PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference:
THETIC.O. 882
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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were: (1.) Whether the paddy tax was bad either per se or in connexion with the mode of its recovery? (2.) If bad only under the second head, does the mode of recovery admit of improvement? (3.) If not, shall the tax itself be abolished and a substitute found for it in the shape of a land or other tax? He could quite endorse the opinion of the member for the Sinhalese that there was nothing in the nature of the paddy tithes that made them specially obnoxious to the people. A part of the produce of their fields was given to the State from time immemorial. Only in referring to the past they must not forget that the fields, as a rule, were not transferable from one owner to another by sale. The tithe itself was not confined to paddy lands, but there was a levy from produce of all kinds. The allusions to the subject in Indian dramatic, historical, and agricultural works taught that the rate was not always levied, but remissions often took place, when there was any difficulty found in cultivating the land, from flood, drought, or depredations committed by wild beasts or insects. Often the king of his own free will refrained from recovering the rates, and it was noteworthy that the popularity of a ruler depended as much on those remissions as on the public works executed by him. It must also not be forgotten that the rate was not uniform, but that it varied according to circumstances and times. In India, at least, it was represented that the levying of excessive rates was the outcome of the Muhanımadan rule. Further, we learn also that the tax was often paid in services to the State. It was because it was considered bad policy to exact these that immediately on the English rule being established here, tithes were substituted. Thus it is clear that, if the paddy tax itself was old, it was hemmed in by a great many safeguards and none grumbled at it. But circumstances have changed, and in Ceylon it was acknow- ledged on all hands that the cultivation of paddy was not a profitable pursuit, at least to the cultivator himself. Many competent men had gone into calculations to establish that proposition, and his own experience, gained from visiting the great Tamil agricultural districts of the island, was that their estimates were in the main correct. In Batticaloa, where it is acknowledged that more paddy is grown than in any other district of the island, he learnt from going amongst the cultivators and freely conversing with them about their wants that theirs was a life of great hardship. Paying 50 per cent. as interest on seed paddy, and making provision from their produce for the Government tithe, for the irrigation rate, for the hire of cattle, for the payment of labourers and watchmen, there indeed appeared very little left for their own consumption. Hence it is principally that natives rush after chenas as soon as the paddy cultivation is over. That is a source of supplementing their wants, and they resort to that comparatively easy method of cultivation till their fields are fit for being sown again. Hence we may naturally ask why is it that paddy alone should be taxed ? Is the cultivation of it so flourishing in this island that it must be made to do duty for all other produce, bearing on its own shoulders burdens which might be more equally shared ? True, dry grain also contributed its share, but certainly our products are not confined only to these two kinds. It would therefore seem that a remission or reduction of the paddy tithe will not be deemed by the natives as unaccept- able as a means of relief, though but for their present hardships and the depressed condition of native agriculture, there might be nothing, according to Eastern ideas, in the nature of the rates themselves calling for interference. We live no longer under our old laws and institutions, and if it be opposed to the policy of an enlightened Government to levy a rate on food products, it would not be right to suppose that the natives cling so tenaciously to their old ways as to make them think the change was unwelcome, provided it did not lead in its train other and heavier imposts. But after all it is not so much to the tax itself, as to the mode of recovering it, that the people object. Three methods have been in vogue for effecting this purpose, (1) amani collection, (2) the renting of the tithes, and (3) the commutation system. When amani prevailed Government itself received the payment in kind at granaries established in different districts. This no doubt entailed much labour and expense on Government. Besides, often some evaded payments. To nieet this difficulty, and to make recoveries more convenient, the renting system was adopted. How it has answered the purpose we With but slight exceptions all public officers have condemned it, and notably amongst them Mr. Dyke, and also, it would seem, Sir C. P. Layard. In the recent numbers of the "Fortnightly" and the "Contemporary Reviews" it was pointed out by different writers that one of the greatest evils of the Turkish rule in Europe was this renting of the taxes of the country. Happily we have not here all the evils which are concomitant with it under the Ottoman rule. The tax gatherer and his hordes could not here forcibly take possession of the homes and lands of the taxpayer and live at his expense till all dues are paid, as was the case once in some Native States of Indie. No, we are much better off; but yet the evils connected with even our system of renting should not be tolerated. As an expression of the feeling of the Tamils in this respect
know.
