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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
C.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
unusual mortality in the former district during the years in which these sales were held. The foliowing figures are taken from the Administration Reports:
Estimated Population
in the
Deatha.
Rate per mille.
middle of the Year.
Kandy District:→→
1882
287,016
5,560
19
1883
287,089
5,190
19
1884
288,888
7,233
28
1885
287,331
8,246
28
Nuwara Eliya District :—
1882
99,042
1,281
18
1883
99,400
1,188
12
1884
100,406
2,197
21
1885
101,128
2,076
20
These figures indicate that whilst there was increase in the rate of mortality during the last two years of the series, being probably in reality only a seeming increase, occasioned by more attention having been given to registration business, the increase was proportionately less in Nuwara Eliya than in the Kandy District; and in every year the rate was less in the former than in the latter district, yet I do not learn that there was any exceptional mortality in Kandy during those years, and conclude, therefore, that in Nuwara Eliya District also the mortality was not abnormal. In paragraphs 50 to 53 of his report, Mr. Le Mesurier draws attention to the falling off in the population. But this seems to me to be attributable in a great measure to the fact that so many have left the district in search of employment. In the statements appended to his report, 1,322 of those interested in the lands sold are said to have left; it would appear safe to infer that some of those who had no paddy land at all must have left for the like reason, if not some of the families of those who own land that was not sold.
18. I must not omit to notice certain other representations which have been published in regard to the mortality attributed to the sales in question. In a letter addressed to the "Ceylon Observer on June 17 last, Mr. Whitefoord of Maha Uva
estate wrote :~~-~-
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"The distress which these sales has caused in this district is simply appalling, and, if anything, the statements made from time to time of their effect have under- atated the facts of the case. I can give you the names of scores of villagers who have died of want and destitution within a short distance of this estate after being turned out of their ancestral lands, and there are villages close by that have been decimated from the same cause."
But when asked by me at Nildandahinna for information on the subject, Mr. White- foord told me that he was not prepared to give the names of any persons who died of starvation, but that he could easily procure such information. That, however, in a very different thing. That a great deal of poverty and distress have arisen in the neighbourhood with which Mr. Whitefoord is familiar is unquestionable; that many have died after being reduced to extreme want I have every reason to believe; but that scores have died and that villages have been decimated by reason of the sales held for the recovery of grain tax are allegations which, from the other evidence available, I cannot accept as facts. Had Mr. Whitefoord been able to support these allegations from his own personal knowledge, as the letter quoted naturally led to the inference that he could do, a very different aspect would have been given to the question, for I should have accepted as facts matters alleged by Mr. Whitefoord to be facts within his knowledge; but when I find that he depends on practically the same sources of information as, or perhaps on less accurate or less trustworthy sources than, those from which the information furnished by the Assistant Agent has been derived, I am unable to view his letter otherwise than as a serious exaggeration, and, although written, I believe, with the well-meant desire of calling public attention to the condition of the people of that part of the country, as altogether misleading.
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19. Again, in the "Ceylon Independent" of July 23, the proceedings of an inquest held on the 17th of that month at Maturata were published in extenso, and the editor commented on the case thus:----
"It is a curious fact that whilst Mr. Moir was conducting his inquiry at Maturata respecting the alleged mortality amongst villagers whose lands had been sold for default of payment of their paddy tax, one of the evicted villagers, a poor woman, died on the roadside within 200 yards of the court where the Commissioner was sitting. This poor widow's lands were sold two years ago, and she has been since struggling for a living. Latterly she had been on a coffee estate, but was evidently unable to work, and was in a very emaciated state. We give the evidence which was tendered at the inquest in extenso in our eighth page column. This shows that the poor woman's condition was such that the passengers who saw her on the road perceived that she was in a dying state. She was trying to make her way to her village, but perished by the way. She received some assistance at the last, but it came too late, and she died. The doctor, after a post-mortem examination, reported that her death was due to mal nutrition, diarrhea, and fatigue. We heart that the incident occurring whilst the Commissioner was conducting his inquiry, and close to his court, produced a strong impression. Perhaps some of our readers may also regard it as worthy of a little reflection."
Now, the facts of the case are these. The deceased woman did own two parcels of land, respectively of about half an acre and one acre in extent. These fields had remained uncultivated since about the year 1881; the tax on them being in arrear they were exposed for sale, but no bid having been made for them they were bought in for the Crown in 1885; they were restored in 1887, but have not been since cultivated. Another field of about two acres and a half, which I was informed belonged to, and had been cultivated on account of, the mother-in-law of the deceased woman, was also bought in for Government in 1885, no one having made a bid for it, and it was restored in 1887, since when it has been cultivated in ande, I was informed, for the mother-in-law. And still another field was sold in 1880, under a private writ issued against the late husband of the deceased woman for debt incurred by him. The woman left the village and obtained employment on an estate about the beginning of 1888. A fortnight or so before her death she left the estate, receiving a small balance of wages due, to return to her village, with what object no one seems to know. Either on her way to the village, or on her way back to the estate, she was taken ill. As soon as her relatives who had remained on the estate heard of this they went to fetch her back, but she died on the way, the medical officer who performed the post-mortem being of opinion that she died from exhaustion caused by diarrhoea, mal-nutrition, and fatigue. There is not the reinotest ground for the assumption that this woman's death was in any sort of way attributable to the sale of land for the recovery of grain tax.
20. Touching the plan adopted of recovering the grain tax by selling the fields, in the 21st paragraph of his report, Mr. Le Mesurier writes: "I therefore adopted the "method of recovery of putting up the fields to public auction, bidding them up, and buying them in for the Crown, and then allowing the original owners to "continue in possession, giving one-fourth of the produce to the Crown instead of paying the assessed value of one-tenth of it, until the arrears were wiped off." From the tone of this portion of his report, and from other correspondence which has passed on the subject, I gather that Mr. Le Mesurier feels somewhat aggrieved at the setting aside of the arrangement to which he here refers, and that he still advocates it. But as a matter of fact Mr. Le Mesurier was in Nuwara Eliya for only about eight months in 1881 and 1882. I doubt whether any arrears were wiped off in that time by his method, and his successor very soon found that it was difficult to realise the Government shares taken in kind. In his Administration Report for 1882, Mr. Baumgartner wrote:—
"It was, after a brief trial, found to be necessary and desirable to put an end to the system inaugurated at the end of 1881, whereby fields in default were commonly bought in on account of Government and then taxed at one-fourth. It was very soon found that purchasers did not come to buy the quarter share of crops of fielde
A copy of the proceedings was sent to me on July 20 by the police magistrate.
† I do not know what authority there can have been for this statement. The matter was mentioned to me by the Police Magistrate (Mr. Lo Mesurier) only, and at the time it had not been ascertained, and I was not aware, that the woman owned any land at all. The case was a suficiently melancholy one without the colouring sought to be given to it.
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