'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎170v] (345/470)

n
322
Report of Assistant Political Officer.
“ (A) Land Revenue, ‘Amarah District. —The demands for the year ending
31st March 1919 amount to Rs. 12,61,990. Of this, Its. 7,42,088 has been collected
to date.
“ The collection of the same has not been attended with any difficulty, and
the full collections will be realised when the Government demand of rice from the
Shaikhs has been met. In fact, I consider that the Shaikhs especially have done
well in surrendering so much cash, when they have had their markets closed to
merchants owing to the Government demands of 12,000 tons from the ‘Amarah
district. The collection of revenue in cash for shitwi crops was a trifle belated
in some cases, notably those of Shaikhs Mutashshar and Tahir. Shabib and Najm
paid up promptly, as also did Falih-al-Bunaiyah and Kadhim.
“ The collection of paddy in kind from the Suwa‘ad Shaikhs is proceeding
satisfactorily, their muqata‘ah being a revelation of what can be done by good
management.
“ (B) Opium Farm. —This has realised so far Rs. 2,816/-. There have been
occasional cases of trying to avoid the rule that the contractor alone is allowed to
sell, and in each case the opium has been confiscated and sold, the proceeds being
credited to Government.
“(C) Reeds and Mats. —This tax has brought in Rs. 40/- a month and the total
now stands at Rs. 360/-. In addition to this, Rs. 542/- has been realised on
‘Amarah reeds and mats.
“ (D) Kodak. —The demand for this is Rs. 71,350/- per year, and of this
Rs. 44,718/- has been collected. The demand from each Shaikh seems fair, with
the exception of £T. 1,000 from Muhammad-al-‘Araibi, which seems to me a trifle
high, as he, being a rice Shaikh, has not a very large number of sheep. He tried
to make up his payments by levying a tax of 10 annas on each sheep that came
with the tribes to his land in ‘ shilb ’ time, irrespective of size. He tried to get
out of the difficulty by calling this sum, ‘ shatt martah ’ or grazing tax.
“ I eventually made him refund the money realised from his illegal exactions
to the aggrieved parties, headed by Shaikhs Saihud and Tahir and the sheep contractor
Rashid. The latter has done quite good work since.”
From Report of Assistant Political Officer.
Revenue and Crops at AH Gharbi. — r Ihe following statement shows the amount
of revenue paid by each Shaikh :—
Miri.
Kodak.
Total.
Shaikh Juwi for Thulth and Thulthain
„ Kamandar for ‘Ali Gharbi - - - _
,, Kamandar for Qutbah - - - - .
,, Abu Rishah for Umm-al-Hannah and for
Umm-al-Bar'am.
,, ‘Ubairah for Ghuraibah - - - .
Rs.
21,000
56 000
6,700
15.000
12.000
Total
Rs.
7.000
4.000
500
4,000
4,000
Revenue
Rs.
28,000
60,000
7,200
19.000
16.000
130,200
As there was plenty of water for the crops this year the amount of barley
and wheat produced was above normal and would have been greater had it not
been that hailstorms destroyed a large portion of crops in the Ghuraibah As it is
the Local Purchase Officer, ‘Ali Gharbi, obtained 2,200 tons of barley and 250 tons
of wheat from the district.
->1 . “P lV f Qoptl Salih District.—The. demands for the year ending
31st March 1919 amount to Rs. 143,745. Of this, Rs. 42,910 has been collected
to date. •
t o " m- t he Q a !‘ at S . allh area, though great scour has taken place in the bye-pass
of the Mich any ah, it is doubtful whether the canal carries down sufficient fertilising
^ (toyapw.—In December 1917 the Revenue Board, Basrah, asked the Political
Officer to undertake non-contested registrations in ‘Amarah district. The Political