The following figures will show the rapid development of the colony from the first season of 1892-93 to the end of the season 1901, which is the latest date for which statistics can be obtained:

CAPITAL OUTLAY TO END OF YEAR
1892-93 £721,233 1897-98 £1,512,916
1893-94 878,034 1898-99 1,616,676
1894-95 995,932 1899-1900 1,677,982
1895-96 1,174,781 1900-01 1,725,676
1896-97 1,362,075
ACRES IRRIGATED DURING THE YEAR
1892-93 157,197 1897-98 810,000
1893-94 270,405 1898-99 957,705
1894-95 269,357 1899-1900 1,353,223
1895-96 369,935 1900-01 1,830,525
1896-97 520,279
NET REVENUE DURING THE YEAR
1892-93 £4,084 1897-98 £111,041
1893-94 3,552 1898-99 131,566
1894-95 9,511 1899-1900 155,302
1895-96 51,632 1900-01 421,812
1896-97 92,629
RETURN ON CAPITAL OUTLAY, PER CENT
1892-93 0.57 1897-98 7.34
1893-94 0.40 1898-99 8.14
1894-95 0.96 1899-1900 9.26
1895-96 4.40 1900-01 14.01
1896-97 6.75

The system of allotment of land may be interesting. As the area under irrigation was entirely open and unoccupied, few difficulties were met with, and the engineers were perfectly free in plotting the land. The entire area was divided into squares of 1,000 feet boundary on each side, and these squares were each divided into twenty-five fields which measure about one acre and are the unit of calculation in sales and in measuring water. Sixty squares, or 1,500 fields, compose a village, and between the villages, surrounding them on all four sides, are canals. Between the squares are ditches, and between the fields are smaller ditches, so that the water can be measured and the allowance made without difficulty. The government sells no smaller piece than a field of twenty-five acres, but purchasers can buy in partnership and afterwards subdivide it.

Each village is under the charge of a superintendent, or resident engineer, who is responsible to a superior engineer, who has charge of a number of villages. Each field is numbered upon a map, and a record is kept of the area cultivated, the character of the crops sown, the dates or irrigation and the amount of water allowed. Before harvest a new measurement is taken and a bill is given to the cultivator showing the amount of his assessment, which is collected when his crop is harvested. As there has never been a crop failure, this is a simple process, and in addition to the water rate a land tax of 42 cents an acre is collected at the same time and paid into the treasury to the credit of the revenue department, while the water rates are credited to the canal department.

The chief engineer fixes the volume of water to be furnished to each village and the period for which it is to remain flowing. The local superintendent regulates the amount allowed each cultivator, according to the crops he has planted. There are six rates, regulated by the crops, for some need more water than others, as follows:

Class. Crops.Rate per acre.
1--Sugarcane$2.50
2--Rice2.10
3--Orchards, gardens, tobacco, indigo, vegetables and melons1.66
4--Cotton, oil seeds, Indian corn and all cold weather crops, except grain and lentils1.66
5--All crops other than specified above.83
6--Single water to plow, not followed by a crop.40

As I have shown you from the figures above, this enterprise has proved highly profitable to the government, and its management is entitled to the highest compliments.

The main canal was originally forty miles long, averaging 109 feet wide, with an average slope of one foot to the mile, and capable of carrying seven feet four inches of water, or 10,000 cubic feet, per second. Twenty-eight miles have since been enlarged to a width of 250 feet and the remaining twelve miles to a width of 150 feet. The canal has been deepened to nine feet six inches, and the intention is to deepen it one foot more. The banks of the main canal are twenty-five feet wide at the top and are built entirely of earth. A railway ninety-six miles long of three-foot gauge has been constructed down the main canal, which is a great convenience in shipping crops and pays a profit to the government. It was constructed by the canal engineers while the ditch was being dug. There are 390 miles of branch canals from thirty to fifty feet wide and from six to eight feet deep, and 2,095 miles of distributaries, or ditches running between villages and squares. The banks of the branches and ditches are all wide enough for highways, and thus enable the people to go from village to village and get their crops to market. Several towns of considerable size have already grown up; the largest, called Lyallpur, having about 10,000 inhabitants. It is the headquarters of the canal and also of the civil authorities; and scattered through the irrigated country are about 100 permanent houses used as residences and offices by the superintendents and engineers.

[XXI]

THE FRONTIER QUESTION