‘BOMBAY 1923-24. A REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PRESIDENCY’ [‎425v] (54/274)

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‘BOMBAY 1923-24. A REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PRESIDENCY’

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Ref: IOR/V/10/317/3

The record is made up of 1 item (136 folios). It was created in 1925. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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BOMBAY, 1923-24
while the revenue payer was placed in a position to ease his burden by
giving up the occupation of lands unprofitable to him. The extensions
of cultivation which have occurred have thus been profitable to the State
no less than to the individual ; whereas under a zemindari or kindred
system, the State would have gained nothing however much cultivation
had extended throughout the whole of 30 years’ leases.
“ But it has not been only as a revenue producing instrument that the
Survey Department has proved its usefulness. The system to which
the valuation of soil has been reduced is in many respects unique, and has
resulted in a record of that valuation complete for innumerable small
parcels of land. Probably no other province or country is possessed of
any similar record. Its chief and immediate value for administrative
purposes is that it enables field operations to be entirely dispensed with
in all future settlements. The change of assessment can be decided for
a whole tract on a review of its economic condition and revenue history
and the people are saved from all the uncertainty and harassment
consequent upon enquiry into the circumstances of individual holdings.
The greatest credit attaches to the founders of this system, which has
stood the test of experience and practical application in the most
satisfactory manner. Developments have been introduced, but in no
particular have the principles, and in very few have even the individual
rules and directions laid down in the Joint Report been widely departed
from.”
Comparative valuations in the fertility of soils were expressed for
convenience of handlings in parts of a rupee, 16 annas representing the
valuation of a perfect field, from which deductions were made for faults,
such as slope or irregularity of surface, excess of lime or moisture,
or inferiority in the character or depth of the soil. This at least was
the arrangement introduced under the joint rules. As time went on,
experience showed the advisability of making allowances for advantages
by making additions to the scale which carried the maximum above
16 annas. An example of this is the advantage that may be derived by
land by the deposit on it of fine silt owing to flooding or from proximity
to a stream on the bank of which a well can be dug from which the land
can be irrigated.
THE RECORD OF RIGHTS
Two important improvements which have in recent years been
introduced into the revenue administration of this 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. may be
described. The first is the Record of Rights. The Record prepared
by the Survey Depat tment was necessarily a fiscal record, the object of
which was to show from whom the assessment was due and what that
assessment was. It was not a record of rights or title. In course of time
it was found that a Record of Right based on possession, if not on title,
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Annual administration report of the Bombay 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. , providing a summary record of the main events and developments in each department of the Government of Bombay From c. 1668-1858, the East India Company’s administration in the city of Bombay [Mumbai] and western India. From 1858-1947, a subdivision of the British Raj. It was responsible for British relations with the Gulf and Red Sea regions. during the financial year 1923-24. The report was printed at the Government Central Press, Bombay [Mumbai], in 1925.

The report is divided into two parts. Part I (ff 405-416) comprises a report ‘GENERAL SUMMARY’, consisting of: [Political]; Finance; Trade and Commerce; Agriculture; Department of Agriculture; Education; Law and Justice; Police and Crime; Bombay City Police; Public Health; Salt; Excise; Forests; the Co-operative Movement; Public Works; Development Department.

PART II (ff 417-527) comprises the following headings, which are further divided into sub-headings:

CHAPTER I ‘INDIAN STATES.’ (ff 417-424), consisting of: I. North Gujarat; II. South Gujarat; III. North Konkan; IV. South Konkan; V. The Deccan; VI. Kolhapur and Southern Maratha Country States; VII. Sind [Sindh]; VIII. Aden; Condition of the people
CHAPTER II ‘ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAND.’ (ff 424-429), consisting of: Land Records; Revenue Surveys; the Record of Rights; Remissions of Revenue; System of Land Tenure; Gujarat Talukdars’ Act; Sind Incumbered Estates Act; the Court of Wards Act; Department of Land Records; Routine Measurement Work; Revenue Surveys; City Surveys; Revision Settlements
CHAPTER III ‘LAW AND JUSTICE.’ (ff 430-436), consisting of: the Budget; Resolutions and Questions; Course of Legislation; Administration of Justice; Civil Justice; Criminal Justice; Registration; Conditions of Trade; Joint Stock Companies
CHAPTER IV ‘POLICE AND CRIME’ (ff 437-447), consisting of: Mofussil and Sind Police; Bombay City Police; Village Police; Aden Police; Government Male and Female Workhouses; Bombay Jails; Criminal Tribes
CHAPTER V ‘AGRICULTURE, WEATHER AND CROPS’ (ff 448-466), consisting of: Nature of the Crops; Outturn of the Crops; Condition of the Agricultural Population; Agricultural Research and its Application; Checking of Pests and Blights; Note on the Weather; Prices; Labour and Wages; Famine; Forests; Co-operative Movement; Horticulture
CHAPTER VI ‘TRADE AND COMMERCE’ (ff 466-483), consisting of: [Industries]; Department of Industries; the Factories Act; Sea-borne Trade; Foreign Trade; Foreign Merchandise; Indian Produce and Manufactures; Trade According to Countries; Shipping; Coasting Trade; Subordinate Ports of 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. ; the Trade of Sind; Shipping Offices; Labour Office
CHAPTER VII ‘PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT’ (ff 484-492), consisting of: Irrigation; Sind; Deccan and Gujarat; Railways
CHAPTER VIII ‘VITAL STATISTICS AND MEDICAL RELIEF’ (ff 493-499), consisting of: [Births and Deaths]; Epidemic Diseases; Hospitals and Dispensaries; Sanitation; Vaccination; Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory; Veterinary; Chemical Analysers; Wild Animals and Venomous Snakes; Mental [psychiatric] Hospitals; Acworth Leper Asylum [hospital for people affected by leprosy or Hansen’s Disease], Matunga; Emigration and Immigration
CHAPTER IX ‘LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT’ (ff 500-504), consisting of: District Municipalities; Bombay Municipality; Local Board Administration; Bombay Improvement Trust; Bombay Port Trust; Karachi Port Trust; Aden Port Trust; Working of the Rent Acts
CHAPTER X ‘COLLECTION OF REVENUE AND FINANCIAL REVIEW’ (ff 505-517), consisting of: the Budget for 1923-24; Loan Accounts; Land Revenue; Public Works Revenue; Customs Administration; Salt Department; Excise; Cotton Duties Act; Stamps; Taxes on Income
CHAPTER XI ‘INSTRUCTION’ (ff 517-521), consisting of: Education; Yeravda [Yerwada or Yerawada] Reformatory; Books and Publications; Newspapers; Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay; Victoria and Albert Museum, Bombay; Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Bombay; Natural History Section; Victoria Museum, Karachi
CHAPTER XII ‘ARCHAEOLOGY’ (f 522), consisting of: [Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle]
CHAPTER XIII ‘MISCELLANEOUS’ (ff 523-527), consisting of: Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; the Established Church of England; the Established Church of Scotland; Stationary; Printing; Bombay Development Department; Back Bay Reclamation Scheme; Town Planning Schemes; Industrial Housing; Suburban Schemes; Salsette-Trombay and Kurla-Trombay Railways; Water Supply; Organisation of the Directorate; Sanitary Committee; Military (Indian Auxiliary and Territorial Forces); Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The report includes the following photographs:

