Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/105

 ;





—





BANNU. camels, 7341



lbs.

—

1882-83 was rice, 262 and inferior grains, 672 lbs.



Land

The average

ploughs, 39,936.

principal crops in

450

95

Tenures, Wages, Prices,

etc.

—The

out-turn per acre of the

lbs.; wheat,

An

communal

types

lbs.



gram,

village tenures of this District,

and

as a rule, present few features of peculiarity,

the standard

658

recognised

fall

naturally under

throughout the

Province.

exception, however, exists in the custom, once general, and

surviving in

among

holdings vesh.

ment.

money

13

It

Marwat

villages,

the shareholders.

has received

Cultivation

is

official

This custom

called the khula

is

sanction at the recent revenue settle-

on by peasant proprietors, and and landlord are rare. There are no large

chiefly carried

rents betvveen tenant

proprietors,

still

of the periodical re-distribution of

and the land

is

minutely sub-divided.

assist the proprietors of the soil in clearing

All cultivators

who

waste lands are generally

held to have occupancy rights in their holdings.

Such tenants

sur-

render a small proportion of their produce as a recognition of the proprietor’s right, or

pay him a

trifling

revenue assessed upon their holdings.

percentage on the Government

Ordinary tenants pay rent

in

kind, at rates which range from one-half to three-fourths of the gross

produce of their fields. These rates are reported to have undergone no material change since 1849. Extra hands taken on at harvest time Other labour has more than are paid in kind, at customary rates. doubled in value since annexation. In the early years of British rule, unskilled labour could be always hired for 2 annas or 3d. per day,

sometimes for even less. The rates in 1880 ranged from 2 d?inds or 3d. up to 5 dnnds or 7^d. per day for unskilled, and from 6 dnnds or The official returns 9d. to 10 dnnds or is. 3d. for skilled labour. for 1876 give the price of some principal items of local consumption, as they stood upon January ist of that year, as follows:

Wheat, 39I sers per rupee, or 2s. io|d. per cwt. ; barley, 62^ sers gram, 46^ sers millets (Sorghum vulgare), 60 sers and (Panicum spicatum) 55 sers. These prices show a very considerable fall below those of 1866, when wheat stood at 15 sers per rupee; barley, 23^ sers ; gram, 22 sers ; millets (Sorghum vulgare), 22 sers ; and (Panicum spicatum) On the ist January 1882, prices again ranged high, as 17 sers. follows: Wheat, i9|th sers per rupee; barley, 38I ; gram, 32-^ sers Sorghum vulgare, 27^ sers and Panicum spicatum, 24^ sers. The scarcity of 1868-69 was not felt in Bannu.

—

—

Commerce and Trade, Communications, etc. The District has but little Alum, manufactured at Kdlabagh, and also at Kutki in

export trade.

the Khatak-Niazai Hills,

is

exported in small quantities.

Salt

is

quarried

from the right bank of the Indus, about 2 miles above Kdlabagh, and conveyed across the river to Mari, one of the Government salt marts of the Shahpur Customs District. Considerable quantities of grain