PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TTIC.O. 882
5PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
3. I had, previously to the receipt of your letter under reply, addressed Mr. Le Mesurier on the subject of Mr. Salmon's letter. raised I append in full, but, briefly stated, what he explains is this: that when the His report on the questions commutation system was first introduced, more than fifty years ago, the money rate fixed was the equivalent of 35 to 40 cents per bushel of paddy. The rate was increased in 1856 to the equivalent of 664 cents, and in 1864 to the equivalent of Re. 1:33 per bushel in Uda Héwaheta and Kotmalé, and in Walapané to Re. 1 per bushel, whereas the price of paddy had not actually increased proportionately. The rate fixed in 1864 was maintained until the close of 1887, and, although excessive, the settlement was agreed to by the landowners both in 1864 and at the time of the subsequent re-settlements in 1871 and 1877, because their coffee gardens enabled them to provide money wherewith to pay the impost; and they did not object to give more than the fair tithe in order to be free from the annoyances and exactions which attended the renting system. In addition, however, to the increase in the money rate for commutation, the rate of yield also was in many cases increased, so that on the whole the result of the revisions in 1864 and 1877 was to impose an excessive and unfair tax on the people. Consequently, and also because of, secondly, the supply of water for the irrigation of fields being affected by the clearing of forest for coffee estates and for chonas; thirdly, the sickly nature of the population; and fourthly, the failure of the coffee crops,--the people found it difficult to pay the grain tax, and stringent measures to recover it as it became due were not taken at the time by the revenue officers in charge of the district for the first three of these reasons, and as the hope was still entertained that a good coffee crop would enable the cultivators to pay arrears of tax. Unfortunately the good crop hoped for never came, and by the middle of 1881 the arrears of commutation amounted to about Rs. 13,500.*
4. The causes assigned had not led to the accumulation of arrears of grain tax only, however; they had contributed to the general impoverishment of the people, so that when the recovery of the arrears came to be rigidly enforced in 1882, the effect on the landowners of the alienation of their fields at once manifested itself, for in the early part of 1883 relief was applied for 373 persons in Gangapaláta reported to be in want of food and clothing, of whom, Mr. Le Mesurier says, most Uda Héwáheta, had lost their fields during the previous year for default of payment of the tax. during 1885 and 1886 Government distributed food amongst the people of the And division. In Walapáne, likewise, in 1884, over 1,300 persons were reported to be in a starving condition; most of them, Mr. Le Mesurier states, had been deprived of their fields.
5. In the 48th, 49th, and 50th paragraphs of his report the Assistant Agent sets forth the method said to have been usually adopted in effecting the recovery of the arroars. In the 52nd and 53rd he sets forth particulars which show a material decrease in the population of Walapane. And in the 54th he attributes this falling off to (1) failure of the coffee crop; (2) severity of the taxes; (3) forced sales for default of paying the taxes.
is
6. Reverting to the terms of Mr. Salmon's letter, the expression "evicted inapplicable to the case of persons whose fields were sold for the recovery of the grain tax. By this expression one would understand that scenes occurred such as have been witnessed within the United Kingdom, when tenants unable to pay rent have been turned out of the houses which they occupied into the road, and have been left to shift for themselves without a roof to take shelter under. Nothing of the kind happened here. People, when they were in the villages at the time of the sale of the fields, remained there; they were not turned out of their houses at all. many chose to leave their villages and the district in search of employment, others And although remained, and even now remain, occupying the houses which they then occupied, either cultivating as tenants under the purchasers of the fields, or being otherwise employed.
I now turn to the consideration of the causes assigned by the Assistant Agent in the 17th paragraph of his report for the accumulation of arrears, the liquidation of which led to the sale of fields From the statement which I append it will be seen that, taking the 10 years from 1876 to 1885, the grain tax in arrear on the last day of the first year of the series was Rs. 16,282-63, and that the arrears amounted to nearly Rs. 39,000 at the close of 1881, whilst at the end of 1885 they had been reduced to Rs. 1,552 79. On 31st December 1877, however, arrears of only two years
• According to the Return of Arrears there were outstanding on 31st December 1981 for 1878-80, R.. 16,626 35, and, including the unpaid tax of 1881, Rs. 38,952 24.
