it cannot be said that the hospital wards except perhaps that at Amraoti, are used by the public to any great extent. Probably the cause of this is the publicity of the ward system; for when in India a man comes to hospital, he generally brings his wife with him. The extension of family wards therefore is the policy now being pursued.

Vaccination.

323. The District is divided into circles for purposes of vaccination, two in each taluk. In the four municipalities, vaccination is compulsory under the Act; but in the villages much depends on the co-operation of the village officers, who as a rule support it energetically. Previous to 1894 vaccination was carried on by the hospital assistants: the experiment of having special vaccinators was tried and abandoned in 1904, since when there has been some falling-off in the numbers of persons vaccinated. The last quinquennium for which statistics are available (1898-1903) shows a small. pox death-rate of 0.15 per thousand. Further information may be had from the interesting reports of Lieutenant-Colonel Little.

Education.

324. Prior to the Assignment there were no schools supported expressly by the State Private schools existed in which Sanskrit was taught to Brahman boys and Marathi to Hindus of lower castes. Mahars, Mangs, Chamars and other degraded tribes were not allowed to enter any school. Munshis taught the Arabic of the Koran, Persian and Urdu, and in the old Muhammadan city of Ellichpur the traditional Muhammadan culture was (and to a very limited extent still is) maintained. 'But up to 1861,' (writes Mr. J. H. Burn) ' when education became the concern of the State, the occupation of teaching was looked upon as derogatory, and metaphorically designated grazing (cattle). Thus it never got beyond mere rudiments with most of the pupils. We have nevertheless a stock of good writers and excellent accountants raised by the few indigenous schools or by private household tuition. The village writers, several literary deshmukhs and patels among the Hindus, many well-to-do traders, the kazis and other Muhammadans all represent the results of private education.'[Berar Gazetteer (1870), p. 273.] Scattered schools were organised by Government in 1861 and succeeding years, and the Educational Department was introduced in 1866; middle and lower class schools were opened, and on the 1st November in that year the High School at Amraoti was established. At the present day Amraoti shows a higher proportion of children under instruction to children of school-going age than any other District in the Central Provinces or Berar. The High School at Amraoti has an attendance of 400 boys, of whom 40 are boarders; and extra boarding accommodation is being built. The Anglo-Marathi middle school has an average attendance, of 273, and the Anglo-Urdu school [ Since raised to the status of a High School.] 57. The High School, prior to the amalgamation of Provinces, prepared for the examinations of the Bombay University, but now for those of Allahabad. Besides these there are 6 other Anglo-vernacular schools in the District, and English classes supported by voluntary contributions in many of the District Board schools. A small Government industrial school at Amraoti has been merged in the Victoria Technical Institute. The total of 273 schools for boys and 22 for girls in the District, with an attendance (out of a population of 809,499 and an estimated child population of 121,000) of over eighteen thousand, is a fairly creditable one. The large majority of boys' schools are owned and managed by the District Board and Municipalities, and the system of grants-in-aid to privately owned schools has in recent years been almost entirely discontinued, only ten such remaining; all these, together with several unaided schools, teach the ordinary curriculum and are inspected by Government officers. Three only are completely independent, and the teaching given in these is entirely of a religious character, two being maintained at Hordernganj and Tiosa respectively by wealthy Marwari merchants for the teaching of Sanskrit, and one at the village of Kakada being held in a mosque for the inculcation of the Koran. As in other parts of India, female education lags far behind. Government has recently taken over from the local bodies the twenty girls' schools maintained by them, and there are two unaided schools belonging to Mission bodies. The female normal school for the training of teachers was transferred from Nagpur to Amraoti in 1905. One Urdu, and four Marathi newspapers are published in Amraoti, and one Marathi periodical in Ellichpur. Their names are as follows:—Safir-i-Berar, Pramod Sindhu, Kartavya, Vyapar Samachar, Maharashtra Vagvilas, Prabhat (Ellichpur).

District Board.

