CENTRAL PROVINCES MEMORANDUM.
67
for the whole year instead of being given out from month to month as in 1883-84, when
the average number of licenses issued monthly was only 45.
34. In the Excise Report, written by Mr. L. K. Laurie, the year's statistics are remarked
upon as follows:—
"While in most districts of the province the number of ganja shops remained station-
ary, the consumption of taxed ganja increased, in despite of an increase of
prices which in some districts followed the enhancement of the license fees for
retail vend. The probable explanation is that the improved quality of the
issues of the drug attracted anew the consumers who had been driven to seek
their supplies elsewhere by the poorness of the stuff sold by Government
licensees in 1882-83. In 1882-83 the consumption of ganja decreased in all
districts except Chanda * * * and Damoh. In 1883-84 the consumption
increased in all districts except Nimar. In the year under report the increase
continued in all districts except four (Nagpur, Mandla, Damoh, and Saugor).
The quantity of taxed ganja consumed in the years 1881-85 was as under. It is
not possible to carry back the distinction between the Khalsa supply and sup-
plies to feudatories earlier than 1882-83:—
Mds.
Mds.
Mds.
Mds.
1881-82. 1882-83. 1883-84. 1884-85.
Taxed ganja consumed in the Khalsa
870
609
757
835
" in feudatories and zamindaris
56
80
125
"These figures show that in the year under report the rebound from the depression
caused by the inferior issues of 1882-83 has carried the Khalsa demand to
what it was in 1881-82, and probably beyond. It is worthy of note that the
check in consumption which occurred in 1882-83 did not affect the fees for
wholesale and retail vend. These have in almost every district steadily in-
creased since 1881-82.
"The incidence of the total demand per head of population was 3 pie, as compared
with 2 pie in the preceding year. As last year, the incidence was highest in
the Jubbulpur, Seoni, and Balaghat districts. The demand in Seoni and Bala-
ghat stands at nearly the same figure as the demand in Raipur, which (follow-
ing Jubbulpur and Nagpur) is the third highest in the provinces. This posi-
tion in the list has been maintained by these two districts for several years
past."
35. Before passing on it is necessary to note that the powers of police officers under sec-
tions 27, 28, and 29 of the Act of 1881 were modified during the year. In February 1884
the Chief Commissioner had authorized Deputy Commissioners to appoint, under section 24
of the Act, any police officer to be an officer for the prevention of excise offences. The Gov-
ernment of India, however, held that Section 20, Act V of 1861, precluded the exercise by
the Police of authority as preventive officers, even though they were appointed to perform
such duties by the Collector under section 24 of the Excise Act in accordance with rules made
by the local Government. The Excise Act was accordingly amended by Act VI of 1885, in
order to give local Governments authority to confer preventive powers on the Police. In the
Central Provinces the powers exercised are—
(a) By all police officers, those conferred on Excise officers by section 27 of the Act.
(b) By any police officer in charge of a station or of or above the grade of head
constable, those conferred on Excise officers by sections 28 and 29 of the Act.
1885-86.
36. The profits made by cultivators on the crop raised in the autumn of 1884 resulted in
a still larger number of licenses to cultivate being taken out
in 1885. The quantity (18,971 maunds) of the drug deposit-
ed in the Central Stores was also much larger than in any previous year, and, despite the
fact that exports to other provinces increased enormously, a considerable percentage of the stock
remained unsold. The market having been thus glatted, wholesale prices fell from Rs. 7 to
Rs. 2 and Re. 1 per maund, and most of the cultivators suffered in consequence.
37. The wholesale contract for the three districts of the Chhattisgarh Division was given
in lump to a single contractor, as in the two preceding years: this arrangement had been necessi-
tated by the fact that men would not tender for the contract of those districts owing to the
difficulty of transporting the drug from the Central Stores, the railway line extending at that
time only as far as Raj-Nandgaon.
The quantity of taxed ganja sold increased by 160 maunds, one-half of which was contri-
buted by the districts of the Chhattisgarh Division and almost a quarter by the Jubbulpur
district. Unlicensed cultivation in feudatories and zamindaris had generally diminished,
and in the Raipur district over 200 temporary shops had been established at bazars where illicit
ganja used to be secretly sold. In Jubbulpur the retail price was lowered to 1 anna per tola,
sales being enormously stimulated in consequence. In other districts the average retail price
varied from 11/2 to 2 annas a tola, i.e., from nearly 3 to nearly 4 times the price prevailing in
1875-76. The sums bid for the monopolies of wholesale and retail vend also increased, and the