Page:The empire and the century.djvu/766

 In Burma revenue is levied from all cultivated land. A rate is fixed according to the description of land, and this rate remains unaltered for a term of years. The cultivated land is measured up every year, and so all extensions of cultivation come under assessment annually. To protect those who bring waste land under cultivation, they are given leases of the land which carry exemption from land revenue for terms of years based upon the nature of the land to be cleared and the amount of labour required to clear it. This is the system in Lower Burma. In Upper Burma we found a system in force, at annexation, by which each household was required to pay one-tenth of its annual estimated income to the State. The whole village was held jointly responsible for this payment. There were two descriptions of land. Private land was not assessed, except, or course, in so far as the income from land was included in the household income. State land was made to pay as much as could conveniently be squeezed out of the State land tenants.

Since annexation it has been decided to assimilate the revenue system throughout the province as much as possible, and private lands are now assessable at three-fourths of the rates levied on State lands. The old assessment on households, which was called Thathameda, from a Sanskrit word signifying one-tenth, is being gradually reduced so far as concerns agricultural income, and only persons who derive their income from sources other than land will continue to be assessed at full rates. The total land revenue of Burma in 1908-1904 was 2,18,15,715 rupees. In Lower Burma a capitation tax is levied at the rate of 5 rupees per married man and 2·8 rupees per bachelor. This tax came down to us from Burmese times. It brought in 49,18,658 rupees in 1908-1904. The capitation tax has not much to recommend it, I think, except its antiquity and the fact that it brings in a large revenue.

Then there is fishery revenue. The fisheries of Lower Burma are very large and productive, and Ngapi, a