Sagaing District, 1908

Latest revision as of 19:44, 15 June 2014

Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

[edit] Physical aspects

District in the Sagamg Division of Upper Burma, lying between 21 29' and 22 15' N. and 95 9' and 96 4' E., with an area of 1,862 square miles. It extends across the Irrawaddy, and is bounded on the north by the Lower Chindwin and Shwebo, on the east by Mandalay and Kyaukse, on the south by Mymgyan, and on the west by Pakokku and the Lower Chindwin. Sagaing has for its size an exceptional length of navigable waterways within its limits. About 10 miles below Mandalay Physical the Irrawaddy, after skirting the District for more as B ects ' than 20 miles, turns abruptly from the southerly course it has been pursuing and makes a consideiable bend westwards across the plain, till it leceives the waters of the Mu from the north, after which it begins to turn southwards again as it quits the District, Its westerly course, which begins immediately below Sagamg town, cuts the District into two portions, one north and one south of the channel, the former comprising about two-thirds of the whole.

The northern section contains the Sagamg township on the east and the Myinmu, Chaungu, and Myaung townships on the west ; the southern is made up of the Tada-u and Ngazun townships. At the south-west corner the Irra- waddy approaches close to, and in the rains is connected by various waterways with, the Chindwin, which for some distance forms the western border of the Myinmu subdivision The eastern boundary of the same subdivision, separating it from the Sagamg subdivision, is the Mu, which flows southwards from Shwebo into the Irrawaddy, a few miles east of Myinmu village. There are two mam hill ranges. The first is the barren Sagaing ridge, which is covered with sparse stunted vegetation and dotted with white-washed pagodas, and runs parallel to the Irrawaddy from Sagaing town up to the northern border of the District, reaching its highest point in the Mingun hill (1,341 feet) The second is a compact cluster of hills lying in the centre of the southern edge of the District on the Myingyan border, at the junction of the Tada-u and Ngazun townships, and culminating in the Mo^ataung (1,474 feet). All over the District are other patches of rugged elevated country, notably in the north-west on the Lower Chindwm border, and in the country west of Myotha.

The general aspect of the country is very diversified, ranging from rich alluvial soil to barren hills. Along the rivers, where the channel bank is frequently higher than the countiy behind, the land is flat and low-lying and is inundated yearly. These riparian levels are very rich and productive, and the Inawaddy itself is full of islands which emerge, silt-laden, from the current at the close of each rainy season and are thus perennially fertile. In the Sagamg township, immediately to the uest of the railway, is a laige depression called the Yemyet lake, which after heavy rain is occupied by a sheet of water covering an area of 10 miles north and south, and 3 miles east and west, but is almost diy during the hot season. There are numerous jhils in the neighbourhood of the Irrawaddy and Chindwm, and a small salt-water lake at Yega, a few miles north of Sagaing town.

Nearly the whole of the District is covered with alluvium, from beneath which a few patches of soft sandstone of Upper Tertiary (pliocene) age appear, forming low undulating hills. As in Shwebo District, these sandstones are brought down by a great fault against the crystalline rocks gneiss, granite, and crystalline limestone which form the narrow ridge of hills running along the western bank of the Irrawaddy. This ridge disappears beneath the alluvium at Sagaing town, where the nvei breaks across it.

The hilly tracts are mostly covered with thick scrub jungle; m waste places on low land, as at Nabegyu on the Mu and in the east of the Tada-u township, the jungle becomes forest, with many large trees and thick undergrowth and cieepers. The following are some of the most common trees . Bauhmia racemosa, okshlt (Aegle Marmdo$\ nyaung (Ficus indica)common cassia of various kinds (mezah, ngitgyimt\ Termi- naha belerica^ Zizyphus Jujuba, tanaung (Acacia leucophloea) Antho- cephahts sp , sha (Acacia Catechu\ Lagerstroenna paruiflora^ kokko (Albizzia Lebbek], htpan (Bombaoc malabaricum\ the tamarind, which grows to a very large size, the toddy-palm (Borassus flabdlifer)^ and the mango. The produce of the fruit trees is collected and sold in the bazars. The Chinese date, the in, the ingyin, the jfiyinma, the padauk^ and the thitya may also be mentioned.