‘Excavations at Mohinja-daro [Mohenjo-daro] (Sind) where important archæological discoveries have been made.’ (f 404v)
‘Kaira [Kheda] District Police. Officers and men who participated in raids against outlaws Namdar Garbad and Kalya Abha.’ (f 439)
‘Panch Mahals [or Panchmahal] District– Recovering stolen property buried by dacoits. The men on the left of the picture armed with bows and arrows are the village Police Patil and his two Rhakwaldars.’ (f 439)
‘Chair making at Thana [Thane] Special Prison.’ (f 443)
‘Karachi Prison: Muhammadan [Muslim] convicts at Id Prayers.’(f 445)
‘Karachi Prison: Carpet weaving.’ (f 445)
‘A Panchayat amongst the Settlers.’ (f 447)
‘Bamboo basket making: Women of Hubli Settlement.’ (f 447)
‘The Deccan can grow first class Crops. Crops of oats obtained at Manjri (Poona [Pune] District) by the Agricultural Department.’ (f 449)
‘Cotton Crop from N. R. Cotton at Jalgaon.’ (f 451)
‘Effect of Dry Farming methods on Jowar [or sorghum]. Left: methods recommended by Agricultural Department. Right: ordinary methods.’ (f 453)
‘Loni Agricultural School (Poona District). Lesson in sugar-cane crushing and gul boiling.’ (f 455)
‘Exhibit of Bombay Agricultural Department as prepared for Wembley Exhibition.’ (f 457)
‘Lloyd Barrage Circle: Left Guide Bank. Pitching in progress. Narrow gauge railway distributing stone. Barrage launch lying off bank.’ (f 485)
‘Lloyd Barrage Circle: Machinery Dump outside store shed. Part of 1[and a half]-ton and 10-ton steel derricks in foreground. 10-ton hand crane unloading. 5-ton steam crane and boilers for pile drivers in background.’ (f 487)
‘Lloyd Barrage Circle: Quarry 17 Rohri, South face. Removing overburden for use as pitching stone, to clear beds for large cut stone. 2’ 0” gauge railway removing stone.’ (f 489)
‘Lake Whiting District. The Lloyd Dam. 4 ft. diam[eter] outlet sluices, Down Stream face.’ (f 491)
‘Lloyd Dam showing outlet pipes.’ (f 492)
‘Pandharpur Fair: Water supply arrangements at Wakhari showing distribution of water through taps.’ (f 496)
‘Pandharpur Fair: Outflow from the Waiting Shed. Women waiting their turn to enter the temple via Women’s Shed.’ (f 498)
‘Government Central Distillery, Nasik [or Nashik] Road.’ (f 515)
‘Khanapur Distillery: The Fermentation room.’ (f 515).

There are also diagrams showing the following: ‘DISTRIBUTION OF PRINCIPAL HEADS OF REVENUE FOR THE YEAR 1923-24.’ (f 506); ‘DISTRIBUTION OF PRINCIPAL HEADS OF EXPENDITURE MET FROM REVENUE FOR THE YEAR 1923-24.’ (f 508); ‘TOTAL EXPENDITURE CHARGED TO REVENUE FOR THE YEARS 1912-13 TO 1923-24.’ (f 510).

There are appendices on folios 527-530, and an index on folios 531-533. There is a map of the Bombay 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. on folio 534.

A table of contents listing the headings and sub-headings of the report is on folios 402-403. In a small number of instances, there are discrepancies in the phrasing or inclusion of sub-headings between the table of contents and the body of the report. In these cases, the sub-heading as it appears in the body of the report is included above.

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‘BOMBAY 1923-24. A REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PRESIDENCY’ [‎425v] (54/274), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/V/10/317/3, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100152998489.0x00003c> [accessed 29 July 2026]

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Reference: IOR/V/10/317/3
Title: ‘BOMBAY 1923-24. A REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PRESIDENCY’
Pages: 399r:534r, 534r:534v, 534v
Author: East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
Usage terms: Open Government Licence

‘BOMBAY 1923-24. A REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PRESIDENCY’ [‎425v] (54/274)

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