542
of smoking after several days of forced absten-
tion.
53. No personal knowledge of any case of the
sort.
58. I consider it to be working well.
62. I doubt if it would be feasible, as the hemp
grows wild luxuriantly in all parts of the Assam
Valley.
63. No objection.
64. No objection.
65. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the
comparative strength of each drug to say if the
taxation on each is reasonable with reference to
the others. We generally follow the lead of
Bengal in fixing the price of flat and round ganja
and of charas; but my impression is that the
price now charged has a considerable effect on
consumption, far greater than the effect produced
by the taxation imposed on alcoholic drinks.
67. No.
Oral evidence.
Question 1. —I have nine years' service, the whole
in Assam. I was appointed Director of Land Re-
cords and Agriculture last November. I know
this district (Darrang) best of all, and have a fair
knowledge of Gauhati and Nowgong. I know
nothing about ganja in the hills or the Surma Val-
ley, and little about it in the Assam Valley. My
department keeps no statistics on the subject.
Question 3.—I have never found the spontaneous
growth of hemp in the jungle, only in places for-
merly cultivated or still under cultivation. The
jungle grass appears to choke it even when it
grows.
Question 12.—What illicit cultivation there is
is generally found in small patches in homesteads,
and the excuse is generally made that the plant is
self-sown, but sometimes it is admitted that the
plant was cultivated as medicine for cattle. I can
only remember one case in which cultivation was
admitted, but I have a general impression that the
admission has been made in other cases. The
punishment that would be inflicted in a case in
which the man admitted that he had cultivated the
plant for his cattle would probably be a fine of
about R15. The plea would not be held to justify
the cultivation, because cultivation is forbidden by
law. The mere fact of the existence of the wild
plant in cultivated or occupied land would raise no
presumption of a breach of the law unless there
were signs of cultivation or of attempt at conceal-
ment.
I have seen the wild plant in Kamrup, Darrang,
Nowgong, and Sibsagar. I only saw it yesterday,
for the first time in Sibsagar, where I have never
been stationed. In the other districts I have fre-
quently seen it. The plant, I should say, was
common in these three districts. It is not found
every day or every week, but can be found at once
if it is sought for. When I was one day riding in
the Mangaldai sub-division with Mr. Lyall he
noticed the plants and asked me why I did not
prosecute. I explained my reasons for thinking
that the growth was not intentional. But neverthe-
less I did institute some 20 prosecutions in the
course of the next few weeks and then desisted,
finding there were so many cases. In prosecuting I
acted under Mr. Lyall's orders, which appeared to
be based on the principle that allowing the plants
to grow on private land constituted an infraction
of the excise law by the occupant. I cannot say
whether my views at the time coincided with Mr.
Lyall's but, as I have said above, I do not
hold that opinion now.
I do not know what amount of truth there is in
the statement that hemp is useful as a cattle
medicine. I cannot therefore say whether in the
interests of the cattle a law rendering the exist-
ence of wild hemp in occupied land punishable
would be oppressive. The excise revenue is prob-
ably affected to some small extent by the exist-
ence of wild hemp in occupied lands, but I have
never heard of ganja being prepared from wild
hemp in the three districts of which I am
speaking.
Question 20.—The Doms are in the habit of
using the leaves of the wild hemp to make a
beverage on occasions. I know of no other class
of Assamese which uses the wild hemp. So far
as my experience goes, it is very rare indeed to find
the Assamese taking hemp at all. The consump-
tion of a district depends on the number of
foreigners in it. The Assamese of these districts
take opium principally and the hill tribes take
spirits. In respect of these people, therefore,
there would be no hardship in prohibiting the drug.
I know of no other class using bhang on the
Sivratri except the Doms. It was in 1886 or
1887 that I was informed of this use by a man
who is now a Tahsildar. Apart from this, I
have no information, except that I probably
verified the information given to me by some
enquiry. As far as I know, ganja itself is used by
no class of the Assamese. As regards foreign-
ers, I have occasionally had to deal as a
Magistrate with cases of violence alleged to
have arisen from the use of ganja. Besides
these cases and that of a syce who went melancholy
from the drug I have no knowledge of the use of
the drug by foreigners. I of course know that the
ganja shops are principally maintained by the
foreigners, because I have had occasion to make
enquiries in connection with locating and in-
specting shops, and they are generally placed
near tea gardens. I do not think I have ever
heard that ganja is chiefly consumed by the
labouring classes. I have never made any study
of the subject.
I know of no shop located in the midst of the
purely indigenous population of Assamese or hill
people in the districts of which I am speaking.
Two subsequent letters from MR. GAIT,
published as appendices to his evidence.
Since giving evidence re ganja, I have been
taking a little interest in the matter, and should
like to modify my statement by saying that wild
ganja is often taken in the form of bhang by old
men, who like the feeling of exhilaration which
the drug produces. Its use is not (as I thought)
confined to youths of the Dom caste. The
Tahsildar of Nabbari, moreover, tells me that
younger people who are smokers smoke the un-
cultivated variety if they run short of, or are
unable to afford to purchase, excise ganja.
This morning I saw a sipahi, named Bam Sarat,
of the Parbutia Gosain, who had been collecting
tithes in Nomati mauza, returning with a large