The larger kinds of wild animals are not found in great numbers ; those that frequent the District include the leopard, the jackal, the hog, the thamin or brow-antlered deer, the hog deer, the barking-deer, and the hare. There are no tigers, bears, or sambar, and it is only occasionally that elephants come down from the Lower Chindwin and Shwebo hills into the District Ducks, geese, and snipe abound in the cold season, and at certain times of the year partridges and quail are plentiful.

Sagamg town is one of the most picturesque, and appears also to be one of the healthiest and coolest, places in the plains of Upper Burma. The sick-rate of the troops while they held the town, and that of the military police since that time, has always been remarkably low. Only tuo months, April and May, are really hot, and even during these the mean maximum is undei 102, while the average ranges from 76 to 100 In the winter the temperature oscillates between 60 and 80. During the rains high south winds sweep across the country, and keep the air cool and pleasant The great body of watei that passes thiough and around the District probably prevents the thermometer from rising as high in the most oppiessive months as it otherwise would The hot season is not distinguished by persistent sultry winds, though gales of great violence blow occasionally, The end of the rains and the early cold season, when very heavy fogs hang till late in the day all along the Irrawaddy, are the least healthy seasons of the year ; but the District as a whole is not insalubrious, and has no fever-haunted hills or taraL No cyclones, earthquakes, or exceptional floods have occurred within memory. The rainfall for the whole District averages about 30 inches per annum, but varies considerably from tract to tract. In 1889, for instance, although the total fall at Sagamg town exceeded by 5 inches the aggregate of the preceding year, elsewhere, notably iri the north of the Sagamg subdivision and the south of the Chaungu and Ngazun townships, it was veiy short,

[edit] History

Up to the time of annexation the history of the District outside Sagaing town and Ava has no special features. From time immemorial it has always been a part of the kingdom of Burma, History. whether centred at PAGAN, AVA, or SAGAING. After the surrender of king Thibaw, in November, 1885, a column marched from Mandalay to Mymgyan through Ava, where it was joined by the taunghmu or jailor of Ava, who did good service in the fighting that followed, The fort at Sagaing was occupied as early as December, 1885 ; but icgular administration was not introduced at once, and for two years the District was one of the most turbulent in the Province. Outside the two posts at Sagaing and Myinmu it was in the hands of dacoits, uho teirorized the village headmen, and two British officers were killed near Sagaing during the first months of occupation. There were several bands of rebels, the most notorious leader being Hla U, who was a scourge to the country round Myinmu. The old Ava subdivision, comprising the present Tada-u and Ngazun townships, then a separate District, was equally disturbed, the followers of a man named Shwe Yan giving most trouble there The building of outposts at Myotha and Myinthe, followed by active operations, drove Shwe Yan across the Panlaung in April, but later he took up his head- quarters m the country between the Panlaung and its tributary the Samon. In 1887 the state of the District was no better, and on both sides of the river the country was practically in the hands of the dacoits Great efforts were made to capture Hla U, but none of them succeeded, and he was ultimately murdered by one of his own fol- loweis. His lieutenants, chief among whom were Nyo U, Nyo Pu, and Mm O, soon gathered strength, and before long had succeeded in making the country as disturbed as ever. On the Ava side Shwe Yan openly defied the authorities, and two British officers were killed in an engagement with him. Finally, in 1888, military operations on a largei scale were begun undei the late General Penn Symons ; and though no great measure of success appeared at first to attend them, the resistance to authority slowly weakened, and the strict observance of the Village Regulation by which villages were punished for not resisting the dacoits, and suspicious persons were removed from their local spheres of influence, gradually led to the pacification of the country By the end of 1888 no less than 26 dacoit leaders, including Shwe Yan, had been killed and 26 captured, and most of their followers had come in and were disarmed. Since that date the District has given no trouble. The Ava District was amalgamated with Sagaing early in 1888.

