The cash balance remaining in hand at the end of 1870-71 was £968, 10s. 0d. Immediately after the close of the year, the first Government debentures fell due, and, as above stated, the whole municipal property was attached. The vast outlay shown in the foregoing table has been incurred without producing any result capable of yielding a profit. Most of the money has been spent in piers and protective works, or in constructing metalled roads which have never been used, and which might have been deferred till there were some signs of the sanguine expectations being realized. In June 1871 the monthly municipal income derived from rents of town lots and cultivated lands amounted to about £200. The municipal liabilities are stated as follows:—Government debenture loan of 1866, £45,000; uncommuted balance of private debentures, £16,070; balance of Government loan of 1869, £1110: total, £62,180, besides interest that may be due on the debentures.
As regards the operations of the Company, it may be stated that, according to the prospectus, they possessed 134,590 acres of land, yielding an estimated annual rental of £13,000. These lands consisted of the town belonging to the Municipality, and of Sundarban lots leased from Government or purchased from individuals, the greater portion being redeemable in freehold. In 1866 the Company added to their business the lease of the forest rights in all the unappropriated lands of the Sundarbans, as well as the rights of fishery in all the rivers, which were put up to auction by Government for a term of five years, but liable at any time to resumption on six months’ notice. The fishing rights were withdrawn in October 1868, in consequence of the claims of the Company being contested by fishermen and others holding prescriptive rights; and the ques-
