Where the districts are very large they may be primarily sub-

1 Except of course in vernacular documents. The district is sometimes
referred to as a • Collectorate.'

* In some places the fnll title is 'Commissioner and Superintendent'
Even in Madras the exception is more in form than in reality. The Officers
styled * Commissioners ' in that Presidency are the members of the Board of
Revenue. Instead, that is, of having separate territorial charges of groups
of districts, they are Commissioners for certain subjects or branches of duty
(Settlements, Land Revenue, Excise, &c), and sit together as a Board : in
Bombay the Commissioners act territorially, and this dispenses with a
Revenue Board; in the other Provinces, there is both the agency of
Commissioners and the Supervision of a Board or Financial Commissioners.
8 Alteration may be necessary because a district is too large for con-
venience, or because it is desirable to aggregate, under one head, groups of
lands affected in common by certain local features; as e.g. where it is
convenient to have the Permanent Settled estates separate from those under
Temporary Settlement in the United Provinces ; or where, as in the Kistna
and Godavari districts of Madras, it is desired to have the delta irrigation
(and special Revenue arrangements) of each river under the same officer, and
not divided between two.
Ch. III.] PROVINCES AND DISTRICTS. 23

divided, as in the case of the Madras districts ; and in that
case the subdivisional Assistant Collector is practically a district
officer for his own locality, though in general subordination to
the District officer.