The ancient capital of AVA is described in a separate article Pmya and Mymzamg to the south of Ava in the Tada-u township are also old capitals. The pagodas, both in the neighbourhood of Sagaing and throughout the District, are exceedingly numerous, especially on the barren hills that follow the Irrawaddy on its western bank. By far the best known is the Mmgun pagoda, begun by Bodawpaya in 1790 and continued till 1803, but never completed. This huge relic of the glories of the Alaungpaya dynasty, which was intended to eclipse all previous records in pagoda building, is situated on the right bank of the Irrawaddy opposite a point 6 or 7 miles above Mandalay, and is one of the largest solid masses of brickwork known to exist. Only the two lions at the eastern entrance, five walled terraces, and the base of the pagoda had been completed, when an earthquake in 1839 wrecked the lions and cracked the building from top to bottom. Work on it was never resumed after the catastrophe. The present height of the rum is 130 feet, but, calculating from the model near, it would, when completed, have been about 555 feet in height Close to it is the famous Mmgun bell, the largest bell hung in the world. It is 12 feet high and i6-| feet in diameter at the mouth, and its weight is about 90 tons. More interesting from an archaeological point of view, but less famous than the bell and the rum, is the Sinpyushm pagoda not far off, built about A.D. 1359, and restored by the queen by whose name it is known. It lepiesents the Myinmo mountain and rises in tiers, on each of which are niches filled with images representing various membeis of the celestial hierarchy, many of which have been broken or stolen by profane excursionists The pagoda most rever- enced, however, is not the Mmgun shrine but the clumsy Yazamanisula or Kaunghmudaw, which raises its almost hemispherical shape from the plain about 5 miles to the north-west of Sagamg.

This royal woik of merit has achieved so wide a notonety throughout Indo-Chma that a miraculous origin has been ascribed to it, despite an inscription at its base, which testifies to its having been built by Thalunmmtayagyi, king of Ava, m 1636. The shrine benefits by the revenue of wuttugan lands in its neighbourhood, and has an annual festival. The trustees Who manage its affairs keep it in good order. Periodical festivals aie held at other pagodas, including the Ngadatgyi, in the south-western suburbs of Sagamg, a shrine founded in 1660 and containing a large masonry figure of Buddha, the Shinbmnangamg and Shwemoktaw pagodas, dating from the tenth century ; and the Onmmthonze, a crescent-shaped colonnade on the side of the Sagaing hills overlooking Sagaing, with thirty arches containing forty-four figures of Gautama Buddha.

[edit] Population

The population of Sagaing District increased from 246,141 in 1891 to 282,658 in 1901. Its distribution m the latter year is given in the table on the next page. ation.

SAGAING, the head-quarters of the District, is the only town. The density of population, 152 persons per square mile, bears comparison with the most thickly populated Districts of Lower Burma Henzada and Hanthawaddy. It is far in excess of the density of the Sagaing Division as a whole (only 33 persons per square mile), and is higher than that of any other District of Upper Burma. Burmans have immigrated in considerable numbers from Mandalay, Myingyan, and Lower Chindwin Districts. More than 99 per cent, of the inhabitants speak Burmese, and all but 2 per cent, are Buddhists.

The population ib almost wholly Burmese, the Burman aggregate in 1901 being 278,500 or 98 per cent, of the total. Musalmans numbered i, 800, and Hindus 930. Of these, 1,300 were Indians Zairbadis are plentiful in Sagaing town, and in the interior of the District as, for instance, at Ywathitgyi, a laige village on the Irrawaddy about half- way between Sagaing and Mymmu, where communities of Musalman Burmans show no signs now of any Indian admixture. A large pro- portion of the non-immigrant Hindus are Ponnas or Manipuns, who have a quarter of their own in Sagaing town. The Census of 1901 showed 163,785 persons directly dependent on agriculture, or only 58 per cent, of the population, as compared with 66 per cent, for the Province as a whole

In 1901 there were 748 native Chustians, most of them Roman Catholics, centred round the missions at Chaungu and Nabet, who are said to be descended from Portuguese and other prisoners captured at Synam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Amencan Baptist Union has a mission and church at Sagaing, but the number of Baptist converts is not large

[edit] Agriculture

There is great diversity in the natuie of the country as well as in the methods of cultivation, especially in the north-west, which presents large stretches of ncc land dependent on the rainfall for its success The Myaung township consists chiefly of plateaux and undulating uplands. In the western half of the Chaungu and in the Myautig township, in the wedge-shaped area formed by the junction of the Irrawaddy and Chindwin, large tracts are subject to yearly inundation, and the richest lands aie found here The Ngazun township is dry and undulating, while to the south of Ava the country consists chiefly of level black cotton soil.

