thirty years' term, its yield had become available to the proprietors who broke it up. In many tracts such lands had amounted to forty per cent, of the whole cultivable area at the previous valuation; in some cases to seventy per cent. Where the Government share of the rental assets, in the absence of a cultivable margin or for other causes, had really continued throughout the thirty years' term at sixty-six per cent, of the net rental, the burden had proved unbearable. Large reductions of the Government demand had in such cases been found necessary. Much property had been mortgaged or sold. In 1854, no sufficient cultivable margin remained, to reduce, throughout the Province, during the ensuing term of thirty years, a nominal sixty-six to an effective lower figure. Mr. Colvin decided that, in future, not more than half the net rental should be claimed by the Government as its share. Local cesses for schools, roads, and so on, have increased the amount payable in one or another form by the proprietor. The ultimate net income of the proprietor from the land is rarely above forty per cent, of the net rental. Though Mr. Colvin's decision has from time to time been assailed, experience has confirmed its wisdom, and it continues the rule of practice.
The note of his administration was vigour. Sir Charles Trevelyan, in his paper in the Times, says that his secretaries, who could scarcely keep abreast of the work put upon them, complained that he over-governed. Being new to the Province, he had to
