1 .
2 SALT REVENUE DEPARTMENT FOR THE OFFICIAL YEAR 1895-96,
3 ‘the Kharwals took care to bring out and manipulate a sample PEVIEW BY SECTIONS.
4 of the best salt in*the pit. This year I had the Kharwals up, PACHBADRA.
5 and explained to them that samples,of from 50 to 100 maunds,
6 according to the size of the pit, must be taken ont under re-
7 sponsible supervision for inspection, and that the balance ot the
8 salt in the pit would be accepted or rejected accordingly as .
9 the sample was good-or bad salt. I carefully explained to
10 them what kind of salt was wanted, and as they know exactly
11 what quality of salt is in the pits, they would have but them.
12 selves to blame if they took out unfairsamples. This plan
13 worked most satisfactorily. I got all the salt we wanted, and
14 of the best quality, and had not to reject a single one of the pits
15 from which samples were produced for my inspection. It
16 speaks well for the Kharwals as a body that they adapted them-
17 selves to a change which quite shuts out inferior pits. There
18 were of course some malcontents, as there are sure to be in any
19 given body of men who cannot get all they want.”
20 “ Asthe contents of the heaps of new salt were estimated by
21 cubic measurement by a formula which ensured a large excess
22 in the heap, no deficits appeared on clearance of the salt in the
23 stores.”
24 The Kharwals received during the past four years as pay-
25 ment for the salt taken from them the following sums, viz.—
26 in 1892-93 Rs. 16,150, in 1893-94 Rs. 36,766, in 1894-95 Rs.
27 $1,245, and in 1895-96 Rs. 44,387.
28 58. Excluding the two pits experimentally restored, one in Details of working pits.
29 Bara Sambra and the other in Chota Sambra, the following
30 are details of the registered number of working pits, the number
31 from which salt was.taken during the past three years, and the
32 balance of pits which at the close of the year contained our
33 reserve of salt of all qualities :-—
34 Number of pits emptied.
35 — | Balance of pits
36 Nomber of from which no
37 Section or tract. working pits salt has been
38 on register. |1893-94, |1894-95, |1895-96, | taken at close
39 of 1895-96,
40 nea re re meneame | ened eee | eeeieriems | elated | meena | ah Speer
41 Bara Sambra «* -%.. vee 81 1 8 oes 81
42 Chota Sambra ow vee 121 13 23 2 119
43 Posali ian se 93 27 31 27 46
44 Hiragarh ae eee 138 26 40 34 104
45 Total Nek 413 67 102 63 350
46 Mr. Buckley, the Assistant Commissioner, observes’ upon Remarks by Assistant
47 this statement as follows :—“ 538 of the 63 pits emptied last year Commissioner.
48 (that is 26 in Hiragarh and 27 in Posali) are of the number
49 which had beeti emptied and re-set with ‘morali’ in the two
50 earlier years given in the table. Deducting the 63 pits emptied
51 last year, and which of course at present contain no salt, and in-
52 cluding the two experimentally restored pits, there are 352 pits,
53 82 in Bara Sambra, 120 in Chota Sambra, 46 in Posali, and
54 104 in Hiragarh, which contain our present reserve of unex-
55 tracted salt. Were all the pits in good order we might estimate
56 our reserve at 30 lakhs of maunds, but as many of the pits
57 are in all stages of disrepair, and as some contain no salt we
58 could in the present state of our trade possibly accept, it is safest
59 to take 150 as thenumber of pits in the tract, which at the pre-
60 sent time contain our reserve of marketable salt—salt which
61 we could take for issue to the through-traffic and Banjarah
62 traders, who demand coarse, clean, white salt, with a proportion
63 ( 41)