existing, which, when once constituted, has no further functions to discharge but such as are purely ornamental, with no resources to develope, no funds of its own to administer, and no independence of action. Its nominal servants are its actual masters, who are appointed by an external department, are under its orders and look to it for promotion. The control over accounts is so vexatiously minute, and the returns which have to be supplied are so voluminous, that their despatch to the central bureau at Allahabad costs the Committee Rs. 300 a year simply for postage stamps, while the pay of the clerical establishment makes an annual charge of at least Rs. 5,000. Such a Board is simply a screen for the most exaggerated form of centralization. The system is wasteful, demoralizing and inefficient. On the other hand, fiscal and administrative economy would be secured, the character of the people would be elevated, and material progress advanced, if every district had the management of its own funds, acting under the guidance of its natural leaders, unhampered by departmental interference, forming its own projects and employing its own agency. Projects, before commencement, would require the general sanction of superior authority, and on completion would be submitted to the severest scrutiny. But the details of execution should be trusted to local intelligence, without undue insistence on technical refinements; and the work itself, as inspected on the spot, should be the test of success, not the figured statements as deposited in the Central bureau. Bulandshahr is in no way an exceptionally favourable district for internal development. A precisely parallel work has been simultaneously in progress at Murár, where—under the direction of General Dunham Massy—the Regimental Bazar, which was formerly as mean and squalid as such places generally are, has been converted into a handsome town with broad and well-built streets. For cleanliness, convenience and architectural propriety, it is now a perfect model of what the native quarter of an Indian Cantonment should be. Similarly, throughout India there are hands ready to work, and money waiting to be spent on improvements that every one desires, but which for the most part are never undertaken for want of a little active sympathy and co-operation on the part of the local authorities, who—for all their good will—are cowed into inaction by the incubus of an arbitrary and overbearing department.
NOTE. Illustrations of some of the buildings mentioned in this Chapter appeared in No. IV of the Journal of Indian Art, edited by Mr. Kipling, the Principal of the Lahor School of Art.
