ZOLA, . . . DUT. Meet, Mit, . . MAHE.
Muriate of soda, . ENG. Gharam, Garam, MALAY. ? Chloride of sodium, Nun, Noon, . . PERS.
Sel, VII Sol Rus.
GER. Lavana, . . . SANSK.
Namak, . . . IHND. Lunu, . . . SINGH.
Sale, IT Uppu, . . TAm.,_TEL.
Sal3 . LAT., PORT., SP. 'BUZ TURK.
Four kinds are distinguished,—rock-salt, sea salt, lake-salt, and earth-salt. 1Vhen found native in immense masses, which only require to be dug and reduced to powder, it is termed rock salt ; when obtained by the evaporation of sea water, common salt or sea-salt ; and when manu factured from the saline soil, it is known as earth-salt. Sea-salt is extensively manufactured on account of the Indian Government at many places along the coast. The process is not every where exactly the same, but generally, the sea water being raised by means of levers, called pakottas is run into shallow beds or pans, and evaporated, additional water being added as the evaporation goes on. The salt is raked to the side, and conveyed to platforms or raised places, where it is heaped in quantities of 10 or more garce. In some places a proportion of the salt water is obtained from wells dug near salt creeks ; in others the salt water is dammed up in the mouths of rivers, where it is partially evaporated for some time before being run into the crystal lizing pans. In some parts of Ceylon, of the adjoining coast of the Peninsula of India, where the beach is long and shelving, also on the shores of the Runn of Cutch, salt is formed naturally on the sea-shore, by the sun's rays evaporating the tidal waves.
All round the coasts of Ceylon and the Peninsula of India, but chiefly on the east coast, salt is locally made in great quantities, and at a cost defying all foreign competition. For this reason, in British India, Ceylon, and Netherland India, salt manufacture is a monopoly of the respeetive governments in India, and yields a large part of the revenue.
In I3engal, the monopoly of salt in one form or other dates at least from the establishment of the Board of Trade there in 1765. The strict
monopoly of salt commenced in 1780, under a system of agencies. The system introduced in 1780 continued in force with occasional modifi cations till 1862, when the several salt agencies were gradually abolished, leaving the supply of salt, whether by importation or excise manu facture, to private enterprise. Since then, for Bengal proper, the supply of the condiment has been obtained chiefly by importation, but in part by private manufacture under a system of excise.
The Indian Salt Act xii. of 1882 was passed by the Governor-General on the 10th March. It repealed the Inland Customs Act viii. of 1875, and the Salt Act xviii. of 1877 ; also section 9 of the Bengal Salt Act vii. of 1864, clauses b and c of section 39 of the Burma Land Act ii. of 1876, ancr sections 36 and 37 of the Ajmir Laws Regulation iii. of 1877.
Act of 1882 embraced the N.W. Provinces, Panjab, Oudh, Ajmir, Mairwara, Sind, the Patna Division, and Central India, and fixed Rs. 50 as the fee for a licence to manufacture and refine saltpetre and to separate and purify salt ; also Rs. 10 for a licence to manufacture sulphate of soda (Khari-nun) by solar heat in evaporating pans; and Rs. 2 each for a saltpetre licence, for making Khari-nun by artificial heat, and for the manufacture of other saline substances ; and by chapter iii. power was given to impose a duty not exceeding three rupees per mattrid of 824 lbs. avoirdupois on salt manufactured in or imported by land into any part of British India, and with power to fix the minitnum price at which salt, excavated, xnanufactured, or sold by or on behalf of the Governinent of India, shall be sold.
Further, by chapter vi., the excise duty payable mider the Madras Act vi. of 1871 was not to be demanded until the salt was to be removed from the place of storage.
The duty was fixed in 1878 at Rs. 2.8 per maund, in most parts of British India.; in the Lower Provinces of Bengal, Rs. 3.2 per maund ; and in the Upper Provinces, Rs. 2.12 per maund.