'REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY FOR THE YEAR 1904-1905' [‎116r] (7/116)

PART I.
SUMMAE Y.
Instruction, 1* The hopes which were raised last year by the apparent return of normal Introduction,
monsoon conditions and by the real advance in prosperity of almost every
'Stbuc- department of Government were doomed to be but shortlived and a rainfall
( ‘ teli both insufficient and unseasonable added one more lean year to the records of
"■: this unfortunate Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. . Amidst the despondency caused by the trials of
s the agricultural population, there was, however, one gleam of hope in that plague,
which had for so long harassed a country already stricken by famine, appre
ciably diminished both in the extent of its ravages and in the virulence of its
attack. General as was the disorganization caused by plague, its effects were
/ !72 f ; ! J| probably nowhere more pronounced or its results more lamentable than in the
^ check given to the progress of primary education, upon which the future well
being of the country so much depends. Especially welcome therefore is the proof
furnished by the educational statistics for the past year that the disease was by
no means so destructive to the work of village schools as in some of the previous
years. A substantial rise in the number of births, accompanied by a decrease
in the number of deaths, gives ground for hope that the normal balance will soon
be restored as a result of the gradual disappearance of the scourge. The failure
Western India of the m onsoon, while modified in the Deccan and Southern Mahratta Country
by copious cyclonic rain in September, was pronounced in Northern Gujarat, and
a prolonged break, which lasted for six weeks, had damaged the crops almost
iscellaneous, beyond hope of recovery when the rain finally came. Liberal remissions
and suspensions of land revenue were given by Government, and though
test works and relief works were necessary in certain tracts, they did not
attract large numbers, the people subsisting for the most part on the produce of
their cattle, for which fodder was available throughout the greater part of
the fair season. Although distress was not acute, the character of the season
can well he gauged by a glance at the figures of land revenue collections,
which deoreased by nearly 85 lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees of rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. from those of the previous year.
Depending, as the Local Boards chiefly do, upon collections of Local Bund
Cess, remissions and suspensions of which automatically followed those of land
revenue, the year was not suitable for the initiation of any considerable works
by these Boards, and their activity was for the most part confined to necessary
measures of protection and conservancy. Although there was a slight increase
in the area of land cultivated, yet as a result of the deficient rainfall in the
Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. proper and the low inundation in Sind, the net area of land ultimately
cropped fell by 1 per cent, below tho figures of the previous year. The dryness
of the last ten years is no doubt responsible for the obvious tendency to replace
food crops by cotton, although the high price realised for cotton in the last two
or three years must have given a considerable stimulus to the process. Plague
and agricultural depression were responsible to some extent for a large decrease
in the number of civil suits instituted, and also for the variations in the number
of registrations of different instruments recording transfers of, or encumbrances
upon, property. As a bad harvest is usually associated with an increase in
b 780—1 s