325. The Amraoti District Board came into existence in 1890, and now controls, except in the Municipalities and in the backward tract of the Melghat, the primary schools and a variety of other matters. Minor public buildings, and all but the most important roads and bridges are in its charge; it regulates bazars and fairs and attends to village sanitation and water-supply; it supports with large contributions the dispensaries throughout the District and the Dufferin Fund: it pays the expenses of vaccination, and it maintains the veterinary establishment and the pounds. In years of scarcity or plague it also takes up large measures of relief or prevention. Under it are the Taluk Boards, one for each of the five taluks in the plains, which act as its advisers with regard to the needs of their charges, and its agents in carrying out the work ordered. They have no authority of their own, though the question of investing them with powers similar to those possessed by Local Boards in the Central Provinces is now under consideration. The District Fund reaches a total of from two to three lakhs of rupees, and its chief items as laid down in section 22 of the Rural Boards Law are the various cesses, grants-in-aid from Government for general purposes and for education, some minor receipts such as pound fees, and fees levied in the schools. By far the largest heads of expenditure are education and public works, dispensaries and hospitals ranking third. As at present arranged, the constitution of the Board is somewhat complicated. A limited electorate chooses twelve members for each of the Taluk Boards and six (including the Tahsildar, who is usually chairman) are nominated by Government; the Taluk Boards then elect two members each yearly for a term of 3 years and to the thirty thus obtained are added eight nominated on behalf of Government, including the five Tahsildars and the Deputy Commissioner who is ex-officio chairman. The vice-chairman is elected by the members. The Board has a sub-committee for finance and audit, and another, on which some non-members sit, for education. It has a paid Secretary who conducts the office work, and a Public Works Department under a Local Fund Supervisor, which carries out all works of less than Rs. 1000 estimated value.

Minor Excluded Local Funds. A. The Melghat Fund.

326. Two minor excluded local funds deserve some mention, namely, the Melghat, and the cotton market funds. As already mentioned, the Melghat is exempt from the operation of the Berar Rural Boards Law, and sends no representatives to the District Board. Its school cess is paid to and its schools managed by that body, but for all other local purposes its funds are separate under the immediate control of the Deputy Commissioner. These purposes include the maintenance of the Chikalda sanitarium to which the ground rent of bungalows in Chikalda, as well as a fixed Provincial grant (in supersession of the former District grants) are applied.

B. Cotton Market Fund.

327. There are six cotton market committees in the District, one at each of the taluk head- quarters, and one at Dhamangaon-Dattapur, the most important town in the Chandur taluk. The committees are concerned with the maintenance and improvement of the market and its surroundings, the construction of chabutras and other necessary buildings, and in general with the health, safety and convenience of persons using the market. Thus they license weighmen and enforce the use of standard weights. Fees are levied by the committee from persons using the markets, and at the end of each year the balances are credited to District Board or Municipal funds according to the situation of the market.

Sanitation.

328. The work of sanitation in non-municipal areas is, as already stated, attended to by the District Board, and by the patels. A peculiarity of the District is to be found in the number of very large villages, such as Badnera, Karasgaon, Shirasgaon Kasba, or accumulations of villages such as Anjangaon Surji and Dhamangaon-Hordernganj-Dattapur, which present peculiar difficulties in the way of sanitation, but have no organisation to meet them. In some there are village sanitation committees, which are supposed to work under the District and Taluk Boards,-and to offer suggestions. They have no source of income and no independent standing; in general, the members show little or no interest in their work preferring to leave it in the hands of the patel; the District Board, on the other hand, is not unnaturally chary of favouring selected places in the matter of expenditure, with a result that real sanitation is but little attended to. However, it is only fair to recognise the help village authorities generally have given in preventing the extension of epidemic disease such as plague and cholera. The question of extending the Central Provinces Village Sanitation Act to Berar is now under consideration; and it is hoped that this may provide a means of improving at any rate the more advanced of the towns in question. There is nothing in Berar to correspond with the Central Provinces system of Notified areas.

Municipalities.