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he could not do better than read an extract from the "Morning Star," a journal published in the Tamil language. Honourable members would excuse the quaintness of native idiom all the more as thereby they had an opportunity afforded them of getting at a genuine expression of native opinion:
Having no rivers to irrigate our fields, and depending solely on rain, it is as difficult to succeed in paddy cultivation as it is to peel bark off a stone. Day und night for the whole year, thinking of nothing but fields and ploughing and turning the soil, cutting and hoeing, and manuring it with the aid of cattle and goats, the cultivator first sows, then irrigates the fields by drawing water from ponds and wells, and at last reaps; but oh ! what difficulties has he to encounter! Verily they resemble the pains of a first birth. And after all this trouble the issue may prove to be only a dead child quite as much as a living one-male or female. Distributing amongst carpenters, dhobies, barbers, labourers, beggars, and dependents, even the little he gets the cultivator finds almost nothing left for himself and his family. When indeed an estimate is made of the actual cost of cultivation it would seem as if each grain at least cost him a cent. Be this so. He has then to give a tithe of 10 per cent. on the whole to the Government.
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This may
also appear just. But to recover this, the Government farms these dues, and the renters, incited by love of greed and glory, bid one against the other, raise the price, make a levy of two on 10, insisting upon a good grain being added on to every bad one, asking a share for himself (the renter), another for the rope of his cattle, another for his own dignity,' another for the dignity' of the cultivator himself, another for no reason whatever, and appropriates thus eight tenths of the whole. The poor cultivator thus falls from the frying-pan into the fire, ruined by those who should have helped him. Last year, owing to want of rain and the consequent failure of crops, the people became emaciated and almost lifeless, though the palmyra palm rendered them a little help. Many udayars too had to resign their appointments, unable to recover the full amount of the tax, notwithstanding all the pressure put on the cultivators by these officers, who went out exclaiming, The money must be paid anyhow, the lands will be sold other- wise.' As the midwife must have her wages paid whether the child born was dead or alive, even so the Government recovers the tithe, crop or no crop.
Who has benefited
by the tithe, or the sale of rents? No one. Is it right to squeeze it out of the people, as oil is pressed out of the sesame.'
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It was to remove such evils as those that Mr. Boyd, in 1831, proposed the commuta- tion of paddy tithes. He introduced it in such liberal terms as the following circular :----
**
The principal object of this measure is, by defining and fixing the demands of Government, to preserve the cultivators from extortions, securing of course with this object, as is an important part of your duty, the due revenue and just rights of Government.
"I recommend to your special care and protection the rights of the cultivators, on whom principally the prosperity of the island depends.
"The temporary interest of Government must in some cases give way to ultimate improvement, and its permanent interest, as inseparable from the welfare of the people, be consulted by the exercise of great moderation in the assessment."
The return furnished that day showed that the scheme had been but partially successful. Of the seven provinces of the island, in three, Southern, North-Western, and North-Central, there was no commutation at all. In the Central, commutation prevailed all through. Whilst in the remaining three provinces, Northern, Eastern, Even in the Western it was and Western, some districts were commuted and some not. Sabaragamuwa and Kaigalle that had accepted commutation, thus leading one to think that in the purely Kandyan country the system had met with favour. Yet the fact was patent that it had not succeeded in the best portion of our agricultural districts. The usefulness of the motions made before and now on the question of paddy tithes, and even the value of the inquiries to be instituted hereafter by the proposed Commission, would depend very much on the answer to the question why commutation had not been so freely accepted? The consideration of that was really the practical portion of their programme. So far as he had been hitherto able to learn from all sources within his reach, the reasons alleged for the failure of the system referred to were these: (1.) The want of proper surveys and registers of paddy lands prevented its being enforced in many places. Disputed ownership, questions of boundaries, and haphazard estimates of crops must be the result of that state of things. (2.) A second reason was that the assessment ou which commutation was based was heavy and unfair to the cultivators. There was that want of "great moderation which Mr. Boyd so strongly recommended. (3.) The necessity for the annual payments being made without any remission in case of non-
A. 624.
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