General R. Strachey wrote, 'degenerates into something like a scramble, in which the most violent has the advantage. As local economy leads to no local advantage, the stimulus to avoid waste is reduced to a minimum. So as no local growth of the income leads to an increase of the local means of improvement, the interest in developing the public revenues is also brought down to the lowest level.' It is right to add that the reforms by which Lord Mayo put an end to this unprofitable state of things were in a large measure due to the initiative of General Richard Strachey, supported by the administrative authority and experience of his brother, Sir John Strachey. But the question of Local Finance first presented itself to Lord Mayo during his inquiries in the India Office, and he discussed it at Madras on his way out to Calcutta.
Lord Mayo's third and heaviest task was the permanent readjustment of the revenues to the expenditure. He accomplished this task partly by new taxation, but chiefly by economy and retrenchment. On his arrival in January, 1869, Lord Mayo found two Despatches awaiting his consideration. One was a Despatch from his predecessor, Lord Lawrence, urging on the Secretary of State the imposition of an income tax; or, more strictly, the expansion of the certificate tax into an income tax for the year 1869-70 then about to begin. The other was a Despatch from the Secretary of State sanctioning the proposal. Lord Mayo's first measure with a view to raising the revenues of India was, therefore, to carry
