Mr. Laing, the Financial Minister, propounded the principle in his Budget Speech for 1861-62, when he said—
“If this great empire is ever to have the roads, the Schools, the local Police, and the other instruments of civilization which a flourishing country ought to possess, it is simply impossible that the Imperial Government can find either the money or the management.”
the principle is being adopted throughout India with success; in Scind the people see the advantages it brings with it; the working of the Bombay cess system is thus described in the Directors’ Report for 1865-66:—
“One main cause of the School extension, now taking place in Western India, has been the institution of a local cess for educational purposes in 12 Collectorates of the Presidency, viz., Ahmedabad, Surat, Kaira, Khandeish, Sattara, Tanna, Poona, Rutnagherry, Belgaum, Dharwar, Canara, and Kulladghee. This cess having been imposed at a time of great agricultural prosperity, appears not to have been unpopular with the people. The Educational Inspectors report on it as follows:—
“That this cess is popular with the people, and that they recognise the advantages to be derived from its judicious administration, would appear from the fact that, in several places where it has not hitherto been levied, the people have come forward and volunteered to pay it. This has been the case in some villages of the Nusserapoor Talooka of the Tanna Collectorate, and in several detached villages of the Poona Collectorate.
“This year we have had the full benefit of the local cess, which has enabled us to open a large number of Vernacular Schools, and to erect School-houses in places where they were most urgently required, as mentioned above. The cess is, I believe, paid willingly, and the people appear to be fully alive to the benefits to be derived from it; and from the large increase in the number of scholars, it is evident that they are determined to avail themselves of its benefits to the utmost.’”
In Bombay one of the Inspectors, Mr. Russel, reports—
“The cess operations have already begun to bring the subject of popular education before both the masses and their rulers in a somewhat difierent and clearer light than before. The people are beginning to look on Schools as necessary popular institutions, and not merely as a part of the administrative machinery of a foreign government, with which they have little or no concern. The cess-payers now want something in return for their money, and the school attendance of the agricultural classes is increasing. The troublesome and precarious resource of ‘popular contributions’ for schoolmasters’ salaries is dispensed with, since the levy of the cess (but the people are too apt to think that the cess is sufficient for all their school requirements, or, at least, to allege this as a ground for refusing further local contributions, even when urgently needed). Another good effect of the cess is the good example it sets to Inamdars, Jagheerdars, &c., and their people, who see its operations, however humble at present, in the neighbouring British territory. For instance, I and my deputies have been asked by the people of non-government villages to get the School cess levied for them.”
Mr. Curtis, another Inspector, states as follows:—
“The local cess continues popular, and from the numerous petitions received from the people for schools and school-houses, it seems that they are determined to receive the full benefit of the money they contribute towards the extension of Education. In many places where new school-houses, erected from Local Funds, were used for the first time, the people raised subscriptions to feast the pupils, and made the day one of rejoicing; and this without any hint from our Department. The sum of Rupees 428 in nine places in the Surat Collectorate alone was subscribed and spent in this manner.
