1 (6)
2 and by the morning of the Ist January, presented the return to the
3 Supervising Officer, At the places where the servants of Government,
4 whether Police, Fiscal o Judicial, happened to be stationed, these Officers
5 personally tested the entries on that very night. In many cases this _
6 was also done by the European Officers. There was scarcely a single
7 civil employé of the Government disengaged on that occasion. In the
8 two Capitals of Lahore and Umritsur, the Deputy Commissioners were
9 themselves in the streets during a great portion of the night, accompany-
10 ing the enumerators, or following in their wake and cross-questioning
11 the householders. On these rounds the District Officers were attended
12 by the most respectable among the ‘burghers. In all cases the mass of
13 the people ‘effectually co-operated. The heads of families were usually
14 quite ready to return their inmates. At Umritsur in particular, the
15 people stood waiting with a light at their doors for the arrival of the
16 enumerators, and the streets and alleys were half illuminated. At the
17 large Stations Census Papers in a tabular form were circulated among the
18 European residents. In the Cantonmenis and the Sudder Bazaars, the
19 enumeration was effected through thé Cantonment Magistrates with the
20 sanction of the Military Authorities.
21 6. It appears satisfactory that the operation should have been con-
22 ducted so easily and quietly. If it were considered that inquiries of this
23 nature have often given rise to absurd and unfounded’ rumours, and
24 excited serious discontent and apprehensions as to the intentions of
25 Government, that this inquiry was to be made simultaneously throughout
26 a newly acquired Province, and to be extended to rude and martial
27 tribes on the frontier, doubts might at first sight be entertained as to
28 the probable success of the measure, and the nature of its effects. But
29 confidence was placed in the good sense and feeling which the Punjab
30 people have uniformly displayed, and that reliance has been justified.
31 The utter absence of alarm among the inhabitants generally at this, the
32 first regular census, was truly remarkable. They seem to have under-
33 stood the work to be a statistical investigation, with no special or
34 ulterior design. No suspicion appears to have arisen even in the minds
35 of the Trans-Indus population, although the tribes on the border are
36 proverbially sensitive to even the semblance of interference. In one or
37 two Districts only of the Punjab do any rumours appear to have spread
38 abroad, but these were quite exceptional and were easily allayed. In