BASSEIN DISTRICT.
200
revenue, excluding the port and dispensary funds and the municipal
revenue of Bassein town, was ;^6oo5.
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Administratiou On the annexation of Pegu, Bassein District was formed out of the Bassein governorship of Burmese times, but there was added to it a seaboard strip of country, a portion of Sandoway, which extended west of the Arakan Hills to about lat. i8° N. The northern part of this tract was afterwards reunited to Sandoway. In Shwe-loung and Pantanaw townships, in the extreme east 1875, of the District, were taken away. Up to 1853, the country was in a very disturbed state, and the civil officers, aided occasionally by a few troops from the Bassein garrison, were continually engaged in dispersing large gangs of armed marauders. The Deputy-Commissioner was in consequence empowered to punish with death all persons convicted of complicity in rebellion, and a police force was raised of a total strength of 546 men. In 1861, the police battalion was disbanded j and a regular force for the whole Province, under an inspector-general and District superintendents, was organized. In 1876, .
numbered 331 of all ranks, besides a municipal or town police of 114 officers and men, maintained at a total cost of;^io,74i,of which ^8579 was payable from imperial revenues, and ^^2162 from municipal or local funds. Bassein District is divided into the regular police force in Bassein
8 townships, and these again into revenue circles
—Yegyf, 12
Sam-bey-
Thabaung, 14; Bassein, 8, including Bassein town ; Ngaputaw, II Thi-kwin, 10; Myaung-mya, 9. The administrative staff consists of a Deputy-Commissioner, Assistant-Commissioners, and subordinates. About 1855, the head-quarters of the District were transferred from Bassein to Dalhousie, so called in honour of the Governor-General to whom was due the annexation of Pegu. Situated near the mouth of the Bassein river, and admirably adapted as a port of call, being placed at the natural outlet of a vast tract of fertile country, it was hoped that Dalhousie would become an important town. In 1856-57, however, the whole site was submerged by a sudden rise of the sea consequent on a cyclone, and in the same year the head-quarters were
run, 8;
re-transferred to Bassein, the present station.
The new
District jail
there is accommodation was completed in 1868 at a cost of 17,260 In 1855, the daily average for 405 male and 16 female prisoners. number of prisoners of all classes was 317. The average in 1880-81 total, 390 ; under was convicted prisoners, 383 males, 7 females total of trial, 8 debtors, excise prisoners, and revenue defaulters, 8 all classes, 406. In i860, a Kareng normal and industrial school was opened by the American Baptist missionaries, at which, in 1881, the average daily attendance of boys and girls was 193. The Baptist Mission have also established village schools, a normal school at Bassein, a school for Burmese, etc., all of which are
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