Rent money orders were first tried in the North-West Provinces in March, 1886; an experiment was also made in Bengal in October, 1886, and the system was extended to the Central Provinces in 1891. Except in parts of Bengal and the North-West Provinces, now known as the United Provinces, the payment of rent by money orders has never been popular, and the reason is not far to seek. Rent in India is usually in arrears and, whenever a tenant pays money to a zemindar (landholder), the latter can credit it against any portion of the arrears that he thinks fit. With a rent money order, the case is different, the money order itself and the receipt which has to be signed by the zemindar indicate exactly the period for which rent is being paid, and to that period it must be devoted. This is the ordinary ruling of the rent courts and does not at all meet the wishes of zemindars who want to have their tenants in their power. Besides this important factor, there is the rooted objection of all subordinates, whether they be government servants or zemindars' agents, to be deprived of the time-honoured offerings which all self-respecting tenants should make to the landlord's servants at the time of paying their rents, and the appearance of a postman with a sheaf of money orders, however punctual the payments may be, is hardly an adequate substitute for the actual attendance of the tenants themselves. In 1886 the plan of paying money orders at the houses of payees was adopted and proved very satisfactory. India was indebted to Germany for the idea, which not only conferred a great boon on the public but tended to reduce the accumulations of cash at post offices and to accelerate the closure of money order accounts. In Appendix "E" is given the number and value of inland money orders issued in India from 1880-81 to 1917-18, and the steady increase from year to year is a certain sign of the great public need which the Indian money order system satisfies, and of the confidence that is placed in it.