Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/360



348 NOAKHALI. There is a good deal of waste land in the District, but not much of it is fit for cultivation. Tenures for bringing waste lands into cultivation, called ábídkári házálas and ábudkári táluks, are common; at the present time, however, they are usually held by men of wealth, who underlet them to the actual cultivators. The general condition upon which such tenures are granted is, that rent is to be paid at first only upon so much of the area as is actually under cultivation. The remainder is held rent-free for a term of years, the tenant agreeing to cultivate and to pay rent on increased portions of the area of his holding year by year, till the entire cultivable area is brought under tillage. The land is measured with a longer rod than that used in measurements of cultivated holdings, and the tenant is allowed a deduction of onefifth of the area of the rent-paying lands. These tenures are generally admitted to be hereditary, and to convey a right of occupancy in so much of the lands covered by them as has been actually brought into cultivation by the holders. In some instances, however, purchasers of estates have succeeded in cancelling these tenures, and reducing the holders to the status of mere tenants-at-will. It is not customary to allow lands to lie fallow, and no system of rotation of crops is followed. The estates of Noakhali may be divided into four classes — (I) Government khás maháls (136 in number in 1883), in which the Government has retained the full proprietary right; (2) temporarily settled estates, and private estates under Government management, 24; (3) lands of which Government has only a right to a fixed revenue (zamindáris and khárijá or independent táluks), numbering 1547; and (4) estates with respect to which the Government has neither a proprietary right nor a claim to receive revenue, of which there are 56. In addition to these, there are numerous intermediate tenures. The practice of sub-letting land is universal, each class of tenure-holder paying a different rate of rent. Under the zamindár or landlord is the tálukdár, who pays one rate; under him is the hawáladúr, who pays another; then comes the ním-hawáladár, who pays a third rate; and then the ráyat or actual cultivator, who may hold from any of the above, and who pays a fourth rate. In the south of the District it is conimon for the ráyat to again sub-let portions of his holdings to yearly tenants called jotdárs. There are a few proprietors who cultivate their own lands without either a superior landlord above, or a sub-tenant below them. They are chiefly the owners of small plots of resumed military tenures (jágírs), and the tólukdárs in a portion of Amrábád parganá. There is no tendency towards the growth of any distinct class of landless day- labourers. With few exceptions, every man either possesses or rents some land, which he cultivates. Arrangements are sometimes made by which one man supplies the seed or cattle, or the labour required for cultivating land rented by another, in considera