—
BANNU. camels, 7341
lbs.
—
1882-83 was rice, 262 and inferior grains, 672 lbs.
Land
The average
ploughs, 39,936.
principal crops in
450
95
Tenures, Wages, Prices,
etc.
—The
out-turn per acre of the
lbs.; wheat,
An
communal
types
lbs.
gram,
village tenures of this District,
and
as a rule, present few features of peculiarity,
the standard
658
recognised
fall
naturally under
throughout the
Province.
exception, however, exists in the custom, once general, and
surviving in
among
holdings vesh.
ment.
money
13
It
Marwat
villages,
the shareholders.
has received
Cultivation
is
official
This custom
called the khula
is
sanction at the recent revenue settle-
on by peasant proprietors, and and landlord are rare. There are no large
chiefly carried
rents betvveen tenant
proprietors,
still
of the periodical re-distribution of
and the land
is
minutely sub-divided.
assist the proprietors of the soil in clearing
All cultivators
who
waste lands are generally
held to have occupancy rights in their holdings.
Such tenants
sur-
render a small proportion of their produce as a recognition of the proprietor’s right, or
pay him a
trifling
revenue assessed upon their holdings.
percentage on the Government
Ordinary tenants pay rent
in
kind, at rates which range from one-half to three-fourths of the gross
produce of their fields. These rates are reported to have undergone no material change since 1849. Extra hands taken on at harvest time Other labour has more than are paid in kind, at customary rates. doubled in value since annexation. In the early years of British rule, unskilled labour could be always hired for 2 annas or 3d. per day,
sometimes for even less. The rates in 1880 ranged from 2 d?inds or 3d. up to 5 dnnds or 7^d. per day for unskilled, and from 6 dnnds or The official returns 9d. to 10 dnnds or is. 3d. for skilled labour. for 1876 give the price of some principal items of local consumption, as they stood upon January ist of that year, as follows:
Wheat, 39I sers per rupee, or 2s. io|d. per cwt. ; barley, 62^ sers gram, 46^ sers millets (Sorghum vulgare), 60 sers and (Panicum spicatum) 55 sers. These prices show a very considerable fall below those of 1866, when wheat stood at 15 sers per rupee; barley, 23^ sers ; gram, 22 sers ; millets (Sorghum vulgare), 22 sers ; and (Panicum spicatum) On the ist January 1882, prices again ranged high, as 17 sers. follows: Wheat, i9|th sers per rupee; barley, 38I ; gram, 32-^ sers Sorghum vulgare, 27^ sers and Panicum spicatum, 24^ sers. The scarcity of 1868-69 was not felt in Bannu.
—
—
Commerce and Trade, Communications, etc. The District has but little Alum, manufactured at Kdlabagh, and also at Kutki in
export trade.
the Khatak-Niazai Hills,
is
exported in small quantities.
Salt
is
quarried
from the right bank of the Indus, about 2 miles above Kdlabagh, and conveyed across the river to Mari, one of the Government salt marts of the Shahpur Customs District. Considerable quantities of grain