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were owing, viz., the tax of 1876 and 1877, whilst on 31st December 1881, tax was due for four years, and on 31st December 1885, for seven years.
8. The first reason assigned is, "the over-assessment of the fields." In paragraph 5 the Assistant Agent shows that the money rate for commutation was raised from 66 cents (18. 4d.) per bushel, at which rate the tax was collected from 1856 to 1863, to Re. 1:33 (28. 8d.) and Re. 1 (28.) in 1864. The enhanced rates were submitted to Government for sanction by Mr. Braybrooke, who, in asking for authority to complete agreements with the landowners on these terms, wrote :—
"These rates are based on a personal knowledge of the resources and peculiar circumstances of the different parts of the Province, and I am satisfied that they
in by the people as fair and equitable.
will
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"It is quite true that the market prices of paddy in the various towns of the Province are somewhat higher than those I have recommended, but it must be borne in mind that the cost of transport of the articles to the market is included in the former, and it would be obviously unfair to compel the landowners to pay on the spot the same prices as could be commanded in the markets.'
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And in the statement which accompanied the letter setting forth the several divisions of the Province and the rate proposed to be charged in each, I find the following remarks, viz. :---
“Kotmale, Maturata, Upper Hewáheta, 28. 8d. per bushel.- All well situated in the vicinity of large coffee estates, and the people can well afford to pay these rates, the price of paddy being generally 38. to 38. 6d. in the market,
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Walapane, 28. per bushel. This division is rather more remote than the others, and sometimes subject to droughts."
pro-
Mr. Braybrooke had at that time been Government Agent of the Province for more than five years. He was an officer who had long experience in the revenue branch of the public service, and was, I believe, the last person likely to propose any measures calculated to press on the people with undue severity. The letter in which the posals were submitted to Government did not, however, enter into any comparison of the then existing rates with those proposed to be introduced, nor did it call attention to the fact that the effect of their introduction would be to double the amount of grain tax over a large extent of country. But although the raising of this tax 100 per cent. at one bound may appear now to have been an arbitrary and enormous increase of taxation, there must, I imagine, have been something in the circumstances of the time, or of the expiring settlement, which warranted such an enhancement of the rates. any rate, no opposition to the increased tax appears to have been raised in the Nuwara Eliya District.
At
9. Subsequently, in his Administration Report for 1867, Mr. Braybrooke wrote:-- "The rate per bushel at which the commutation agreement previous to the existing
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one was fixed was extremely low throughout the Province, and therefore advantage was
taken of the new agreement to raise the rate from 18, 4d. to 28. 8d. the busbel in all "the districts which are supplied with good cart roads, and are within easy distance
of markets for their produce.
I have not heard a single complaint from
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"the inhabitants of any part of the Province that these rates were too high, except from the people of Uva. In Kandy, Matelé, and Nuwara Eliya the people most gladly accepted the rates, which were in every case below the market price of paddy 66 in the different districts." And in his Administration Report on the Nuwara Eliya District for 1868, Mr. Charles Liosching stated that the commutation system worked well, and that there were no complaints against the assessment. But in the Adminis- tration Report on the Province for 1869, Mr. Russell wrote:-"The result of my inquiries on this subject does not entirely confirm Mr. Braybrooke's opinion that the existing paddy commutation agreement has been considered satisfactory by the inhabitants of all parts of the Central Province, except Uva. On the contrary, I am given to understand that they look on the (rates from 18. 4d. to 28. 8d., according to the more or less favourable position of the tracts of rice land with reference to roads) as very high. This discontent was not unreasonable during the late series of bad seasons, and the period of general depreciation of property; but it seems to have yielded to the more favourable circumstances in which the people find themselves
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in 1870." I do not, however, find in any other report previously to 1882, when the sales of land complained of began, any reference to the tax being excessive. Moreover, in 1882, shortly after the first sales were held, many petitions were presented by the
⚫ Government Agent to Colonial Secretary, No. 530 of 9th December 1883,
↑ Defaced and illegible in office copy.
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