31. The best mode to be adopted will be as follows:
The collector, attended by his native assistant, and such servants as are necessary, must himself proceed to the chief station in each division, where he will cause to be assembled the head inhabitants of the several villages contained in it. To these he must clearly explain the nature of the information desired; and through their means it is expected that it will be obtained without difficulty.
32. Whenever it may be necessary, the collector will visit the village itself, and on the spot cause such inquiries to be made as are requisite.
33. The officers of survey, lately attached to the Residents, will accompany the collectors through this tour, and give such professional aid as may be desired.
34. They will make one general survey of the whole collectorship, forming therefrom a map, on an uniform scale of one English inch to an English mile: in this the limits of each village and of each division will be accurately defined, and the direction and situation of forests, rivers, roads, mountains, &c. will also be correctly delineated.
35. By this general plan, the collector will know exactly the amount of land to be accounted for by each village; and the several lesser sums, as they will be thus brought together, will serve to prove the truth of the aggregate statement.
36. These surveyors will further take any such lesser surveys or measurements as they may be directed to do by the collectors.
37. The papers to be furnished by each village are three; forms for which are the enclosures marked A, B, and C. Some observations are necessary in explanation of these.
38. From the detailed papers of cultivators, and householders not cultivators, will be framed the general account of the village. The reason for separating the inhabitants into these two classes is obvious. It is wished that the exact resources of the country may be seen at one view, to know what part of the population are actually employed in the cultivation of the soil, and to learn in what way the remainder are disposed of. It is also considered but just, that to equalize in some measure the payments from all ranks of people, a tenement tax (or more properly a small rent for the ground on which their houses stand) should be levied from those who contribute nothing to the land rents.
39. But as the extension of this through all the petty villages might be deemed vexatious, and as, in reality, in those very small communities the payment by any party is virtually a payment by the whole of the inhabitants, it is resolved that such tax shall not be levied there. But there is no reason for including in this indulgence the inhabitants of towns; these, as in some places already ordered, should by means of such tax contribute their just share of the payments to government.