Various distinct kinds of cultivation are carried on, Wet-season lice is grown on land falling into two sepaiate categories namely, land submerged by the annual rise of the river (ye-win-le\ and land beyond the reach of inundation (mogaung-le). In July and August nurseries are sown on the higher lands in the inundated tract, and when the river begins to fall after the highest rise the planting of the seedlings is taken in hand. In unmundated land nurseries are sown from the end of June through July, and are planted out in August and Septem- ber. The crops begin to ripen in November, and the harvest continues till after Christmas. Dry-season (maytn) rice is grown wherever suffi- cient water remains m the hollows along the river bank when the floods have subsided. Nurseries aie sown in December, planting out begins in January, and the crop is ready for reaping towards the end of April. ' Dry ' or ya cultivation is practised on the poorer kinds of unmundated land, and is mainly composed of three chief crops : sesa- mum, millet, and cotton. Early sesamum, a somewhat precarious crop, is grown but little, Late sesamum, on the other hand, is the most largely cultivated of all staples in the District, though the plant is delicate and is apt to suffer from lengthy drought towards the end of September and during October. Millet (Jowar), sown towards the end of July and throughout August, is leady for cutting by the end of January and till near the end of February. It is cultivated almost as much for the sake of its stalk, which affords excellent fodder for cattle, as foi its grain, which is used for human consumption only in the pooiest parts of the District Cotton is sown aftei the early rams in May, and picking begins in October. Wheat, always of the bearded variety, is an important crop. It is giown in sane, the level rich black soil of the Sagaing and Tada-u townships, m November, and ripens about the beginning of March. The sane soil is suitable also for oats, linseed, gram, and other staples.

Various miscellaneous crops are giown on alluvial and inundated land, and aie classified together under the head of kamg cultivation. These aie veiy numerous, the commonest being pulse of various kinds, such as gram, pegya, sadawpe, peselon, and matpe. The kaing lands are ploughed up before the river rises, so that the moisture may penetrate as deep as possible. When the water falls and they are sufficiently dry again they are usually harrowed, and sowing commences in October. The harvest is gathered in March. Onions, tobacco, maize, chillies, sweet potatoes, and indigo are grown on these lands, but the areas under these ciops are small

The total area under cultivation was 372 square miles in 1891, and 473 square miles in 1901 For 1903-4 the main agricultural statistics are shown in the following table, the areas being in square miles :

Sesamum covered 210 and millet 184 square miles in 1903-4, while the comparatively small area of 148 square miles was under rice, 19 square miles being dry-season rice. The greater part of the entire wheat crop of Burma is grown in this District, the area being 32 square miles; peas in the same year covered 119, gram 17, and cotton about 67 square miles. This last crop is grown for the most part in the Tada-u and Ngazun townships, on the high ground which extends into Meiktila and Myingyan Districts , and after Mymgyan, Sagamg shows the largest cotton acreage in the Province. Gardens covered only 1,100 acres in the neighbourhood of Sagaing town and the large villages of the District, and tobacco 2,500 acres.

The cropped area is steadily and mpidly increasing in extent, its growth being only retarded temporarily by a bad season. The quality of the cultivation is much the same as it has been from time immemo- rial, and the introduction of new kinds of seed is regarded by the Burman more as a curiosity than anything else. Experiments with American tobacco, Egyptian cotton, and other non-indigenous varieties of seed have been made, but none has met with marked success. Except in 1902-3 no agricultural loans have been advanced during the past few years to cultivatois

There aie no special breeds of cattle, except on a small stock farm at Myinmu, where Madias bulls have been placed for breeding pur- poses, though with little result. The ordinary Burmese bullocks and buffaloes are used for ploughing , and sheep and goats are bred in fair numbers, chiefly by Indians and Chinese, who buy in the District cheap and sell at a profit in Mandalay. Goats are freely used for milch purposes. Pony-breeding is not extensive. Stallions are kept here and there, their owners taking them round to adjacent villages, and letting them out on hire at fees ranging between Rs. 5 and Rs. 10. The ponies in Chaungu appear to be strong and hardy, and it is said that the militaiy police detachment in Monywa buys most of its ammalb there, Pig-breeding is carried on in certain localities. Grazing grounds are sufficient foi all requirements, and there is no difficulty in feeding the cattle.

