also to counteract the frequent changes of possession rendered possible by the challenging system.
The visabadi leases did not work satisfactorily. Arrears usually accumulated owing to the inability of the poorer classes to pay their rents, and then alterations were made in the total amount of the lump assessment; but apparently nothing was done to render its incidence more fair.
Both the ásará and the visabadi systems therefore had their drawbacks, and more than one Collector proposed a return to the renting methods. This was indeed authorized in 1839, though it was not actually carried out.
Sir Henry Montgomery's report of 1844 already referred to recorded the opinion that the only satisfactory way of dealing with the Government land was by a survey and scientific settlement. Meanwhile, as a temporary measure, he advocated a system of joint village rents, and this was introduced a year or two later and remained in force for some 20 years. The challenging system, curiously enough, was retained, and the main modifications introduced were the abolition of the ásará system and the insistence of the joint responsibility of the village community as a whole for the default of any of its members. Sir Henry Montgomery's view was that these joint village rents would afford protection to the poorer ryots in so far as their interests were mixed up with those of the richer, and he was also anxious to remove the obnoxious interference of Government servants which was an essential part of the ásará system, and had also grown up round the visabadi system owing to the ryots being unable themselves to arrange the apportionment of the lump assessments among the different holdings.
Meanwhile notable changes had been effected in the administration of the district. In 1849 a Special Commissioner with the powers of a Board of Revenue was appointed to the charge of it, and the post was continued until 1855. In 1859 the Rajahmundry, Masulipatam and Guntúr Collectorates were formed into the two districts of Gódávari (with Cocanada as headquarters) and Kistna, the boundary between which followed the course of the Upputéru and Tamaléru rivers. The anicut across the Gódávari had also been completed in 1853.
Proposals for the first scientific settlement of the taluks comprising the new Gódávari district were submitted by Mr. R. E. Master, Deputy Director of Revenue Settlement, in two schemes, one in 1860 dealing with the western delta, and the other in 1861 relating to the rest of the district.1[1] The two
- ↑ 1 Printed in No XXII of the Selections from the Madras Records.
