provide in a Municipal Act for all the powers which are required for the control of a regulated market. The only province in which an attempt has been made to do so is the Central Provinces. LISHMENT MARKETS. OF 331. The third point which arises is whether the establishment of regulated markets should be optional. It was not OPTIONAL ESTAB- optional in Berar where all the markets which were in existence when the Cotton and Grain Markets Law was brought into operation came within its scope, as did any subsequently established. It is worthy of mention that the law was not passed by the provincial Legislative Council but was promulgated by the Government of India in the Foreign Department for the " Hyderabad Assigned Districts "as Berar was then officially designated. We apprehend that the need for the establishment of regulated markets may not in the beginning be appreciated and we do not consider it desirable that their establishment should be dependent on the opinion of a local committee, however constituted. These markets are required primarily in the interests of the cultivator and it is he who is least likely to be adquately represented on such a committee. Nor is it probable that, at the outset, he will be sufficiently aware of the extent of the assistance a properly regulated market can give him to press for its establishment. We are, therefore, of opinion that the local Government must take the initiative and that markets should be immediately establised in a few suitable centres. This is the position under the Bombay Act which, although it prescribes that the district local board shall be consulted before a cotton market is established, leaves the final decision in the matter with the local Government. We are convinced that it is only in this way that public opinion can be educated to realise the advantages of markets of this character and the demand for them be created. Markets of this character should be self-supporting at an early stage. The initial expenditure on land and buildings incurred in starting them should be met from a loan from provincial revenues. 332. The regulated markets, the establishment of which RELATIONS BETWEEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND REGULATED MARKETS. recommend in this chapter, are intended for wholesale transactions in agricultural products. Where a regulated market is established in an area in which a wholesale market administered by a municipal council or local board already exists, it will naturally replace the latter. In such circumstances, a financial settlement between the market committee and the municipal council or local board may be necessary, in view of the expenditure which may have been incurred on the provision of the market yard and of the income that may be derived from ground and shop rents or from market cesses and fees. Where the municipal or local board market has been established for retail as well as wholesale transactions, it will probably be desirable to establish entirely separate markets for the two classes of trade. The wholesale market would then be notified as a regulated market under the special market legislation we recommend above and a market committee would be constituted for it under the provisions of that legislation. Unauthorised markets within a certain radius from it would be prohibited by statute. The retail market would remain, as at present, under the administration of the municipal council or local board. Whether, in a regulated market, there should be one market committee for cotton, another for wheat, another for oil-seeds and so on, would be a matter to be decided in the light of the local conditions. Again, should there be any cases in which wholesale markets for different classes of produce are already established on different sites within the limits of a municipality, it might be expedient to retain those sites and to constitute a separate market committee for each. Conditions vary so greatly in different provinces, and, indeed, in different districts of the same province, that it is not possible for us to do more than indicate that the relationship of a regulated market to the council of any municipality or to the local board in the area in which the market is being established will require careful consideration in drafting legislation to give effect to our recommendations under this head. OF 333. We now turn to the constitution of the market committee and THE CONSTITUTION THE COMMITTEE MARKET AND OTHER DETAILS OF MANAGEMENT. other details of management. We approve the provisions of the Bombay Act which deal with these matters, especially the provision for the election of not less than half the members of the committee by the cotton growers of the area served by the market. Even this, however, may not secure entirely satisfactory representation of the growers' interests and, where it fails to do so, an officer of the Agricultural Department, as the department which is in the best position to watch over their interests, might well be nominated to the committee. We would further suggest that it should be definitely prescribed by rule that no licensed broker should be eligible for election to the committee as a representative of the cultivators. We consider it desirable that the committee should elect its own chairman. We would also recommend that, ordinarily, the constitution of the market committee should provide for the representation of co-operative societies in the area served by the