The only irrigation works of importance are tanks, mostly small. The chief are the Kyaungbyu, Taeinde, Pyugan, and Obo-tamayit tanks, alt in the Sagamg township, the Kandaw tank in the Myinmu township, and the Kandaw-Kanhla in the Tada-u township On the right bank of the Mu a powerful steam-pump was set up a few years ago by a European grantee to irrigate his grant, and the results are said to have been good. The total area irrigated in 1903-4 was dis- tributed as follows: from tanks, 3,400 acres, from wells, 2,100 acres; total, 6,900 acres, nearly all under rice. There are numerous fisheries in the neighbourhood of the channels of the Irrawaddy and Chindwm. The most important are the Tande fishery in the Sagaing township near the Kaunghmudaw pagoda, the Maungmagan fishery in the Sagaing township near Byedayaw village, the Sindat-Gaungbo-Myitton fishery in the Sinbyugon circle of the Ngazun township, the Twmgya fishery in the Ngazun township, the Inmagyi-Komachaung fishery in the Myinmu township, and the Taunggaw fishery in the Chaungu township. They aie leased by auction, and produced a revenue of Rs 58,700 in 1903-4.

No forests are * reserved ' or protected in the District, but the timber- collecting stations at the mouth of the Mu and the Myintge are within its limits. On parts of the low-lying land are found stretches of timber growth the constituents of which have been enumerated under Botany. Except for cutch, however, they contain little of economic value

Limestone is extracted at the foot of the Sagaing hills, and is burnt in two villages, one on the outskirts of Sagaing town and the other a few miles above Mingun on the river bank. The industry is not a thriving one, and the annual profits of a lime-burner nowadays are said to average only about Rs. 200. Copper has been found in small quantities in the Sagaing hills, but has never been systematically worked. Clay suitable for pottery and brick-making is found here and there, and in the Sagaing township a little salt is produced.

[edit] Trade and communication

There are gold- and silversmiths at Sagamg, Ywataung, and Wachet. Brass-workers ply their trade in the same towns and a few of the larger villages, and convert sheets bought in the Mandalay bazar into spittoons, betel and lime boxes, drinking cups, filters (yesit), bowls, and trays. The local

blacksmiths obtain their iron in the bazars, and manufacture das, axes, pickaxes, scythes, ploughs, wheel-tires, and similar articles. The shaping from local sandstone of kyaukpyins, the round flat stones used for grinding thanatka (a vegetable cosmetic), gives employment to a number of persons in Kyaukta village in the east of the Sagaing township The finished articles are taken for the most pait to Mandalay for sale In and near Sagaing reside several sculptois of figures of Gautama, which are hewn from the white marble brought from the Sagym hill in Mandalay District. The artificers go to the quarries and buy their rough material on the spot ready shaped into approxi- mately conical blocks, bringing it over to Sagaing by cart and boat. The images are usually well finished, but the design is stereotyped and tasteless. For some years past the sculptors have been one by one attracted to Mandalay, where the expenses of procuring the rough stone are lighter, and a readier sale for their work is obtained. Ordi- nary rough red earthenware waterpots are made in the neighbourhood of Sagaing and elsewhere throughout the District. At Myitpauk, a village on the liver just below Myinmu, the common red earthenware is glazed a dark green and brown to prevent percolation, Sugar- boiling is practised wherever there are sufficient toddy-palm trees to make the industry pay. Cutch-boilmg used to be a regular source of employment, but the industry is now almost moribund. Silk-weaving is common, the silk employed coming from China or Siam. The Sagaing silks are famous , and sometimes from 100 to 150 shuttles are used in weaving a luntamein or a lunpaso^ the design in which is so elaborate that not more than i inch width of the pattern can be woven in a day. A tamein (skirt) of this kind costs from Rs. 12 to Rs. 15 ; &paso (waistcloth) from Rs. too to Rs. 150. The weaving is all done by hand. There are, in fact, no factory industries "whatever in the District. Salt-boiling is carried on systematically only in two villages, Sadaung and Yega in the Sagaing township In the former wells are sunk to obtain the brine , in the latter salt is obtained by evaporating the water of a small lake. Lacquer- work is done in some of the quarters of the old town of Ava, but in quality it is inferior to that produced in Myingyan District.

