are again divided into townships, or Myos, each in charge of a township officer, or Myook. Finally, each village is in charge of a headman. This headman collects the revenue and receives a commission on his collections. He generally has some small civil and criminal powers, and is responsible for the peace and good government of his village.
Excellent village laws have been passed in Burma which enforce the joint responsibility of the villagers for the suppression of crime and for their own good conduct. It was to these laws that the speedy pacification of the upper province may in a great measure be attributed.
The Japanese sent a delegate to study the system of administration in Burma with a view to applying it to Formosa, and the Americans also sent a representative to acquaint himself with the system in force, in order to ascertain whether it would be suitable for the Philippine Islands.
Up to the present year the divisional and district officers in Burma have carried on the whole work of the administration, both revenue and judicial; but now the amount of work has increased so greatly that in the more populous parts of the province it has been found necessary to divide revenue from judicial work, and separate officers have been appointed to deal exclusively with judicial work.
The resources of Burma are very great. The food-supply of the province is always in excess of the requirements of the people. There never has been any general scarcity of food in Burma, and whenever there has been a famine in any other province of India, the food-supplies of Burma have been available to supply the deficiencies of India. Burma may, therefore, be styled the granary of India.
The principal food product of Burma is rice. In Lower Burma six-sevenths of the total area under cultivation is devoted to rice. In Upper Burma the rainfall is much smaller than in the lower province, so
