292 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. XV.
or admixture of the same, manufactured in any part of British India beyond the
territory to which the Act extends may be imported, and, where no duty has
previously been paid on such articles, the conditions under which they may be
imported and bonded within such limits (section 19-A).
The Collector may, with the sanction of the Board, let in farm the duties
leviable on the abovementioned drugs, or any of them, in any district or division
of a district (section 20).
The Board may prescribe rules for the invitation and acceptance of ten-
ders for such farms, for the requisition of security for the due fulfilment of the
engagements entered into by the farmers, and as to the form and conditions of
the lease. The Board may regulate the form and conditions of all licenses grant-
ed under the Act (section 28).
The Board may frame rules for the grant of licenses or passes to persons
purchasing, transporting, or storing ganja, charas, or bhang for the supply of the
licensed vendors of those drugs, and may place the cultivation, preparation, and
store of such drugs under such supervision as may be deemed necessary to
secure the duty leviable thereon (section 35).
Manufacture not defined.
593. With reference to the above provisions, the Commission observe that
there is no definition in the Act of "manufacture,"
and that, apart from the provision relating to pos-
session, the collection of bhang from the hemp plant, which hardly comes under
the designation of "manufacture," does not appear to be prohibited or con-
trolled.
The system in Bengal: Rajshahi
ganja.
594. The system which has been elaborated under these provisions of the law
will now be briefly described. Though the hemp plant
grows spontaneously in many districts of Bengal, this
fact does not seem to affect the ganja administration to any great extent, as ganja,
except of a very inferior sort, cannot be manufactured from the wild plants. Culti-
vation of the hemp plant for the production of ganja is only allowed in an area of
about 64 square miles in the Rajshahi Division. Every cultivator has to take out
a license for which no fee is charged. Within the area above mentioned, which,
for the purposes of ganja administration, is placed under the jurisdiction of the
Collector of Rajshahi, though it lies in the three districts of Rajshahi, Dinajpur, and
Bogra, applications for licenses are granted, unless there be any valid objection, and
remain in force for one working year. The average area of ganja cultivation is
2,220 bighas, equal to 740 acres. What follows is in the words of the Hon'ble
D. R. Lyall, C.S.I., Member, Board of Revenue: "The cultivation is inspected
by supervisors throughout the period of growth, the areas cultivated being com-
pared with the licenses. The cultivator cuts his crop not necessarily under the
supervisor's eye, nor does he require to get permission, but he gives 3 days' notice
of his intention to cut. The manufacture is done by the raiyat at his own option as
to time and place. The supervisors move about and supervise the manufacture
as far as they can. Practically the bulk of the manufacture is not completed under
the supervisor's eye. When the manufacture is complete, the raiyat carries his
produce to his own store under the latter part of rule 11 of section xx of
the Excise Manual, page 155, there being no public godown large enough to