The chief exports are cleaned cotton, sesamum and its oil, wheat, gram and pulses, tobacco, onions, maize and maize husks, sweet potatoes, and indigo The cotton trade is chiefly m the hands of Chinamen, who have set up numerous hand-gins at Kyauktalon, Ywathitgyi, Ondaw, and other villages in the cotton-growing area. The cleaned product is carried by river, the good quality to Bhamo for transmission to China, the inferior to Rangoon for shipment to the Straits Settlements. From the east of the District some of the villagers take their own oil and indigo to Mandalay, but most of the two latter products, and nearly all the maize, is shipped down the river to Pakokku. Fruit mangoes, guavas, oranges, limes, tamarinds, pineapples, and melons is sold to passing steamers, or taken in small quantities to Mandalay,

The imports comprise rice, dried fish, ngapi, pickled tea, salt, betel- nuts, coco-nut oil, petroleum, timber, bamboos, iion and hardware, crockery, piece-goods, raw silk, miscellaneous articles of European make, and liquor. Among the chief centies of trade, besides Sagaing town, are Tada-u, through which most of the surplus produce of the middle of the Tada-u township passes on its way to the river ; and Kyauktalon and Ywathitgyi, river stations for the inland parts of the Ngazun and Sagamg townships. The produce from the Myaung and the south of the Chaungu township finds its exit to the river at Nagabauk, in the extreme south-west corner of the District; that from the west of Chaungu chiefly at Amyin in the north-west, but most of the trade of these two townships passes through Chaungu and thence to Myinmu. The load from the latter town to Monywa has hitherto been the route of a con- siderable transit trade with the Chindwin. Probably the railway will now divert most of it via Sagaing.

The Sagamg-Myitkyma railway, starting from the Irrawaddy bank at Sagaing town, runs northwards along the eastern edge of the Dis- trict for about 24 miles, having four stations within its limits. From the first of these, Ywataung, a bianch leads off almost due west to the Chindwin, entering Lower Chindwin Distuct near Chaungu, between 50 and 60 miles from Sagaing. After leaving Ywataung it has ten stations in the District. A good deal of the interior of the District is thus brought into touch with both the Irrawaddy and the Chindwin. These two rivers are navigable for all traffic up to large river steamers, the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company providing bi-weekly communication on the Irrawaddy with all dowivriver ports, and daily communica- tion with places between Mandalay and Myingyan. The railway com- pany provides the steam ferry between Sagaing and Amarapura Shoie, connecting the Myitkyina extension with the main railway system of Burma. Country boats go up the Panlaung, Myitnge, and Samon rivers into the interior of Mandalay and Kyaukse Districts, and in the rams the Mu river is navigable for light country tiaffic into Shwebo District.

An old highway, called the Mmlan, follows the Samon valley from Ava to the south, but is now falling into disuse. Since annexation a road has been made from Mymmu on the Irrawaddy to Monywa on the Chindwin. Minor roads are those from Myotha to Kyauktalon on the left bank of the Irrawaddy near Ngazun, affording access to the river from a fine cotton country ; from Chaungwa in the south-east towards Kyaukse, from Tada-u to Myotha, from Padu to Sadaung in the north- east, and from Ywathitgyi to Legyi near the centre of the District. Exclusive of the roads in Sagaing town, 263 miles of road are kept up, of which 65 miles are maintained from Provincial revenues and 198 miles from the District fund There are a number of ferries across the Irrawaddy and Chindwin.

[edit] Famine

So much of its area is watered by the Irrawaddy and Chindwin, and is thus rendered in a measure independent of its rather meagre rainfall, that the District, as a whole, can be depended upon to produce enough food as a general rule to prevent a famine. A drought, how- ever, is bound to occasion at least local scarcity } and in 1891-2 it was found necessary, owing to a failure of crops, to open mme * relief works and spend about Rs, 9,000 in helping the inhabitants of the affected tracts. Scarcity was threatened towards the end of 1903, but some opportune showers m September saved the situation The District can never be wholly free from a calamity such as seemed imminent in 1903, but its communications, by both land and water, are so ample that the distress need never assume alarming proportions.

[edit] Administration

For administrative purposes the District is divided into two subdivi- sions . Sagaing, compnsing the SAGAING and TADA-U townships , and Myinmu, comprising the MYINMU, CHAUNGU, Administration. MYAUNG) and NGAZUN townships The subdivisions

and townships are under the usual executive officeis, assisted by 389 village headmen, to 29 of whom have been given special criminal powers under the Upper Bui ma Village Regulation, and to 46 special civil powers under the same enactment. At head-quarters are a treasury officer, an akunwun (in subordinate chaige of the revenue), and a superintendent of land recoids, with a staff of 8 inspectors and 80 surveyors There are no supenoi Forest and Public Woiks officers in the District, which forms a portion of the Mu Forest division and constitutes a subdivision of the Shwebo Public Works division.

