KOYAL COMMISSION UPON DECENTRALIZATION.

199

asj possible at the Presidency towns to meet the
drawings of the Secretary of State, and also to arrange
for such an internal distribution of the cash balances
in India at any time as would ensure that money
sufficient, but not more than sufficient, for the public
service is in hand at the numerous district treasuries
throughout the Empire.
14. As Head Commissioner of the Paper Currency
Department, the Comptroller General has the several
Accountants General (except the two Accountants
GeneralinBengal)ashisdeputiesiuthe provinces. They
arc either the Commissioners or Deputy Commissioners
of the particular Circle of Issue with which they are
connected, and the currency work is done by them
with the help of a Gazetted Assistant in immediate
charge of the work. In Calcutta, the Head Commis-
sioner himself supervises the currency work with an
Assistant Comptroller General in immediate charge.
The ordinary work of supply, issue, withdrawal and
cancellation of currency notes is done under local
supervision at the offices of issue, but it is the special
duty of the Comptroller General as Head Commissioner
to collect, examine, and compile the periodical returns
prescribed by the Paper Currency Act for publication
and submission to Government, and also to submit an
annual review of the working of the department.
The Head Commissioner also sees that the coin
reserve in gold and silver held as security under the

Paper Currency Act for the free encashment of notes
is sufficient at any time for immediate requirements,
that it is distributed among the different offices of
issue in the proper proportion, and that early steps are
taken to remove any excess in the proportion of gold
as compared with silver coin, if necessary, by arrange-
ments for new coinage.
15. As regards coinage at the Mints, not only is the
coinage of new rupees required in connection with the
composition of the Currency Reserve watched and
regulated by the Comptroller General, but he is
responsible also for ensuring a sufficient supply of the
fractional and subsidiary coinage at all times.
16. According to the above statement of the organi-
sation of the civil offices of account and audit and
the distribution of work among the provincial offices,
the work is sufficiently decentralized and that done
in the provinces pertains almost entirely to the pro-
vinces. But a central authority is still required partly
for purposes of uniformity and efficiency in audit,
partly on account of the mutual interdependence
among the various provinces in the matter of re-
source and remittance, and mainly because the pro-
vinces are components of one unified Empire, the
revenues of which are vested in the Secretary of
State, and of which the Finance and Revenue Accounts
are by Statute required to be submitted to the British
Parliament.

APPENDIX le.

Note on the constitution and duties of the Home Department {filed by Sir H. Risley, vide 9- 45337).

Part I.

Brief Description of the Government of India,
Methods
The superintendence, direction, and control of the
civil and military government of British India is
vested in the Governor-General of India in Council
and he is required to pay due obedience to all such
orders as he may receive from the Secretary of
State.
2. The Governor-General of India is appointed by
His Majesty by warrant under the Royal Sign
Manual.
3. The Council of the Governor-General of India,
as constituted for executive purposes, consists of six
ordinary members, and of the Commander-in-Chief as
an extraordinary member. The ordinary members are
appointed by His Majesty by warrant under the Royal
Sign Manual.
4. All orders and other proceedings of the Governor-
General in Council must be expressed to be made by
the Governor-General in Council, and must be signed
by a Secretary to the Government of India, or other-
wise as the Governor-General in Council may direct.
5. The Governor-General may make rules and orders
for the more convenient transaction of business in
his Council, other than the business at legislative
meetings, and every order made or act done in
accordance with such rules and orders must be treated
as being the order or the act of the Governor-General
in Council.

its Relations to Local Governments and its
of Working.
6. At any ordinary meeting of the Governor-
General’s Council, if any difference of opinion arises
on any question brought before the Council, the
Governor-General in Council is bound by the opinion
and decision of the majority of those present, and if
they are equally divided the Governor-General, or, in
his absence, the senior member of the Council present,
has two votes or the casting vote.
Under the Government of India Act of 1870
(33 Viet., cap. 3) the Governor-General may overrule
the majority of his Council on questions essentially
affecting the safety, tranquillity or interests of British
India. In every such case any two members of the
dissentient majority may require that the adoption,
suspension, or rejection of the measure, and the fact
of their dissent, be notified to the Secretary of State,
and the notification must be accompanied by copies of
any minutes which the members of the Council have
recorded on the subject. The Governor-General, how-
ever, is not empowered by the above provision to do
anything which he could not lawfully have done with
the concurrence of his Council.
7. Every Local Government must obey the orders of
the Governor-General in Council, and keep him con-
stantly and punctually informed of its proceedings,
and is under his superintendence and authority in all
matters relating to the administration of its province
including the exercise of its own statutory powers.

Part II.
Brief Description of the Home Department and the Work that it Does.

8. The work of the Government of India is dis-
tributed among nine departments in the manner shown
in Part I of the Rules of Business. The main heads
of business with which the Home Department is con-
cerned are given below.
All business connected with the administration of-
(i) The European Vagrancy Act, 1874 (IX of
1874) ;
(ii) The Indian Civil Service ;
(iii) Ecclesiastical matters and the Ecclesiastical
Service ;
(iv) The Census ;
(v) Gazetteers;

(vi) Oriental languages ;
(vii) Archaeology, and Epigraphy :
throughout British India and Berar.
(viii) Internal Politics ;
(ix) Escheats and intestate property ;
(x) Jails, Reformatory Schools, and Penal
Settlements;
(xi) Police (except as regards the Border
Military Police in the North-West
Frontier Province) ;
(xii) Education (except as regards Chiefs’
Colleges) ;
(xiii) Public health and sanitation ;