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 214 THE KAIRA QUESTION

tanoe I was nob present when ibo official inquiry waer made, and in the second instance the wheat:, w hioh IB valued at) Rs, 13,445, included wheat also from two neighbouring villages so that out of the crops estimated at Rs- 13,445t three assessments had to be paid. And what are Rs> 13,445 in a population of eighteen hundred men ? For the matter of that, I am prepared to admit, that the L^mbasi people had a rioe crop which too gave- them as many rupees, At the rate of forty rupees per head per year to feed a man the Limbasi people would re- quire Rs. 72,000 for their food alone. It naay interest the public to know that according to the official annawart r the Lrmbasi wheat alone should have been R*. 83,021- This figure has been supplied to me by the- collector. To demonstrate the recklessness with which the press note has been prepared, I may add that if the- Limbasi people are to be believed, the whole of the wheat orop was on the threshing floor. According to their statements, nearly one-third waa foreign wheat. The Limbasi wheat, therefore, would be under Rg, 9,000. The official annawari is ten annas. Now according to the actual yield the wheat annawari of Limbasi was 11 annaa as against the official ten annas. Moreover, a maund of wheat per Yigha is required as seed and the Limbasi cultivators had 3,000 (Rs. 3 per maund equals Ra, 9,000} maunds of wheat on 1,965 Vighas, i.e., the wheat oror> was a trifle over the seed. Lastly, whilst the orop was under harvest, I had offered to the collector to go over to Litobasi myself and to have it weighed so that there- might be no question of the accuracy or otherwise of the cultivators' statements. But the collector did not accept. my offer, Therefore, I hold that the cultivators' figures. mast be accepted aa true.

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