The subdrvisional and township officers preside m the respective subdivisional and township couits (civil and criminal), but the Sagaing township officer is assisted in his civil duties by the head-quarteis magistrate, who is ex-offido additional judge of the township court. Crime is of the ordinary type, and there is a good deal of litigation in the District.

During the last years of Burmese rule the revenue consisted of tha- thameda and a land tax at the rate of one-fourth of the gross produce, assessed by thamadis (specially selected \illage elders), and paid in money at the market rate ; but the greater part of the lands were held by members of the royal family or by servants of the government, and were not assessed. At annexation the existing revenue system was con- tinued and applied to all state land, an exception being made in the case of certain wuttugan or religious lands which paid preferential rates of one-eighth or one-tenth of the gross produce. On non-state lands a water rate was levied on irrigated land only. Settlement operations were commenced in 1893 and completed in 1900, the rates proposed being first levied in the agricultural year 1903-4. On inundated land cold-season rice is now assessed at from Rs. 1-8 to Rs. 3-6 per acre, mayin (hot-season) rice at from R. i to Rs. 3, and katng crops (onions, beans, &c.) at from R. i to Rs 5-4 per acre. Wheat pays from 6 annas on the most unfavourable jw (uplands) to Rs. 2-8 per acie on the best rice land, unniigated rice from 6 annas to Rs. 2. Other ciops on upland tiacts are assessed at from 6 annas to Rs, 28. The rate for toddy-palm groves is Rs. 4, that for mixed orchards Rs. 8, and that for betel-vineyards Rs. 20 per acre. The rates on non-state land are generally three-fourths of those stated above, which are levied on state land.

The following table shows the giowth of the land revenue and total levenue since 1890-1, in thousands of rupees

The increase in the land revenue between 1900-1 and 1903-4 is due to the introduction of the acreage rates referred to above. The thathameda showed a corresponding decrease from Rb. 5,71,000 to Rs. 2,74,200.

The District fund, for the provision of roads and other local needs, had an income of Rs. 53,000 in 1903-4, the chief item of expenditure being Rs. 47,000 on public workb. SAGAING is the only municipality.

The two subdivisions are each in charge of an inspector of police, and there are 10 police stations and 5 outposts m the District. The civil force consists of 4 inspectors, 9 head constables, 28 sergeants, and 296 rank and file, including 23 mounted men. The military police, who belong to the Shwebo battalion, number 85. There are no jails or reformatories Prisoners are sent on conviction to the Mandalay Central jail, and those under trial are kept in a lock-up close to the courthouse.

The proportion of persons able to read and write to the total popula- tion of the District in 1901 was 48 per cent, in the case of males, and 3 per cent in that of females, or 24 per cent, for both sexes together ; but the educational standard is really higher than these figures would appear to show The pongyis of Sagaing are as a whole exceptionally enlightened and progressive, and many of the lay schools are above the average. The total number of pupils was 7,254 in 1890-1, 12,672 in 1900-1, and 12,665 ln 19^3-4) including 1,421 girls In the last year there were 10 special, 7 secondary, 147 primary, and 987 elementary (private) institutions. The more notable institutions are the municipal Anglo-vernacular school in Sagaing town, now maintained by Govern- ment, and the vernacular secondary schools in Sagaing town and at Sungyet, Allagappa, and Myotha. The total expenditure on education in 1903-4 was Rs. 18,400, to which Provincial funds contributed Rs. 1 6,roo, municipal funds Rs. 2,300, and fees Rs. 2,100.

VOL. xxi. A a Four hospitals are maintained from public funds and two dispensaries by the railway company The foimer have accommodation for 88 in- patients. In 1903 the number of cases treated was 22,270, including 703 m-patients, and 430 operations were performed. The total income of the four hospitals was Rs. 10,700, towards which municipal funds contributed Rs, 5,000, Provincial funds Rs. 5,100, and subscriptions Rs. 6,000.

Vaccination is compulsory only within the limits of the municipality of Sagamg. In 1903-4 the numbei of successful operations was 8,207, lepresenting 28 pei 1,000 of the population Vaccination is populai, and no opposition is met with in the rural areas.

[L. M. Parlett, Settlement Report (1902).]