Page:2015.17090.Lucknow-District.djvu/20

FROM To H. H. BUTTS, ESQUIRE, OFFG. SETTLEMENT OFFICER, THE COMMISSIONER, Lucknow. Progress of settlement up to August 1869. LUCKNOW DIVISION. Dated Lucknow, the 24th April 1871. SIR, Preliminary. I have the honour to announce the completion of the settlement of the Lucknow district, and to submit my report thereon, together with the prescribed statements and other statistical returns; but I will, at the outset, express my regret that it has not fallen into abler hands, and that the distinguished officers who have in reality effected the settlement are unable to report the result of their own labours. 2. When I took charge, in August 1869, the survey, assessments, and the enquiry into the tenures of the greater part of the landed property of the district, had been com- pleted. It remained only to finish the judicial portion of the settlement, to complete and fair out the records, and to hand them over to the district authorities. 3. This has Its commensurate value. now been done, and I trust to be able to show that the value of the whole work is commensurate with the money and labour that has been bestowed upon it; that the interests of the Government have been carefully considered in fixing the land revenue, while regard has been had to the welfare and happiness of the people who are so greatly affected by it. 4. True it is, that the Government does not interfere with rents or cultivators, but it demands its share of the rental from the landlord Its effect upon rents. of the soil; and, so sure as the demand is too heavily fixed,