market. The addition to the committee of nominated members should not be allowed to reduce the actual trade representatives below a certain limit. One fruitful source of disputes, for the settlement of which we make proposals in the following paragraph, is fraudulent weighment. We consider that each market should have a weighbridge installed, with suitable arrangements for its use. Any cultivator wishing to do so, should be allowed to weigh his cartload of produce and also his cart when emptied, and should be given free a certificate of these weighments which all parties doing business in that market should be required to accept as final. We consider that the provision of such weighbridges should be made compulsory even in unregulated markets, and that the local governments should take the necessary powers to deal with this question. Other details we would leave to the market committee but we would suggest the adoption of the following procedure as worthy of consideration. A proper account of each individual cartload sold should be entered in a book kept for the purpose before it is allowed to leave the market. Particulars of the load should be entered on a printed docket. The only entries which would be required on the docket would be the purchaser's signed agreement to buy, the rate at which he agreed to buy and the name of the seller. The records of individual sales should be posted up from these printed dockets in a book kept by the market committee. DISPUTES. 334. There is one important respect in which the Berar and the Bombay SETTLEMENT or legislation appears to us defective. No specific provision is made for the settlement of disputes arising between the seller and the purchaser. The point would seem to have been intentionally omitted in the Berar Law and the rules framed under it. We are not aware whether it is proposed to deal with it in the rules which will be framed in due course, under the Bombay Act, for the regulation of the powers to be exercised by the cotton market committee. It was clear from the evidence we received that one of the grievances against all existing markets which is most felt by the cotton grower is that he is at a great disadvantage if a dispute arises over the quality of his produce. The complaint made to us was that, though the cotton may be bought in the market on the basis of quality as judged by sample, the buyer, when he gets it to the ginnery, frequently maintains that it is not up to the sample. He, therefore, offers a lower price for it than that originally agreed upon and this the cultivator is compelled to accept, as the contents of the cart have been wholly or partially unloaded and he is not in a position to reload them and to take them elsewhere. We consider it most desirable that some machinery should be provided for the settlement of all disputes, whether in regard to cotton or other agricultural products, and would suggest that it should take the form of a panchayat or a board of arbitrators. This board might consist of three members, one nominated by the buyer, one by the seller and the third, who would be the chairman, selected by both parties from the market committee. If the parties failed to agree on a chairman, he should be nominated by the chairman of the market committee. As disputes in regard to cotton most frequently arise after the cotton has left the actual market premises, it would be necessary so to define the limits of the market proper as to include within them all ginneries within a reasonable distance of the market yard. PUBLICATION OF MARKETING INFORMA TION. 335. Amongst the duties of the market committee should be that of placing at the disposal of those using the market information on such matters as the prices ruling at the principal marketing centres of the tract and at the ports for the products dealt with in the market, the stocks of cotton or jute held by mills and the like. Very little is done in this direction at present. Telegrams giving cotton prices in Bombay are posted in the more important cotton markets in the Punjab three times weekly from the beginning of November to the end of February. The district boards or municipalities concerned meet the cost of these. Bombay cotton prices are also posted in some of the markets in Berar and the Central Provinces and in a few markets in other parts of India. The market committee would obtain the advice of the special marketing officer, whose appointment is proposed in paragraph 348 below, in regard to the form and manner in which information of this character, especially the manner in which the wholesale and futures' prices ruling in the major markets, should be expressed. Any expenditure involved in publishing it would be a legitimate charge on market funds. PROHIBITION BROKERS OF FROM ACTING IN A DUAL CAPACITY. 336. In paragraph 327, we have mentioned that, in some markets, the broker acts for both buyer and seller and that this fosters his natural predilection in favour of the buyer with whom he is brought into daily contact and on whom he is largely dependent for a successful season's trade, as against the seller whom he only sees very occasionally. We consider it most desirable that, either in the legislation for the establishment of open markets or in the rules framed thereunder, there should be a definite provision prohibiting brokers from acting in a dual capacity. We regard it as so important in the interests of the cultivator that this undesirable practice should be stopped that we would suggest that the license of any broker found contravening the provision we propose should be cancelled for the season and, on the repetition of the offence, cancelled permanently. STORAGE MODATION. ACCOM. 