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NOAKZIALI. 319 tion of receiving a share of the crop. This is, however, only a particular forin of land tenure, and does not seem to be any indication of the growth of a class of day-labourers proper. Many of the poorer cultivators also occasionally hire themselves out to work for the richer landholders. In 1883-84, Noakhali District contained 1707 revenue-paying estates, owned by 8682 individual proprietors or coparceners. In 1883-84 the land revenue collections amounted to £62,554, equal to an average payment of £36, 1os. 3d. for each estate, or £7, 4s, id. by each proprietor. As explained above, rent rates vary according to the tenure under which the land is held. The rates paid by the actual cultivators in 1872 were returned as follows:-Rice land on the mainland, from Ss. 2d. to iis. 6d. per acre, according to situation and the quality of the rice grown ; garden land, from 135. to 16s. 6d. an acre, In the more recently formed Government chars, where the soil is of inferior quality, cultivators hold at favourable rates. In 1872, the rates of rent for rice land in these chars varied from 2s. 8d. to 6s. 3d. per acre. Natural Calamities. -- Insects occasionally do great damage to the crops, but not on such a scale as to affect the general harvest of the District. The calamity to which Noakhali is most subject is flood, generally caused by southerly gales or cyclones occurring at the time when the Meghná is swollen by heavy rains, and when the tides are highest – namely, at new or full moon about the period of either equinox. These floods are very destructive, the damage being caused not so much by the mere inundation as by the sea-water. The flood raised by a storm-wave subsides almost directly, but pools of salt water are left in every field. When evaporation sets in, the water of these pools becomes salter than the Meghná itself, and kills the growing rice. The crops were destroyed generally in 1822 and 1825 by heavy floods; and in 1848, 1869, and 1876, the crops on the islands and along the river banks were destroyed from the same cause. The cyclone and storn-wave of the zist October 1876 was terribly disastrous in its effects, sweeping over the delta of the Meghná, and spreading death and disease throughout the three Districts of Noakhali, Bákarganj, and Chittagong. The loss of life in Noakhali was appalling. The precise mortality in several small areas was at once ascertained ; and from the information thus obtained, it was estimated that, out of a total population of 384,767 inhabiting the four mainland thánás of Sudhárám, Bámni, Amirgaon, and Mirkásarái, principally affected by the cyclone, no fewer than 30,000 had been drowned. In the island of Hátiá, the number of deaths was estimated at 30,000 out of a population of 54,147; and in Sandwíp, at 40,000 out of 87,016. In the two islands and four thinás, therefore, the estimates give a total of 100,000 deaths out of a population of 525,930, or a mortality of 19 per cent.