329. There are four Municipalities, all constituted under the Berar Municipal Law of 1886, natnely, Amraoti town and camp, Ellichpur city and civil station. The largest, Amraoti town, has 18 elected members and 6 nominated by the Chief Commissioner; but in the others the membership is entirely by nomination; all employ paid secretaries. The Deputy Commissioner is ex-officio chairman of the two headquarters committees; and it is usual for the Subdivisional Officer to fill the same post in the two at Ellichpur. The taxes, with the exception of a small toll on carts coming into Amraoti town (this is let to farm), are all direct, the main imposts being on professions and trades (except in Amraoti camp) and on houses and lands (except in Ellichpur civil station). Considerable difficulty is experienced, especially in Amraoti town, in collection, as the rate-payers have acquired the habit of delaying payment as long as possible; and though the burden is not heavy, appeals to the magistrate for aid in collection are very numerous; and in general the committees may be said to be in straitened circumstances. The following table gives the position of the Municipalities according to latest reports, those for year ending March 31st 1908:—

At the date of Sir A. Lyall's Gazetteer, 1870, Ellichpur city had 27,782 inhabitants, while Amraoti could not boast of more than 23,410. It has recently been proposed to introduce the electoral system into Ellichpur, but the proposal was abandoned owing to the lack of interest displayed Even in Amraoti town at the last election, when party feeling ran unusually high, little over 20 per cent. of the electors could be induced to register their votes. The chief problems before the Municipalities, besides that of finance, are water-supply and sanitation. The latter is good in the two civil stations, but poor in the two cities, particularly in Amraoti, where various schemes proposed from time to time have had to be abandoned owing to lack of funds. The problem is intimately associated with that of street widening and providing open spaces, and the high value of land in Municipal limits has been one of many stumbling blocks. Water is drawn in the two Ellichpurs from wells only, though in the city there is an ancient conduit now no longer fit for use. In Amraoti camp the Wadali tank and filtering station supply excellent water to the various bungalows and public offices; but the tank leaks considerably, and as its storage capacity is small, it cannot be relied upon in a shortage of rainfall. Two subsidiary tanks which were constructed during the famine of 1899-1900 gave way before a flood in 1903, and have not since been repaired. The wells in camp are both numerous and excellent, and may generally be relied upon except in seasons of extreme drought. The case is different in Amraoti town, where the wells contain only brackish water and are constantly being fouled. The Kalapani tank, four miles away, gives a fair supply of water, but even in good years is inadequate for the rapidly increasing population, and has always to be supplemented by pumping operations at Rajapeth waterworks about a mile from the city. Even this source is insufficient in times of scarcity and, if the town is to develop in the future as it has done in the immediate past, a large addition to the water-supply is a necessity. A scheme was mooted a few years ago for the construction of a large tank at India, some miles away, which, it was thought, would not only give a sufficient supply for the two Municipalities but even perhaps leave a surplus for irrigation; the project, however, would be a very costly one, and nothing has as yet been done. A general scheme for a sufficient water-supply has been and is still under consideration. Further details as to the separate municipal towns will be found under the separate headings in the Gazetteer Appendix.

Statistics of Revenue.

330. The following table gives statistics of revenue in recent years:—

continued..

Year.	District.	Town Fund Tax.	Income Tax.	Other receipts.	Total Revenue.
		Rs.	Rs.	Rs.	Rs.
1890-91	Amraoti	12,973	--	25,856	20,79,336
	Ellichpur	Not available	--	7,912	a 14,33,901
1900-01	Amraoti	29,403	--	25,453	21,90,819
	Ellichpur	12,886	--	12,821	12,70,488
1901-02	Amraoti	31,568	--	32,007	24,77,691
	Ellichpur	12,098	--	23,913	15,56,302
1902-03	Amraoti	29,251	--	35,926	25,64,309
	Ellichpur	12,285	--	33,008	15,64,189
1903-04	Amraoti	28,625	--	38,532	29,85,623
	Ellichpur	12,448	--	16,232	18,33,183
1904-05	Amraoti	--	65,602	37,689	32,64,479
	Ellichpur	--	31,867	18,215	19,63,158
1905-06	Amraoti	--	79,574	57,156	49,84,28
	Melghat	--
1906-07	Amraoti	--	73,910	41,123	50,12.353
	Melghat
1907-08 (b)	Amraoti	--	70,990	44,798	49,63.770
	Melghat

(a) Excludes Town Fund Tax.

(b) The figures are in some cases for slightly different periods from those in the succeeding table.

Reccipets and chrges

331- The District balance sheet for the year ending March 31st 1908 is as follows:—

To this may be added the following:—

The income and expenditure of local bodies is shown in the following table. The excess of expenditure over income in some cases is due to temporary reasons and requires no comment.

These total receipts however include grants from Government and payments from one local fund to another.