337. The seller would be in a stronger position, when disputes such as those discussed in paragraph 334 arise, if storage accommodation were provided in the markets. It would not be necessary to provide such accommodation for all the produce coming into the market. The provision of a limited amount, which could be increased as the market grew in prosperity and funds became available, should have the necessary psychological effect in bringing about a greater sense of equality between the buyer and the seller. The storage accommodation we have in view should not be utilised to facilitate the speculative holding of agricultural produce. The provision of facilities in the market premises for this purpose would involve an undue interference with the legitimate functions of the market. Facilities for the temporary storage of their produce by cultivators are, in our view, best provided by co-operative societies as they have been in the mandis of the Punjab. In markets in which a sufficiency of storage accommodation is not provided by co-operative societies, we think that market committees. should supply the deficiency and should provide the necessary management. The future may see in operation in India the type of licensed warehouse conducted for profit within the market premises by private enterprise, independent of both buyer and seller, on the lines of the system which exists in the United States of America. The nature of the agency providing the facilities is not of first importance. The urgent need is for sufficiency of accommodation at the disposal of the cultivator at moderate cost. THE USE MARKETS FOR PUR 338. We have pointed out in our chapter on Demonstration and ProOF paganda that the regulated markets, the establishment of which we have recommended in this chapter, should prove a most useful channel for the POSES OF PROPA propaganda work of the agricultural departments and that a permanent agricultural stall should form a prominent feature of such markets. We think that a valuable stimulus to thrift would be given if, in every important market, an office of a co-operative credit society receiving deposits or, where this is not feasible, a branch of a post office savings bank were opened, so that cultivators, after disposing of their surplus produce, may be induced to keep at least a part of the sale proceeds as a deposit instead of spending it in the purchase of ornaments or for other non-productive purposes. The possibilities offered by regulated markets for the extension of banking business generally will no doubt receive due attention from the joint stock banking companies. OF STANDARDISATION WEIGHTS MEASURES. AND 339. The establishment of properly regulated markets should act as a powerful agent in bringing about a reform which is much needed, primarily in the interests of the cultivator and, secondarily, in that of all engaged in trade and commerce in India. From all parts of India, we received evidence of the disabilities under which the cultivator labours owing to the chaotic condition in which matters stand in respect of the weights and measures in general use in this country and of the hampering effect this has upon trade and commerce generally. Needless complications and unevenness in practice as between market and market tend to prejudice the interests of the cultivator. In sixteen markets of the East Khandesh district of the Bombay Presidency, the maund has thirteen different values ranging from 211⁄2 seers at Bodwad to 80 seers at Pachora. The Indian Cotton Committee pointed out that, over the greater part of the Bombay Presidency, cotton is bought and sold on the basis of a khandi of 784 pounds of lint which is, in consequence, known as the Bombay khandi. In the south of the presidency, the unit is the nag of 336 pounds. In Khandesh, the khandi varies from 160 to 250 pounds. The Madras khandi is only 500 pounds of lint but, in the tract in which Westerns' cotton is grown, the unit is the nag of 312 pounds. At Cawnpore, there is a special cotton maund of 50 standard seers, that is about 103 pounds, both for lint and kapas. In other parts of the United Provinces, the standard maund of 82 2/7 pounds is generally used for kapas, lint being sold in bales of 400 pounds. Again, in the Punjab, we were informed that, in the Jhelum district, six different measures by which grain is bought and sold are found within an area of sixty square miles. In the western districts of Burma, the size of the basket used for measuring agricultural produce, such as rice and groundnuts, is now defined from district to district by the number of condensed milk tins, the contents of which it will hold. In the eastern districts, the measure is a tin which holds twice as much as a condensed milk tin. Innumerable other examples of a similar character could be cited but those given are sufficient to show that there is considerable justification for the view taken by both the Indian Cotton and the Indian Sugar Committees, and by many witnesses before us, that the present lack of system affords great opportunities for cheating the cultivator, of which unscrupulous dealers and others are not slow to avail themselves. Model by-laws prescribing the use of standard weights and measures have been |