538
Question 58.—The phrase "run riot" is a
strong expression, but I believe the plant does
grow commonly. I think it one of the weeds
which commonly follow cultivation.
Question 65.—The standard of what is required
to produce intoxication is what I had in my mind
in this answer. Judged by this standard, ganja
is still cheap as compared with alcohol and opium.
I do not know what the physiological effects of
opium are, but I know that it makes a man cheer-
ful, and the native regards it as an intoxicant. I
cannot say if the present excise rates on ganja
have nearly raised the price of the drug to the
standard. Apart from smuggling, I think it
would be desirable to tax the drug up to the
standard. The usual daily cost of an intoxicant
to a habitual consumer would furnish a standard
of comparison of the various drugs.
Question 68.—-There is no rule against con-
sumption on the premises.
Question 69.—I have never had complaints, as
well as I remember, from a tea-planter regarding
the location of a shop in his neighbourhood. A
planter told me this morning that he was not
aware that any of his coolies took ganja. The
planters know the habit of their coolies if they
drink. The point I wish to bring out is that the
habit of ganja-smoking does not obtrude itself on
tea-planters.
Question 70.—Tharia, Jaintiapur, and Bhola-
ganj are bazaars at the foot of the hills and in the
tracts in which the excise regulations are enforced.
I can give no estimate of the amount of trade at
these places, I have not tried smuggling cases
arising at those places myself, but I have heard of
them. I was only in that charge for three
months.
Excise Memorandum.—I think it might be
possible to fix the price at which the wholesale
dealers should sell to the retail dealers, but it
would be difficult to carry out in practice, because
one could not tell that the wholesale dealer abided
by the fixed price. In my present district, where
there is only one wholesale dealer, the retail
dealers are of course in his hands, but where there
are more wholesale dealers than one, competition
would come in.
The experiment described in paragraph (m) of
my Excise Memorandum was a temporary ex-
pedient for tiding over a difficulty, there being no
wholesale vendor forthcoming. So far as I re-
member, the gola was taken over by Government
and the ganja sold direct by Government to the
retail dealer.
5. Evidence of MR. R. B. MCCABE, Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup.
Oral evidence.
I joined the service in India in November 1876,
and have served ever since in Assam in all parts
of the province except the plain districts of the
Surma Valley.
The Naga Hills, the Garo Hills, the Khasia
Hills, and the Lushai Hills are British territory,
except that some of the old chiefs retain their in-
dependence in the Khasia Hills as regards their
civil powers. The hills are administered under
special laws, and the excise system of the Assam
province has not been fully extended to them.
We do not interfere with the people of the hills as
regards the growth and use of hemp, except when
the excise arrangements of our plains districts
would be likely to suffer. In the Naga and Khasia
Hills our excise law is in force, though not strict-
ly acted up to. In the Lushai Hills it is not in
force. I am not sure about the Garo Hills. Any
person from the plains buying the drug from hill-
men either in the plains or the hills would be
prosecuted and the seller also if caught. The rea-
son for not fully extending the excise system is
that the people are uncivilized, and we have not
thought it desirable to enforce our excise laws upon
them; nor, indeed, is it possible with our present
establishment. In the Khasia Hills the system is
more developed owing to the tract being more ad-
vanced than the other hills. The two shops in the
Naga Hills are solely for the use of the troops and
traders, and up to 1888 no hill-man was allowed
to buy the drug. I believe this is still the case.
In the Khasia Hills the shop at Shillong would be
mainly for the use of foreigners; but the hill-men
would not be prohibited from buying. The shop
in the Jaintia Hills is probably at the head-quar-
ters of the sub-division (Jawai) and established
for foreigners. There are also foreigners, a regi-
ment of frontier police, at Tura, the capital of the
Garo Hills.
I have seen the hemp plant growing in every
plains district in which I have been in the gardens
attached to the bastis. The cultivation is illicit,
and I always prosecuted when I discovered it.
The cultivation consisted of one or two old plants
which the people said were self-sown and untend-
ed. They never raised the plea that they were
grown for cattle medicine, though they said
the herb was useful to them for that purpose.
They are not allowed to cultivate the plant even
for cattle medicine. Circular No. 28 of 1882
does not justify such cultivation, as I have de-
scribed, even for cattle; but it does justify the
possession of the wild plant for the purpose.
In the plains districts I have seen the plant
growing wild, but the places in which I saw it
growing may have been sites of old habitations
or settlements, and I am inclined to think that it
does not grow apart from habitations, past or
present, I having seen it occasionally, and only
an odd plant at a time.
In the lower ranges of the Naga Hills, imme-
diately bordering on the plains, my attention has
frequently been called on the march to plants
growing by the side of the track, and the inhabi-
tants of the hills have often told me that in former
days they had traded in it to the plains. It is not
cultivated, so far as I have seen, in the hills either
in fields or gardens. It is looked upon as a
jungle product. The tracks lead through culti-
vation, present or past, which might show that
the plant was connected with human habitation;
but the Nagas have told me that they had not
planted it, and that they took no trouble to culti-
vate it. I have not seen it in remote forests. I
met one of the minor Rajas of Bhutan lately,
and he told me that the plant grew freely in the
lower ranges of his hills. I caught three Bhutias
carrying the dried plant in their hands openly
and offering it for sale, and I issued notice to the