'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎131v] (267/470)

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Buildings .—The Sanniyah buildings have all been occupied by the Military
authorities.
Gardens .—The few date gardens near ‘Ashar have all been occupied by the
Military authorities and have been rendered useless for agricultural purposes.
They are occupied for the most part by the I.W.T. dockyard and camps, and have
become very valuable owing to the development of the areas in which they are
situated.
Harthah Estates .—The most important part of Sanniyah property consists
of the large estates in the district. In Harthah the Sanniyah gardens are small
and scattered all over the Nahiyah. As all other date gardens in Harthah, they are
in poor condition, having suffered badly from the floods in 1915 and 1916. As
a rule ta‘abs here are wealthy men, who live in Basrah and have a fallah Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. looking
after the land. This is a bad system, and efforts are being made to secure resident
ta‘abs.
Dawasir Estate .—Dawasir is a large estate, fairly well planted. There is,
however, much to be done by way of improvement.
‘Aradhah Estate .—The ‘ Aradhah Estate was put under cultivation some 15 years
ago. It is well planted, but there is still much land vacant and awaiting tenants.
Du'aiji Estate. —Du‘aijiis in somewhat poor condition. In this estate Sanniyah
as landlord is responsible for the clearing of the main creeks, which have been
rapidly silting up and preventing the free action of tidal irrigation to the detriment
of the gardens. It is hoped that a small dredger will shortly be obtained from the
I.W.T. for this service.
‘Amiyah Estate .—‘Amiyah is a very poor estate, and much work remains to be
done on it.
Qaus Estate .—Qaus is a small but very flourishing estate and forms a very
pleasant contrast with ‘Amiyah.
Effect of War. —Sanniyah, like all other landlords, has suffered badly from the
effect of the present war. In the earlier stages the estates were, more or less, left
to look after themselves, no personnel being available for supervision. Then, as
on the land were sent to the Labour Corps, being relieved at regular intervals.
The cleaning of creeks and digging up and manuring of the soil were largely
suspended, and, as work on the land decreased, the date crops decreased. We
have now to make up much leeway. We are starting by having the main Du‘aiji
creek dredged and the main creek at Dawasir cleaned by hand, while every effort
is being made to encourage cultivation and to secure release of labour from Army
work as early as possible.
Revenues .—The revenue derived from Sanniyah from the time of the British
occupation to the present day is as follows :—
The gradual increase in revenue is due to the fact that the officers in charge
have been able to gain more knowledge as to prices of dates, auctions, and local
business transactions generally. This year dates sold for a high price, and, though
considerably higher prices would have been obtained by Sanniyah had I felt
justified in taking the risk of holding up produce a little longer, the result was very
satisfactory^. The success obtained is due in part to greater efficiency and honesty
in the work of crop estimation.
Crop Estimation. In this respect an important innovation was made this year.
Previously the crop on any one Sanniyah estate was estimated as a whole, and the
landlord’s share was fixed at the usual rate of 60 per cent. The responsibility of
apportioning his spare to each tenent was left to the Sarkals. These men thereby
gained extraoi dinary power and had full opportunity for its improper exercise.
The first thing they are reported to have done was to increase the shares due by
the ta abs to the landlord and to decrease their own to zero, their favourites by the
the Army’s demands for labour increased, a large proportion of the natives working
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
Rs.
130,482
126,984
176,015
227,629
291,907