(c) A tax on carriages, horses, and other beasts of burden or draught, known as the wheel-tax, or horse or carriage-tax. (d) Registration-fees on carts. (e) A cess on occupied holdings for scavengering purposes, or house-service cess. (f) Tolls on ferries, bridges, and metalled roads. Secondly-Miscellaneous revenue, such as (a) Fines for offences under the various Municipal Acts and bye-laws, and the conservancy clauses of Police Acts. (b) Warrant and peon's fees. (c) License fees on slaughterhouses, cattle and sheep pens, and piggeries. (d) Fees for the removal of trade refuse. (e) Sale of hides and carcasses of animals dying within the town. (f) Payments for town refuse for filling up tanks and low grounds, and for the services of the conservancy establishment in cleansing tanks and filling lands, being private property. (g) Fees and penalties from the cattle pounds. As a rule, the backbone of the municipal fund is the house-rate, and in order that it may yield the fullest possible amount of revenue, while at the same time its incidence shall be fairly and equitably distributed, so as not to press unduly on any class of the rate-payers, the assessment must be carefully and equably conducted; and to this end it is essential that every Municipality, large or small, should have an assessor, a distinct and responsible officer answerable for the entire assessment 12 Assessment and Collection. of the town. Assessment by a local committee is a most undesirable procedure; and where a large Municipality is divided into wards, each having its own local committee, local assessments by these committees are to be carefully avoided. No real economy is to be effected. by an assessment of the rates by an unpaid and irresponsible agency, and there are, as a rule, too many local influences brought to bear on members of such committees to secure equitable and impartial assessments. The paid and responsible officer, whose assessments are subject to the revision of the head of the Corporation, as well as of the Court of appeal provided for by the law (vide sec. 108, Act V of 1876, B.C.), is always to be preferred. The assessment being satisfactorily completed, the next question for consideration is the collection. The agency employed for this purpose may be either contract or salaried, and after experience of both modes, I am decidedly in favor of the former. Where the collector receives a fixed rate of commission payable only on the amount of the bills actually realised by him, it becomes, as a matter of course, his chief aim and object to realise as many rates as possible, and to return to the warrant officer as few unrealised bills as may be. With a salaried agency, on the other hand, there is no incentive to take trouble to collect the rates; and it requires but little acquaintance with native agency of this kind to know that trouble is the very last thing a native of this country will take upon himself so long as he can shuffle through his daily task without endangering his salary. It is quite another thing when money is to be made by exerting themselves, and the takka, or rupee, Supervision of Conservancy Work. 13 is quite as potent a stimulant in this country as the almighty dollar is amongst our American cousins. But whichever class of agency be employed, sufficient inducement must be offered if you expect a satisfactory return, and it will be found that, in remunerating municipal servants, as in every other branch of the public service, judicious liberality is in the end the truest economy. No sanitary arrangements will work satisfactorily in this country unless there is constant and careful supervision in every department; and this can hardly be secured without European or Eurasian agency in the supervisors', inspectors', and overseers' grades. Natives of this country are far too heedless and apathetic in matters of the kind. Caste and social prejudices will hardly permit really respectable Bengalees to accept employment in a department where they are necessarily brought into immediate personal contact with mehters, haris, nightsoil carts, and the like; or if they do enter the service, their duties are almost sure to be unsatisfactorily performed, and they will shirk giving that close personal attention which alone can secure efficiency. After a long experience in municipal administration during which I have had to work almost entirely with native subordinates, and while gladly admitting that they possess many admirable qualifications for work in many departments, such as assessing, collecting, ministerial and other office work, as well as in the roads and works department, I am convinced that they are constitutionally and morally unfitted for the duties of sanitary and conservancy officers. As a rule they are effeminate, timid, and of indolent temperaments, unbusiness 14 Shortcomings of Native Overseers. like and perfunctory to a degree; they seldom take any real interest in their work, but too often look upon it as an irksome task, to be shuffled over with as little discomfort to themselves and as distant a contact with its disagremens as possible. They are unobservant! having eyes, they see not; having ears, they hear not; neither will they understand; they are utterly wanting in emulation or any feeling of pride in their work; they will muffle their noses in their chudders, and pass by a foul odour a dozen times in the week without troub ling themselves to investigate the cause. They will allow holes and gaps to work up the road surface, or railings and fences to go to ruin before their eyes, without taking the initiative to hinder destruction by timely repairs. They will work cattle with sore backs and unshod feet till they go dead lame, and ricketty carts till they drop to pieces; and they are wilfully and negligently blind to the shortcomings and neglect of their subordinates, and culpably silent as to their misdeeds. In fact, they hate and despise their duties whilst accepting the honorarium attached to them, and they are too often wanting in the moral courage necessary to enable them to do their duty in a straightforward, fearless, and impartial manner. I fear this will be considered too sweeping a condemnation of the class from which these men are recruited, but it is not intended to be so; I speak only with reference to their fitness for a particular class of duties, and that not of the most pleasant or desirable character. A conservancy officer will never be a popular character if he does his duty throughly. It is impossible that Qualifications of a good Overseer. 15 he should be, nor is it necessary. He should be always among the people, but not of them. A good overseer must be a man with tact and good temper, mild but firm, not to be turned aside from his duty by promises, threats, or abuse; but not given to retorts, vituperation, harsh language, or threats of reprisals. He should be active, methodical, and observant, taking note of every little defect, and remedying it at once. Thoroughly imbued with the truth of the maxim that " a stitch in time saves nine," he should never get into the habit of overlooking trifles, for it is, as a rule, the aggregation of trifling nuisances that go to make a neighbourhood untidy and uncomfortable. He should take a real interest in his work, and a pride in keeping his ward, if possible, cleaner and tidier than the others. He must do things, and not be always going to do them. He should never put off till to-morrow what can be done to-day; procrastination is one of the curses of this country. If you order anything to be done by almost any class of workman, however trifling it may be, the invariable answer is "atcha, kal korebo" (very well, I will do it to-morrow). He should possess the faculty of organization, otherwise his available labor will be frittered away without any useful result, and he should have sufficient firmness of character to control his subordinates, take from them their full share of work, and insist upon their obedience to orders and rules, and bring them to punishment if they misconduct themselves. That he should be thoroughly upright and honest, 'cela va sans dire.' An overseer who fulfils all the above conditions would be as valuable as he is rare. |